Today in White Sox History: December 18
Three losses, no gains
1969
The White Sox swapped Pete Ward to the Yankees for pitcher Mickey Scott, plus cash.
Ward played in just 65 games (87 plate appearances) for the Yankees, in a pinch-hitting role (10 starts), providing little value (0.4 WAR). He was released at the end of Spring Training in 1971, and retired. Scott never saw time in the White Sox organization, flipped before the 1971 season to Baltimore for infielder Mickey McGuire. McGuire played three Triple-A seasons in Tucson for the White Sox but never on the big club, before finishing his career with two seasons in Japan.
1975
Just one day after being freed, fired, or (according to new manager Paul Richards, at least) briefly reassigned to third-base coach by the White Sox, Chuck Tanner signed a three-year deal to manage the Oakland A’s.
Not only did Tanner not last three years in Oakland (he was dumped after an 87-74 season that was better than the tearing-down A’s deserved), in fact four years later he led the Pittsburgh Pirates to the 1979 World Series title.
2000
The brief (44 games) but prolific (10 homers, 36 RBIs, 1.019 OPS, 2.0 WAR!) White Sox career of Charles Johnson came to an end, as the catcher returned to the team that drafted him on a five-year, $35 deal with the Marlins. With an opening behind the plate, the White Sox pivoted quickly to Sandy Alomar, who left Cleveland after 11 years for a two-year, $5.4 million deal.
It would be the first of four times the White Sox acquired Alomar. And yet, in more than six times the number of games (265), Alomar had half the WAR (1.1) of Johnson with the Sox.