Today in White Sox History: January 24

Jim Thome makes the Hall!

1939

It was the early years of the Hall of Fame, so voting results could still tend to be pretty weird. Case in point, Eddie Collins was voted into the Hall of Fame — on his fourth try.

Collins, by his 124.4 WAR the best second baseman in baseball history, had fallen 110 votes short of election in the inaugural Hall of Fame vote (1936), 36 votes short in 1937, and 22 short in 1938 before breaking through with ... 77.7% support in 1939. Collins received 213 of 274 votes, clearing the bar for election by ... seven tallies.

Joining Collins in the 1939 class was George Sisler, who endured a similar wait, and Willie Keeler, whose 207 votes made him the first Hall of Fame member to be elected by just a one-vote margin.

Collins’ 67.0 WAR as a member of the White Sox places him as the fourth-best overall and third-best position player (behind Luke Appling and Frank Thomas) in team history.

1962

Due substantially to its refusal to integrate (just one Black player had ever graced the rosters over 61 seasons), the Southern Association disbanded. The Nashville Vols and current White Sox affiliate Birmingham Barons played the entire 1901-61 run of the SA. White Sox affiliate in the 1950s the Memphis Chicks, managed by both Luke Appling and Ted Lyons during the decade and seeing the star rise of Luis Aparicio, played all but the final season.

By 1964 the Southern League had formed, giving new and permanent homes to SA teams like the Barons and Chattanooga Lookouts, which still exist and thrive in that league to this day.

2003

Sometimes luck plays a part in things ... sometimes a very big part.

On this date, Chicago White Sox general manager Ken Williams signed free agent pitcher Esteban Loaiza to a $500,000 contract, a massive discount from the $6.05 million he’d made in 2002 with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Loaiza was expected to round out the back end of the rotation — but he did much more than that. By season’s end he had won 21 games, started the All-Star Game in front of his hometown White Sox fans, and led the American League in strikeouts. Loaiza could have won the Cy Young, but a pair of 1-0 losses to Detroit appeared to be the difference in doing so; he ended up second in the voting.

Even better, with Loaiza’s contract jumping to $4 million in 2004, Williams flipped the starter at close to maximum value (the righthander was also a 2004 All-Star). Loaiza was swapped to the Yankees at midseason, for pitcher José Contreras … another deal that worked out as a huge White Sox advantage!

2018

Former White Sox DH and Peoria native Jim Thome was elected to the Hall of Fame on his first try, getting 89.8% of the vote. He was joined by a healthy class: Chipper Jones, Vladimir Guerrero and Trevor Hoffman, along with Alan Trammell and Jack Morris from the Veterans’ Committee.

Thome’s Hall of Fame track was stalled by injury that ran him out of Philadelphia and into the arms of the White Sox in 2006. Thome revitalized his career and boosted the 90-win Sox with a 4.9 WAR season at DH. His full White Sox career saw him put up 12.1 WAR over three-plus seasons; Thome would also hit his 500th career homer as a member of the White Sox.