July 28, 1959: Billy Pierce shines on the mound and the plate; White Sox secure first place for keeps

As the 1950s drew to their conclusion, the American League had known no champion other than the New York Yankees for the decade, save for a one-year interlude in 1954 courtesy of the Cleveland Indians. The Yankees had finished in first place every year from 1949 through 1953, then 1955 through 1958.

In 1959 another intruder emerged in pursuit of that elusive AL pennant. As the decade’s final season progressed, it was apparent there was something special happening on the South Side of Chicago. By July, the Chicago White Sox, a perennial contender in the 1950s but never a winner for 40 years since 1919, were reaching so close to the title that they could taste it like a Chicago-style hot dog on a steamed poppyseed bun.1 

Short on runs but long on confidence, the White Sox evolved as a legitimate contender in the 1959 pennant race. Locally, they were front-page news and dubbed the Go-Go Sox. In July alone, the White Sox had 11 one-run wins. Four of them came in a row, including three straight walk-offs, during a homestand that began on July 21.2 That toddling town was getting behind the magic, as witnessed by 118,286 fans attending a three-game midweek series at Comiskey Park against the Yankees.

July 28 was a warm, humid Tuesday evening, with game-time temperatures hovering near 82 degrees and a relative humidity of 74 percent.3 Yet 43,829 fans, thus far the biggest crowd of the 1959 White Sox season, passed through the turnstiles at 35th and Shields for the opener of the three-game showdown. The Yankees were in town and the Go-Go Sox could reclaim undisputed possession of first place with a victory. The White Sox and Indians were tied for the AL’s top spot.

The Yankees were fourth, 8½ games back. Their unanticipated decline was chronicled earlier in the season in the May 25, 1959, edition of the fledgling magazine Sports Illustrated.4 The laundry list of anomalies bordered on the bizarre, ranging from bouts of flu to multiple random collisions.5 By the time of their 1959 midsummer night visit to Chicago in July, the dream of another repeat was in jeopardy.

Right-hander Ralph Terry started for the Gotham nine. Eleven days earlier, on July 17, Terry had taken a no-hitter into the ninth inning against the White Sox at Yankee Stadium before allowing two hits and two runs; Chicago’s Early Wynn picked up the shutout win.

In this game, the South Siders went with southpaw Billy Pierce, an AL All-Star for the sixth time in 1959. In the first inning Pierce gave up a leadoff single to Bobby Richardson, but then routinely retired the side.

The White Sox drew first blood in their half of the inning, small-ball-style. Luis Aparicio hit a leadoff single. Nellie Fox followed with another single. Al Smith walked to fill the bags with White Sox. As Sherm Lollar grounded into a 6-4-3 double play, Aparicio scored from third to give Chicago a 1-0 lead.

Pierce maintained the lead until the fourth, when the Yankees tied the game. Mickey Mantle led off with a double to left field and Yogi Berra drove him home with a single to right field.

An aggressive baserunning move then backfired for the Yankees. With Héctor López at bat, “the hit and run was on, but López didn’t swing at a high inside pitch and Yogi was hopelessly trapped in a run-down,”6 reported Edward Prell of the Chicago Tribune. Louis Effrat of the New York Times added that Berra “broke toward second, stopped and was erased in a run-down.”7 The out was scored 2-6-3, and López ultimately struck out.

After the Yankees tied the score in the fourth, Elston Howard singled and Fritz Brickell doubled, and the Yankees again had an opportunity, this time with two runners in scoring position and two outs. But Marv Throneberry struck out for the third out. The Yankees sent six batters to the plate in that half-inning. Four got hits, but only one scored.

The Sox were retired one-two-three in the bottom of the fourth inning as were the Yankees in the top of the fifth. 

In the bottom of the fifth, Pierce helped his own cause with a one-out single and took to second base on a rare wild pitch by Terry.8 After Aparicio flied out to Mantle in center field, Fox slashed a single to left field, scoring Pierce, and the White Sox regained the lead at 2-1.

No runs were scored in the sixth and seventh, and both starters were still pitching as the game moved to the eighth inning.  

In the top of the eighth, Pierce yielded a two-out single to Mantle, but induced Berra’s inning-ending groundout to second baseman Fox.

The White Sox clung to a one-run lead in the bottom of the eighth inning. Fox led off with a single, his third hit of the game, bringing Smith to the plate. Smith fouled off the first pitch, then unsuccessfully bunted foul with one strike.

With the sacrifice off, Smith swung away and launched the next pitch to left field. It hit off the railing between the upper lower and decks for his 10th homer of the season, his seventh in July. The White Sox now led, 4-1.9

The Yankees took their last raps in the ninth inning and would not go down quietly.  López led off with a single to center field. He reached second base when Aparicio, who received the second of nine career Gold Gloves in 1959,10 muffed a groundball off the bat of Howard, blowing a double-play opportunity in the process.

Brickell followed with his second hit of the game, a single that scored López to cut the White Sox lead to 4-2.11 Howard moved to second base. Throneberry made the first out of the inning, flying to Bubba Phillips in deep center field. Howard tagged and scooted to third.

With runners at the corners, Yankees manager Casey Stengel inserted pitcher Don Larsen to bat for Terry. Better known for his 1956 World Series perfect game, Larsen had 44 extra-base-hits and 72 RBIs in 14 major-league seasons, and he batted 75 times as a pinch-hitter during his major-league career.

The move prompted a trip to the mound by White Sox manager Al López, who knew the heat and humidity had to be wearing Pierce down. As López revealed afterward, “I reminded him to get the ball over and forget about the man on third.”12

Larsen got the run home with what Effrat described in the New York Times as “a 400-foot sacrifice fly to Phillips in deep center.”13 The White Sox’ lead had been whittled to just one run with two outs.

With Brickell still standing on first base, it was Pierce’s game to win or lose as Richardson stepped to the plate representing the potential go-ahead run. “The largest Chicago baseball crowd in more than two years, 43,829, stood up as one when Pierce fired a third strike past Bobby Richardson with the tying run on first base,” reported the Chicago Tribune.14 It was a season-high eighth strikeout for Pierce, who registered the complete-game 4-3 victory.  

This win slipped the White Sox into first place by a half-game, as the Indians split a doubleheader with the Red Sox. It was the slimmest of margins, but it was a lead they would not relinquish. It was a magical season marked by postseason accolades for Fox, voted as the AL MVP; and 39-year-old Wynn, the majors’ Cy Young Award winner.15

The White Sox clinched the AL pennant in Cleveland on September 22. There were air sirens, fireworks, and all sorts of hoopla and celebration in Chicago that evening after a 40-year hiatus between league titles. It alarmed some residents in the Cold War era but the celebration was ordered by Mayor Richard J. Daley, a devoted White Sox fan. Local media assured Chicago that there was no Russian invasion, just a historical baseball happening in Chicago.16

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Bill Marston and copy-edited by Len Levin.  

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for box scores, play-by-play information, and other data.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA195907280.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1959/B07280CHA1959.htm

Notes

1  The Chicago-style hot dog knows no regional boundaries. Cubs and White Sox fans are united on that. It’s an all-beef hot dog nestled on a steamed poppyseed bun covered with yellow mustard, neon green relish, chopped onions, tomato wedges, a dill pickle spear, sport peppers, and a dash or two of celery salt. “About Us,” ViennaBeef.com, accessed March 7, 2024, http://www.viennabeef.com/culture/chgodoghistory.asp.

2 The four one-run wins were over the Boston Red Sox on July 21 and 22 and the Baltimore Orioles on July 24 and 25. The homestand had opened with a 2-1 win over Boston on July 21, a game in which Chicago’s Dick Donovan pitched a six-hit complete game and Pumpsie Green became the first Black player in Red Sox history. The fourth win was a 17-inning game, decided when pinch-hitter Harry Simpson’s bases-loaded single off Baltimore’s Billy Loes scored pinch-runner Sammy Esposito.

3 “Weather,” Chicago Tribune. July 29, 1959: 1.           

4 Roy Terrell, “What’s Wrong with the Yankees?” Sports Illustrated, May 25, 1959. In addition to injuries, the article cites a flu outbreak prevalent in 1959 which was widespread in the Yankees clubhouse that spring. “Out with flu for varying lengths of time have been Mickey Mantle, Ryne Duren, Andy Carey, Tom Sturdivant, John Blanchard, Marv Throneberry, Jim Coates, and Cletis Boyer.”

5 Dan Daniel, “Fading Yankees Spur Fond Memories – Little Else,” The Sporting News, August 5, 1959: 16. A pair of July collisions before this game further depleted the Yankees’ forces. On July 25, first baseman Bill “Moose” Skowron suffered a season-ending fractured wrist in a collision with Coot Veal in Detroit. While playing left field on July 16, Tony Kubek collided with shortstop Gil McDougald and was carried off the field on a stretcher. Kubek returned after a two-week absence. Bob Turley, the majors’ 1958 Cy Young Award winner, suffered chest injuries when he collied with his catcher, Elston Howard.   

6 Edward Prell, “Sox Beat Yanks, 4-3: 43,829 Stand Up and Cheer Pierce,” Chicago Tribune, July 29, 1959: B1.

7 Louis Effrat, “43,829 See Bomber Loss,” New York Times, July 29, 1959: 21. 

8 Terry threw just three wild pitches in 173⅔ innings in 1959.

9 Prell.

10 Aparicio was one of three White Sox 1959 AL Gold Glove winners, along with second baseman Fox and catcher Lollar.

11 Fritz Brickell was a two-hit wonder that day for the third time in five games. He played in 18 games for the Yankees in 1959 and had 10 of his 16 major-league hits in his magical 1959 July. Tragically, Brickell died from jaw cancer at the age of 30 on October 15, 1965.  

12 Prell.

13 It was 415 feet to straightaway center field in Comiskey Park in 1959.

14 Prell.

15 In fact, the White Sox had five players in the top 10 MVP voting, including the top three spots (Fox, Aparicio, and Wynn).   

16 Don Zminda, “September 22, 1959: White Sox Clinch First American League Pennant in 40 Years,” SABR Baseball Games Project, accessed February 5, 2024. Chicago lost the World Series to the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. It was the White Sox’ only pennant from 1919 until 2005. In the latter season they beat the Houston Astros in the World Series.