April 13,1976
vs. Minnesota Twins
at Metropolitan Stadium

Opening Day on April 9 at Comiskey Park was a lovefest all around. 40,318 turned out to greet Veeck as a returning hero. One highlight was a pregame ceremony in which Veeck, Paul Richards and Rudie Schaeffer dressed up as the Revolutionary War soldiers in the famous "Spirit of '76" painting and marched out to the field. Veeck then worked the crowd, meeting and greeting fans during the game. Wilbur Wood blanked...

1975 Offseason

Bill Veeck wasted no time getting right to work. On the day the sale of the team was finalized, Jim Kaat was dispatched to the Phillies in exchange for pitcher Dick Ruthven and shortstop prospect Alan Bannister. Two days later Ruthven was flipped to the Braves along with Ken Henderson for former NL batting champ Ralph Garr. In between, Veeck finally granted Bill Melton his dream trade, sending him to the California Angels for 1st baseman Jim Spencer.

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1975 Offseason

John Allyn went into September with no firm offers for the White Sox. A stumbling block was Allyn's insistence that the buyer also purchase White Sox Park, which no one was willing to do. Tony Tortoriello of Torco was still an interested party, but wanted the City of Chicago to buy the park and lease it back to him. City officials were in the midst of clashing with Bears owner George Halas, who had threatened to move his team to Arlington Heights unless he got a new stadium....

September 27,1975
vs. Minnesota Twins
at Metropolitan Stadium

John Allyn's financial woes grew larger as the season wore on. Things were getting so bad that the fireworks shot off after every White Sox home run had to be cut back. Only one volley was fired off after a Sox roundtripper instead of two or three. Everybody was late in getting paid-from visiting clubs who wanted their 40% cut of the gate receipts right on down to the Andy Frain ushers. Allyn scrambled to...

September 21,1975
vs. Texas Rangers
at White Sox Park

Wilbur Wood had gotten off to an atrocious start in 1975, at one point sporting a record of 2-10 and an ERA over 5. He managed to get things together and start winning, but he was at the point in the season where he was going to miss out on one milestone but achieve a more dubious one.

Woodie was at this point 15-19. He didn't have enough starts left to achieve a 5th straight 20 win season. He did, however,...