He spent five years toiling in the minor leagues as a third baseman, but when the White Sox called up top prospect Carlos Lee from Class AAA Charlotte on Friday they started him in left field, a position he has been playing for all of about 10 days.
"I didn't expect to get called up when I was playing left field for a week and a half," Lee said. He did play some left field in the Arizona Instructional League last fall and during spring training.
"When they called me up I was like `Where am I going to play?' "
Lee hit a home run in his first major-league at-bat but also committed an error on his first chance when he dropped a sinking liner in the fourth inning.
-Chicago Tribune, May 8, 1999
Good morning!
'Twas on this day in 1999 that Carlos Lee made his MLB debut. While the article --and quote above-- doesn't mention it, Lee's home run in his first official at-bat made him the franchise's first player to accomplish that particular feat. Miguel Olivo (2002), Josh Fields (2006), and Zack Collins (2019) would later join him.
Lee, of course, would go on to have a fine rookie season, slashing .293/.312/.463 with 50 extra-base hits and a seventh-place finish in Rookie of the Year voting (A different Carlos --Carlos Beltran-- took home the honors). So for today's Sporcle, I'm asking you to name other rookie White Sox hitters who logged at least 30 extra-base hits in a season: in total, there are 51 names. How many can you get? Good luck!
Quiz Parameters
- I've allotted 15 minutes for completion attempts.
- For hints, I've provided the year, number of XBHs, and position of the player in question.
Useless information to amaze, annoy, confuse, and/or confound your friends and family:
- The average triple-slash of the players on this list: .276/.333/.431.
- The record for most extra-base hits by a rookie in MLB history is 89, set by Hal Trosky of Cleveland in 1934.
All data from stathead.com
