In Memoriam: The White Sox’s other losses in 2023

In chronological order:

Gary Peters

Born: April 21, 1937
Died: Jan. 26, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1959-69
SABR bio | RIP Baseball obituary

The three fixtures of the White Sox rotations of the 1960s died in successive years. First, Juan Pizarro passed in 2021, followed by Joe Horlen in 2022. With Peters joining them, the driving force of the only White Sox teams to win 90 games in three consecutive wins is no longer with us.

Peters needed several cups of coffee over several seasons to finally click, but he somehow maintained his rookie eligibility despite four failed attempts to start his career, and when it clicked in 1965, his breakout season netted him the Rookie of the Year. He filled in when Pizarro had the flu and threw eight innings of one-run ball for his first career win, and he'd finally stuck for good. He rattled off 11 consecutive winning decisions over 12 games from mid-July through the end of August. He finished the season 19-8 with a 2.33 ERA over 243 innings, then followed it up with his only 20-win season and a 2.50 ERA over 273⅔ innings. He also recorded 205 strikeouts, making him the first pitcher since Ed Walsh to rack up 200 K's in the season. He then did it again with 215 in 1967.

Peters was also a tremendous hitter for a pitcher, hitting .222 with 19 homers over the course of his career. His bat was regarded highly enough -- and the White Sox offenses of the day were thin enough -- that Peters hit as high as sixth in the lineup, and often came off the bench to pinch-hit. Four of his homers came off the bench, including a walk-off blast in the 13th inning of a 3-2 victory over the Kansas City A's on July 19, 1964.

Peters lost some steam as he approached his 30s, suffering a groin injury in 1965, then dealing with a rorator cuff issue in 1968. He was eventually traded to the Red Sox as part of cost-cutting maneuvers, and he finally found run support in Boston, winning 33 games over three years despite below-average ERAs. Over these years, he was the White Sox's representative for the newly minted Players Association, and took on that role with Red Sox during the first strike in 1972.

Peters was named to the White Sox's All-Century Team in 2000.

Dave Nicholson

Born: Aug. 29, 1939
Died: Feb. 25, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1963-65
RIP Baseball obituary

Regarding Peters' walk-off homer, Eddie Stanky had him pinch-hit for Dave Nicholson because he wanted Peters to bunt, whereas Nicholson was one of the league's big all-or-nothing players of the day.

Nicholson arrived in Chicago after the 1962 seasons via a nifty trade, as Ed Short acquired Nicholson, Ron Hansen, Pete Ward and Hoyt Wilhelm from the Orioles for Luis Aparicio and Al Smith. That trade bolstered the bullpen and remade the infield. Nicholson is the only one who didn't quite click.

He tied Ward for the team lead in homers in 1963 with 22, although he struck out a league-leading 175 times in just 126 games (Don Lock was second with 151 strikeouts over 149 games).

That said, when he did connect, they resulted in memorable, mammoth clouts, including a homer that cleared the left-field roof at Comiskey Park and traveled an estimated 573 feet. The distance was debated because nobody could convincingly say whether the ball cleared the roof on the fly or bounced off it, but it topped Mickey Mantle's famed 565-foot moonshot at Griffith Park.

Nicholson just couldn't find a way around the strikeout problem, and after whiffing 36 percent of the time over 97 games in 1964 and fanning 40 times in 94 plate appearances in 1965, the White Sox traded him to Houston.

Dave Wills

Born: March 13, 1964
Died: March 5, 2023
Worked for White Sox: 1997-2004

Had the timing been just a little different, Dave Wills could've been considered the longtime radio voice of the Chicago White Sox. Perhaps he would've overlapped with Jason Benetti to give the White Sox a pair of homegrown play-by-play guys.

As it worked out, Wills, who manned the pregame and postgame show for the White Sox during an exciting era for radio, ended up getting a full-time gig with the Tampa Bay Rays one year before John Rooney would depart Chicago for St. Louis.

Wills, a native of Oak Park, began his broadcasting career with the Kane County Cougars before joining the White Sox radio network as the studio host and backup for Rooney. It was only a matter of time before a better opportunity presented itself, as Wills had the enthusiasm and booming voice to carry a big-league broadcast for entire seasons, and after the Rays came calling, he never left.

Fred Klages

Born: Oct. 31, 1943
Died: March 30, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1966-67
RIP Baseball obituary

A multi-sport star out of Western Pennsylvania who was overshadowed by Joe Namath, Klages eventually found a path to the big leagues with the White Sox. He joined the White Sox as a September call-up in 1966, and parlayed the cameo and another strong season in the minors into being a second-half reinforcement in 1967.

Klages, a righty whose arsenal clicked when pitching coach Ray Berres, went 5-4 with a 3.28 ERA over 14 games, but his career was cut short due to a shoulder injury he suffered in the final month of the 1967 season, and he only lasted two more years in baseball before washing out. He spent one of those years with the Hawaii Islanders, so it could've been worse.

Dave Frost

Born: Nov. 17, 1952
Died: April 17, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1977
RIP Baseball obituary

Frost, an 18th-round draft pick of the White Sox in 1974, made it to the big leagues as a September call-up for the South Side Hit Men. He went 3-for-3 in quality starts and picked up his first big-league win against the Angels on Sept. 18, 1977.

The Angels might've liked what they saw, because after the season, California acquired Frost along with Brian Downing and Chris Knapp for Bobby Bonds, Thad Bosley and Richard Dotson. Downing became the star of the deal once he moved from catcher to left field, but Frost also benefited from the change of scenery, building towards a 16-10 season over 239⅓ innings in 1979.

Elbow and back problems set in afterward, and Frost's last three years in the majors were slogs. Dotson eventually redeemed the deal on the White Sox's side, establishing himself as member of the rotation for a majority of the 1980s.

Dennis Ribant

Born: Sept. 20, 1941
Died: April 24, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1968
SABR bio | RIP Baseball

As the White Sox's run in the 1960s fell apart, the Sox sold off several veterans to cut costs. Peters was one of them, and Don McMahon was another. McMahon was a big part of the White Sox's bullpens for about a calendar year, but given that he was 38 and pitching for a team that was about to lose 95 games, the Sox traded him to the Tigers for Ribant.

The White Sox were Ribant's fourth team in three years, as he pinballed from the Mets in 1966 to the Pirates in 1967 to Detroit in 1968. He had moments here and there -- he was one of the first Mets starting pitchers to finish a season with a winning record -- but he fizzled with the White Sox, and he lost his footing in the majors after that, making only eight more appearances for two more teams in 1969.

Ribant was a tremendous athlete, as he was a hockey prospect before committing to baseball. He hit .267 for the Pirates in 1967, and after his playing days were over, he had success as a doubles tennis player.

Deacon Jones

Born: April 18, 1934
Died: May 7, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1962-63, 1968
RIP Baseball obituary

Not to be confused with the head-slapping defensive lineman for the Los Angeles Rams, Jones had a winding path to the majors. He made his professional debut in 1955 after signing with the White Sox out of Ithaca College, but a severe shoulder injury and a stint in the Army interrupted his career. By 1962, he was limited to first base because of his compromised throwing arm, but he earned his first big-league look at age 28 after hitting .319/.423/.555 with 26 homers for Savannah/Lynchburg of the South Atlantic League.

Jones' initial audition went well enough, as he hit .321/.394/.393 over 36 plate appearances, but he was blocked by a couple of veteran first basemen -- first Joe Cunningham, then Moose Skowron -- and so he never got one good look while he was in his prime. The White Sox did bring him back late in the 1966 for more pinch-hitting duties at the age of 32. He went 2-for-5 in his final trips to the plate as a big leaguer, finishing his career .268/.368/.429 over 60 plate appearances.

Jones made a bigger impact after his playing days. The White Sox retained him as a scout and coach, and he became one of professional baseball's first Black managers when he led the White Sox's Appleton affiliate in the Midwest League. After stints as a hitting coach with various organizations, including the Houston Astros, he returned to the White Sox as a scout and worked with them until 2008. He then returned to Houston and helped Sugar Land, Texas, land a professional baseball team in the form of the Sugar Land Skeeters of the Atlantic League, and that organization is now the Astros' Triple-A affiliate.

Cotton Nash

Born: July 24, 1942
Died: May 23, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1967
SABR bio | RIP Baseball obituary

Nash is one of 12 players who played in both MLB and the NBA, although he did both briefly. An All-American basketball player at the University of Kentucky, Nash averaged 22.7 points and 12.3 rebounds a game for the Wildcats, after which the Los Angeles Lakers selected him in the second round of the 1964 draft.

Nash played his first half season for the Lakers, and the second half for the San Francisco Warriors, who claimed him off waivers midseason. He then turned his focus to baseball, although when the American Basketball Association launched in 1967, Nash returned to the Lexington area to play a season for the Kentucky Colonels, leaving the team when spring training started.

Baseball was his first love, and his love was briefly required when the White Sox called him up late in the 1967 season after a strong season at first base with Triple-A Evansville. The White Sox acquired Nash from the Angels for Moose Skowron earlier in the year, and he ended up getting a handful of pinch-hitting appearances at the end of the season, going 0-for-3 with a walk.

That was it for his White Sox career, although the White Sox had to trade him twice in order for him to notch MLB firsts elsewhere. The Sox first traded him to Pittsburgh for Ed Hobaugh in April 1969 in a one-year loan (the things you could do under the reserve clause), but when Hobaugh retired midseason, Nash was supposed to return to the Sox. He refused to report because he didn't see a point in moving his family or a future with the team, so the Sox then sent him to Minnesota for a player to be named later. Nash ended up playing 10 games with the Twins over two seasons, going 3-for-13 with a couple more walks.

Lee Richard

Born: Sept. 18, 1948
Died: Aug. 6, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1971-72, 1974-75
RIP Baseball obituary

After the White Sox selected him in the first round of the 1970 draft, Lee "Bee Bee" Richard only played 82 minor-league games before the White Sox made him their everyday shortstop to start the 1971 season. The White Sox needed a shortstop after trading Luis Aparicio to Boston, and Richard was the best in-house option.

It's fair to say he was rushed. Richard committed a league-leading 26 errors in just 68 games at shortstop while hitting just .231/.286/.304, and even his considerable speed didn't help him, as he was thrown out on more than half of his stolen-base attempts.

He appeared in 87 games his rookie season, but only 86 over his other three seasons with the White Sox. Moving to other infield positions didn't help, and he hit just .192/.240/.213 during sporadic playing time. The Sox eventually traded him to St. Louis for Buddy Bradford and Greg Terlecky after the 1975 season, which was when the Sox finally found a playable option at short in Bucky Dent.

Jerry Turner

Born: Jan. 17, 1954
Died: Aug. 20, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1981
RIP Baseball obituary

Turner spent his first eight seasons with the San Diego Padres, where he garnered the reputation as an excellent pinch hitter. He hit .263/.335/.407 with 10 homers over 320 plate appearances coming off the bench, and while his managers appreciated his ability to hit cold, it worked against him when it came to finding full-time work.

The White Sox purchased Turner's contract from the Padres in the final month of the 1981 season. The Sox had lost 10 of 11 to lose ground in the second half of a season that was split into two by the strike, and Turner didn't do much to change their fortune. He started just one of the 10 games he played for the Sox,. going 2-for-12 with a walk.

Bob Priddy

Born: Dec. 10, 1939
Died: Sept. 28, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1968-69
RIP Baseball obituary

It took a while for Priddy to find his role on an MLB roster, and once he did, he hard a hard time staying in one place. He finally held down a spot on a pitching staff for the 1966 Giants, and after pitching 91 decent innings of long relief, he was sent to the Washington Senators for 1967, who then sent him to the White Sox for the 1968 season.

Higgins pitched well enough in his first two months for the White Sox to graduate to a starting role for the first and only time in his career. He met his ceiling when he lost six consecutive starts, afterreturning to the bullpen, the Sox lost the remaining six games in which Priddy appeared, even though Priddy allowed just five baserunners over 10 scoreless innings. Such was life for those pitching for a team that scored only 463 runs over 162 games in the Year of the Pitcher. The White Sox then traded Priddy to the Angels after the season.

Dennis Higgins

Born: Aug. 4, 1939
Died: Nov. 3, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1966-67
RIP Baseball

Higgins, who made his professional debut at age 18 for Class D Dubuque in 1958, didn't make his major-league debut until 1966, when he opened the 12th inning in a game against the Angels and threw 2⅔ scoreless innings. The game ran so long that he missed his flight back to Jefferson City, Mo. for his wedding, although he managed to catch a later flight to make it to the church on time.

It was a slow climb for Higgins because control problems relegated him tot he bullpen early in his career, and the White Sox didn't need many relievers because knuckleballers Hoyt Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher were good for 100-plus innings a year. Opportunities finally started opening for guys like Higgins in 1966, when Wilhelm turned 43 and Fisher was traded. Higgins initially aided in the transition, posting a 2.52 ERA while leading the Sox bullpen with 86 strikeouts over 93 innings. His fastball provided a welcome contrast to all of the slow stuff.

But only for a year. Higgins' control problems returned in 1967, and a return to Triple-A Indianapolis was cut short by a detached retina. He barely cleared 20 innings on the year, and the Sox traded him to Washington in the deal that brought Priddy to Chicago. Higgins rebounded to provided three years of bulk innings out of the bullpen, two for the Senators and one for Cleveland.

While Higgins only played on the South Side for parts of two seasons, that wasn't the last the White Sox saw of his family. A few decades later, the White Sox selected his cousin, Joe Crede, in the fifth round of the 1996 draft.

Lou Skizas

Born: June 2, 1932
Died: Nov. 17, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1959
SABR bio | RIP Baseball obituary

Skizas, a Chicago native and graduate of Crane Tech, wrapped up his big-league career with his home town, playing in eight games for the White Sox in April of 1959. He went 1-for-13 with three walks.

Everything that happened before and after his career was a lot more interesting. A son of Greek immigrants on Chicago's West Side, Skizas was a well-regarded outfield prospect alongside Mickey Mantle in the Yankees system. In his best big-league season, homered more times (18) than he struck out(15). On the other side of the ledger, his defense was spotty, and he confounded some coaches with a complicated batter's box ritual that resulted in the nickname "The Nervous Greek," and also opened him up to a susceptibility with the quick pitch.

He also balanced his professional career with continuing education, which rubbed some managers the wrong way. That said, he was wise to prioritize college. After his career, he earned a Ph.D in kinesiology from the University of Illinois and taught Health Sciences at Illinois State University, where he also called ISU basketball games and coached the baseball team. He was an early advocate for applying biomechanical knowledge and exercise regimens to baseball.

Joe Hicks

Born: April 7, 1933
Died: Dec. 2, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1959-60
SABR bio

Were it not for two years in the Army, Joe Hicks could've made his debut years earlier. He hit .299/.392/.505 for Double-A Memphis in 1955, which was the White Sox's highest minor-league affiliate at the time. Alas, he spent 1956 and 1957 in the service, and he didn't regain the ground until 1959, when he was 26 years old.

He debuted for the 1959 White Sox in September and went 3-for-7 with a walk off the bench, and while he got a greater opportunity to fill a reserve role in 1960, he couldn't make use of the extremely sporadic playing time behind Minnie Miñoso, Jim Landis and Al Smith. His last 36 plate appearances were scattered over 22 games spanning three-plus months, and he hit just 2-for-28 with five walks.

The White Sox left him unprotected in the expansion draft, but while the new Washington Senators selected him, he ended up on a roster with three other left-handed-hitting outfielders, so he was once again on the outside looking in. Two years later, the expansion New York Mets selected him and offered him his best shot at playing time at age 30. That ended up being his last season in the majors after hitting .226/.276/.371 for a 111-loss team, but at least he lasted long enough to get that one long look.

Dave Wehrmeister

Born: Nov. 9, 1952
Died: Dec. 6, 2023
Played for White Sox: 1985
RIP Baseball obituary

Wehrmeister was born in Berwyn and starred in baseball and basketball for Lyons Township High School in La Grange. Like Skizas, he returned to Chicago to play for the White Sox at the tail end of his career, which had comprised unsuccessful stints with the Padres, Yankees and Phillies.

He wasn't effective at Triple-A Buffalo, either, but the White Sox still came calling for him in August in a move that was prompted by the threat of a strike. The Sox sent rookie pitcher Bill Long down to Triple-A so he could keep pitching in the event of a work stoppage, and Wehrmeister happened to be available to take his place.

Wehrmeister seized the day and responded with the best stretch of his major-league career. He came to Chicago with more walks than strikeouts over his first 53 MLB appearances, but he ended up striking out 32 batters against 10 walks over 23 games and 39⅓ innings, an impressive ratio for the era. But he failed to make the roster out of spring training in 1986, and chose to retire after his age-33 season to dabble in coaching.