{"id":7687,"date":"2015-03-01T10:30:58","date_gmt":"2015-03-01T16:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/?p=7687"},"modified":"2015-03-01T10:32:35","modified_gmt":"2015-03-01T16:32:35","slug":"rip-minnie-minoso","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/2015\/03\/rip-minnie-minoso\/","title":{"rendered":"RIP Minnie Minoso"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"minoso\"<\/a>A little more than a month after Cub icon Ernie Banks passed away, word broke early this morning that long time White Sox great Minnie Minoso died overnight. \u00a0The 90 (or 93, depending on who you believe) year old broke the color barrier in Chicago when he debuted with the White Sox in 1951.<\/p>\n

Minoso, born in Cuba, came to the United States in 1945 to play in the Negro Leagues. \u00a0He joined the Indians organization in September of 1948, after his contract was purchased by Bill Veeck. \u00a0He made his major league debut the following year, appearing in 9 September games for the Tribe. \u00a0After returning to the minor leagues in 1950, Minoso returned to the Indians for 8 games in 1951 before being traded to the White Sox.<\/p>\n

He became Chicago’s first black player on May 1, 1951, getting 2 hits and driving in 2 runs in his White Sox debut. \u00a0Minoso spent the next 7 years with the White Sox, earning 4 All Star nods, 1 Gold Glove, and 3 top 10 MVP finishes. \u00a0Following the 1957 season, Minoso was traded back to the Indians, bringing Al Smith and Early Wynn, key players for the 1959 pennant winners, to the south side.<\/p>\n

After the 1959 season, new owner Bill Veeck brought Minoso back to the White Sox. \u00a0While the Sox failed to repeat as AL champions, it was through no fault of Minoso’s, as the left fielder again made the All Star team and finished 4th in MVP voting. \u00a0After a sub-standard (for him) season in 1961, Minoso was traded to the Cardinals.<\/p>\n

After struggling in 1962 and 1963, Minoso returned to the White Sox for the third time in 1964. \u00a0He appeared in only 30 games, batting .226, and was released in mid-July. \u00a0At 38 years old, this appeared to be the end of the line for Minoso.<\/p>\n

In 1975, Bill Veeck bought the White Sox for the second time. \u00a0The next year, he brought back Minnie Minoso, now 50 years old, to allow him to become a four decade player. \u00a0Minoso appeared in 3 games, and managed to get a hit in 8 at bats. \u00a0The stunt was repeated 4 years later, with Minoso going 0-2 in 2 games and becoming the first person to appear in games during 5 decades.<\/p>\n

His number 9 was retired by the White Sox in 1983. \u00a0In his later years, he became an official team ambassador for the White Sox. \u00a0As a season ticket holder, I had the opportunity to meet him on a few occasions, and, despite his age, he seemed energized to be interacting with fans. \u00a0The coming season is expected to be a good one for the White Sox. \u00a0It will seem emptier without his presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A little more than a month after Cub icon Ernie Banks passed away, word broke early this morning that long time White Sox great Minnie Minoso died overnight. \u00a0The 90 (or 93, depending on who you believe) year old broke the color barrier in Chicago when he debuted with the White Sox in 1951. Minoso, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[5498,3292,57,120,5499,5316,115,1552,4072,49],"class_list":["post-7687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baseball","tag-al-smith","tag-bill-veeck","tag-cardinals","tag-cubs","tag-early-wynn","tag-ernie-banks","tag-indians","tag-minnie-minoso","tag-negro-leagues","tag-white-sox"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7687"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7692,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7687\/revisions\/7692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7687"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7687"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learningturkey.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7687"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}