Changing Sox

Norm Cash with the White Sox

In the span of just three days in 1959, the Chicago White Sox trade not one, but two of their young, left-handed hitters who in time become All-Stars for other teams.

First, the White Sox send 26-year-old, emerging first baseman Norm Cash to the Cleveland Indians in a seven-player trade that returns aging – hey, he’s always aging – outfielder Minnie Minoso to Chicago.

Cleveland promptly flips Cash to Detroit on the eve of the 1960 season for infielder Steve Demeter, but that is another story.

Then, 65 years ago today – three days after Chicago trades Cash to Cleveland – the White Sox ship 20-year-old outfielder Johnny Callison to the Philadelphia Phillies for 25-year-old journeyman third baseman Gene Freese.

While Cash goes on to play 15 seasons in Detroit and becomes an American League batting champion and five-time All-Star there, Callison spends the next 10 seasons as one of the most popular players in Philadelphia.

With the Phillies, Callison becomes a three-time National League All-Star, as well as a triple-double player for four straight seasons from 1962-65 with double figures in doubles, triples and home runs.

Minnie Minoso in 1976

As for Freese, he spends the 1960 with the White Sox before bouncing around from Cincinnati to Pittsburgh, back to the White Sox and then Houston before playing his final game in the majors in 1966.

As for Minoso, then 36, the future Hall of Famer enjoys a two-year reunion with the White Sox before they again trade him in 1961 to the St. Louis Cardinals for first baseman-outfielder Joe Cunningham.

Minoso does not stop playing in the majors until 1980, when at 56 years old – and a chance to play in five decades – he appears as a pinch-hitter in two late-season games for the White Sox.

Minoso goes 0-for-2 in those games against the California Angels with a pop-up and groundout. No worries as the White Sox end up winning both games.