“Hi, my name is Al”

In another one of his better promotions, fan-centric Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck creates “Al Smith Day” 64 years ago today at Comiskey Park.

To honor his left fielder of the same name, Veeck gives free admission for that night’s game against Boston to anyone named Smith, Schmidt, Smythe or Smithe.

Each of those fans is given a button that reads, “I’m a Smith and I’m for Al.”

A crowd of 22,497 turns out for the Wednesday night game, but Smith manages only one single in four at-bats and drops a fly ball that leads to two unearned runs in the White Sox 7-6 loss to the Red Sox.

A few weeks later, on Oct. 2, 1959, Smith unwittingly finds himself on the wrong end of a free beer at Comiskey Park as he inadvertently is doused when a cup of suds falls atop him during Charley Neal’s fifth-inning homer for the Los Angeles Dodgers in Game 2 of the World Series.