Watching the grass grow in Chicago

Tommy John in 1969

Tom McCraw, Ken Berry and Carlos May are three of baseball's most bored players 55 years ago tonight as the Chicago White Sox outfielders have little to do behind left-handed pitcher Tommy John during a 6-1 victory over the Kansas City Royals before a smallish Friday night crowd of 6,257 on the Southside.

As his outfielders are yawning away their evening in the outfield at old Comiskey Park, John retires 27 Royals on 17 groundouts, nine strikeouts and a shallow foul pop-up to Chicago second baseman Bobby Knopp.

While the three outfielders have no need for their gloves in this game, they do their job on offense to help John, combining for four hits in 12 at-bats with each scoring a run and Berry hitting a two-run homer that gives Chicago a 2-0 lead in the second inning.

The game comes five years before John suffers an elbow injury in 1974, leading to a then-revolutionary, but now routine, ligament transplant surgery that still bears his name.