Today in White Sox History: January 9

Two free agent relievers, signed and released on the same day

1993

St. Michaels, Md. honored future Hall-of-Famer and town native Harold Baines by declaring every January 9 from that day forward to be Harold Baines Day.

Baines has lived his entire life in St. Michaels, raising his family there as well. He was a three-sport star (baseball, basketball, soccer) at St. Michael’s High School, and was famously scouted by nearby resident Bill Veeck while still in Little League (Veeck, by then the owner of the White Sox again, made Baines the No. 1 overall pick in 1977.)

Baines did play for his “hometown” Baltimore Orioles (70 miles northwest, across the Chesapeake Bay) over the course of seven seasons and in three separate stints. He in fact was both traded from the White Sox to the Orioles and to the White Sox from the Orioles.

2001

The White Sox confirmed that reliever Bill Simas, who had Tommy John surgery in December, would miss the entire 2001 season. The righty became just another casualty on a pitching staff that suffered massive losses in the 2000 AL Central title run, including starters James Baldwin and Cal Eldred.

Simas in fact would never pitch in the major leagues again, attempting Triple-A comebacks in 2002 (White Sox), 2003 (Dodgers) and 2004 (Mariners). Thus the 2000 season stood up as the best of his career, with 1.7 WAR and a 3.46 ERA over 60 games.

Simas had his TJS on Dec. 22, 2000 — his son’s first birthday. That son would grow up to be a pitcher like his dad, and the White Sox would sign that son, Kohl, in 2021. Kohl is currently on our SSS Top Prospect ballot, could be as high as our site’s No. 15 Prospect for 2023, and stands a strong change to pitch in Triple-A Charlotte this coming summer.

After his playing career, Bill served as a longtime pitching coach in the Dodgers and Rangers systems.

2011

The White Sox made some discount fortifications to their “All-In” 2011 team, signing bullpen arms Josh Kinney and Shane Lindsay.

The right-handed Kinney spent all of 2010 at Triple-A for the St. Louis Cardinals, but boy was it a great 2010: 56 games, 17 saves, 1.80 ERA, 0.983 WHIP. He’d been in the majors in three prior seasons, but was never good enough to stick. He ended up spending most of 2011 at Triple-A Charlotte (49 games, 14 saves, 2.77 ERA, 1.070 WHIP) but did poorly (as did most of his teammates in a poor stretch run!) back in the majors, putting up a 6.62 ERA in 13 August-September appearances. Kinney became a free agent after the season.

Lindsay had been signed first by the Colorado Rockies way back in 2003. But his long road toward the majors only culminated on Sept. 2, 2011, when he finished off an 8-1 drubbing in Detroit, pitching a scoreless inning in front of his mother, who had spent a breakneck 24 hours of travel from Down Under to get to Motown.

Two days later, Lindsay was part of the 18-2 debacle that pretty well torpedoed White Sox spirits, if not playoff chances, giving up seven earned in one inning. As it turns out, given just four 2011 games in his career, that effort entrenched some ugly career numbers: 12.00 ERA, -0.2 WAR.

With that September 2 appearance, Lindsay became the 27th native Australian ever to play in the majors. Ironically, future White Sox closer Liam Hendriks became the 28th just four days later, making his debut with the Minnesota Twins.

Like Kinney, Lindsay was declared a free agent after the 2011 season. Shane tooled around in the L.A. and Cubs systems in 2012 before returning home, where he remained active in the Australian Baseball League until 2016-17.

2013

Kosuke Fukodome, who the White Sox took a flier on in 2012, left MLB and signed back in his home country of Japan, with the Japanese Central League’s Hanshin Tigers.

Fukodome was a disaster for the White Sox, garnering -0.2 WAR over 24 games (following up his -0.5 for Cleveland in 2011). The outfielder’s meager $500,000 salary, surely incentive-laden, was a relatively easy spoonful to swallow, as Chicago would cut Kosuke on June 26.

Over his five-season, 4.4 WAR career in the majors, Fukodome earned $48.5 million.

Back in Japan, however, Fukodome returned to his days as a productive player, at least from 2013-18; he remained an active player until 2022, at 45 years of age.