Danks brothers revel in historic showing

CHICAGO -- John and Jordan Danks know the unique situation they are in, with the brothers both earning a living playing baseball for the White Sox.

If they ever forget, the duo often gets reminded by the media.

"We usually joke about it," said John with a smile of the family baseball connection. "He'll come up to me and ask if I've done anymore brother interviews or whatever."

Add another brother interview to that list following the White Sox 5-2 victory over the Rangers on Sunday.

The victory went to John Danks, who improved to 4-10 by allowing two runs on eight hits over six innings, while striking out five. The game-deciding shot was delivered by Jordan, coming in the form of a solo homer against Matt Garza with one out in the fourth.

This homer was historic beyond propelling the White Sox to their 14th win in their last 20 games and an 8-1 mark in their last nine. According to Elias, Jordan Danks became the first player to homer in support of his brother since June 3, 1955, when Billy Shantz homered in support of Bobby Shantz for the Kansas City Athletics.

Jordan didn't even start this contest. He had entered the game in right field during the top of the fourth, when Avisail Garcia crashed into the chain-link portion of the right-field fence while trying to chase down Jeff Baker's game-tying homer.

"I figured it had been a while probably," said Jordan of the brotherly home run support. "But I didn't know it had been 50-plus years."

"Obviously, we hope Avi's OK, and I went and apologized to him for letting them hit the ball that hard out there to him," John said. "It's a little extra special that it was Jordan."

As a whole, the Danks' family is an athletic one. Their father, John, played basketball for the University of Texas in the late 1970s. Their younger sister, Emily, had a highly successful volleyball career for Ohio State and might be the best athlete of the family.

"That's true," John said with a laugh when talking about his sister. "You can write that."

The elder of the Danks' brothers, John, is a 28-year-old left-handed hurler who has grown stronger with each start made this season in a return from season-ending arthroscopic shoulder surgery last August. The next in line, Jordan, seems to be finding his stroke at 27 and after parts of six Minor League seasons, to go with his expert outfield glove work.

They have played together since a very young age. Sunday marked their high point as teammates -- at least, for now.

"Our goal was to one day play together in the big leagues and here we are," Jordan said. "And I thought how cool it would be to hit a home run one day when he was pitching. Sure enough, it happened. It was very cool."

"It's something we don't take for granted," said John of playing for the White Sox with his brother. "We know how special it is that we get to play together and we're enjoying every moment of it."