CHICAGO -- Countless talented players have worn the White Sox uniform over the franchise’s long and storied history.
Some have won Most Valuable Player honors or Cy Young Awards. Others have been selected as All-Stars, and a few have reached the lofty levels of Rate Field concourse statues or jersey numbers retired.
There are some strange moments, going against that accomplished skill set, coming along with that excellence. Here’s a look at eight of those moments among White Sox charges.
Run, Paulie, Run
Paul Konerko was blessed with an abundance of high-level talents: 439 career home runs, 1,412 RBIs, team captain and an interesting and entertaining talker as the voice of some of the best years for this organization. Blazing speed would not be found among Konerko’s lengthy list of attributes.
In fact, any sort of speed would be completely absent.
Yet, the man with nine stolen bases and eight triples over 18 seasons hit an inside-the-park home run on April 11, 2000, against the Devil Rays at Tropicana Field. The first baseman connected off Esteban Yan in the first inning for his first home run of the season, scoring ahead of shortstop Kevin Stocker’s throw home.
Konerko slapped the plate with his hand as he crossed. It was for emphasis. Maybe it also was to catch his breath.
Move over, Babe Ruth
Ask 10 former teammates as to whether Mark Buehrle’s perfect game thrown against the Rays on July 23, 2009, with his precise but less-than-high-octane repertoire, or his home run launched at the plate that same season, was more surprising, and all 10 would answer the home run. Buehrle has been in complete agreement with that assessment.
The White Sox legend, who had a Rate Field concourse statue unveiled in his honor in 2025, connected off Braden Looper in Milwaukee for his first and only career home run on June 14, 2009. It was a no-doubter off an 88.5 mph, 3-2 offering, leaving him just 713 home runs behind Babe Ruth, another noted pitcher/slugger combo. So, the order of career significance for Buehrle, by calendar date, went no-hitter vs. Texas on April 18, 2007, followed by the homer and the perfect game in ’09.
What a relief for fast Albers
OK, when listing off the historic players in White Sox lore, reliever Matt Albers doesn’t exactly jump off the page. Although the right-hander pitched in 14 MLB seasons, he appeared for the White Sox in just 88 of his 616 career games.
Yet, his moment on the basepaths against the Mets was so memorable that it had to make the list. That’s right, the basepaths.
Albers opened the 13th inning of a 1-1 tie at Citi Field on June 1, 2016, with a double to left-center, barely getting into second base ahead of the throw. The burly right-hander apologized to second baseman Neil Walker in the moment, noting that he didn’t mean to almost run him over but he didn’t know how to slide.
A wild pitch sent Albers to third, and José Abreu’s sacrifice fly to center easily scored Albers with the winning run. Of course, Albers also finished the job with a scoreless bottom half of the 13th, earning the mound victory in addition to scoring the winning run. The automatic runner at second in extra innings instituted in 2020 would have deprived everyone of this great baseball moment.
Don’t stop now, José!
There were many great moments coming from Abreu’s illustrious career, ranging from 263 career home runs to 960 RBIs to the 2020 American League Most Valuable Player Award. He even hit 17 triples over 6,220 plate appearances, but no three-bagger was more important than Abreu’s eighth-inning connection against Roberto Gómez in a 13-1 shellacking of the Giants on Sept. 9, 2017.
Abreu lined a shot into right field, needing a triple for the cycle. With the encouragement of everyone in the stands, not to mention Hall of Famer Ken ‘Hawk’ Harrelson and Steve Stone in the broadcast booth, Abreu raced around to third to complete this piece of history. On a day when the White Sox launched six home runs from six different players, Abreu’s triple took the headlines with the first White Sox cycle since Jose Valentin in 2000.
An inside job
There are some who credit Dick Allen with saving the White Sox franchise through his 1972 MVP season during his first campaign on Chicago’s South Side. He just missed winning the Triple Crown with a .308 average, 37 homers and 113 RBIs, and two of those homers were of the inside-the-park variety -- in the same game on July 31, 1972, at Metropolitan Stadium.
Allen connected in the first and the fifth innings off Minnesota's Bert Blyleven, a fellow Hall of Famer. He became the first player in the expansion era (since 1961) with two inside-the-park homers in the same game.
Speed existed within the slugger Allen’s game, as he finished his 15-year career with 133 stolen bases and 79 triples.
“You got to go.”
Never let it be said A.J. Pierzynski missed out on an inside-the-park homer during his illustrious career behind the plate covering 19 seasons. The only problem: This milestone was reached during a Spring Training game against the Diamondbacks on March 23, 2012.
Pierzynski hit the ball hard enough that night that he thought it was leaving the park. But he had to turn on those famous afterburners when the ball stayed in play and right fielder Justin Upton chased it down.
Geoff Blum, Pierzynski’s teammate on the 2005 World Series champion squad, was playing third for Arizona in this contest and uttered the following hilarious commentary as Pierzynski was digging for home.
“[Blum] was like, ‘You got to go, Tubby,’” Pierzynski told reporters after the White Sox Cactus League victory. “That was rather funny.”
The long and short of it
Over a solid 14-year career, Jermaine Dye played exactly one-third of an inning at shortstop. That move came in the 2005 World Series championship season, during a game at Oakland on April 27 when Juan Uribe, Tadahito Iguchi and Pablo Ozuna were injured, Joe Crede started at shortstop and catcher Chris Widger started at third base.
Dye moved to short when Crede was ejected in the ninth, marking his first and only time at the position. Manager Ozzie Guillen joked after the 2-1 loss that he was close to asking Major League Baseball if he could be activated with the club being so short-handed.
Farmer Jones?
Let’s end this story with a fun one in reliever Nate Jones, the Kentucky native who featured a 3.45 ERA in 325 career games, taking a brief foray into cow milking. The hard-throwing right-hander was selected for the pregame event on May 17, 2013, during Dairy Night at Angel Stadium. He went against Ryan Brasier, who pitched for the Cubs in ’25. Brasier had the right touch and won the contest.
“I felt like I was doing good, but just good enough for second place,” said Jones with a laugh, adding that his job was made more difficult by the cow moving in the early milking stages. “I felt like I was getting milk every squeeze. Apparently, it wasn't good enough.”