Today in White Sox History: March 28

One year ago, Garrett Crochet made the seemingly impossible possible. Quinn Harris/Getty Images 1940

During a 10-1 preseason loss at Wrigley Field, White Sox second baseman Jackie Hayes is hit by a drifting speck of cinder in his eye. Hayes’ eye became infected, and by the end of the season had lost full sight in it, and retired from the game. By 1943, Hayes was blind in both eyes.

At the time, Hayes speculated that it was the cinder during the game, or soap, that had irritated his eye, leading to his eventual blindness. But in truth, as he later acknowledged, Hayes was afflicted with glaucoma, robbing him of his sight.

Hayes played as a part-timer in 1940 for the White Sox, getting into 18…