Today in White Sox History: January 27

Defensive all-timer: Few defensive plays have ever been better than Iguchi's acrobatic assist in 2006. (@WhiteSox)

2005
So who needs scouts? (just joking ...) White Sox GM Ken Williams signed Japanese second baseman Tadahito Iguchi after ... watching videotape on him. Iguchi turned into a very solid second baseman and second hitter in the lineup, delivering defense, home runs and RBIs to a team that would go on to take the World Series.

Iguchi's three-run home run in Game 2 of the 2005 ALDS turned the game around against Boston. The following year, Iguchi's single in the 19th inning on July 9 beat the Red Sox 6-5 — that game was tied for the fifth-longest in franchise history.

On April 15, 2006 Iguchi turned in one of the most incredible defensive plays in MLB history by throwing out Toronto's Bengie Molina in the ninth inning of a 4-2 White Sox win. Iguchi threw the ball to first base sailing horizontally off the ground and from a most usual throwing angle.

“Coming off the bat, I know it was going to be a tough play but I knew I still had the time to get him out at first base,” Iguchi told reporters after the game. “I knew it wasn’t an impossible position to still make a throw. But I knew if I was going down I might not be coming back up again. Right now, I feel it in my lower back.”