March 9, 1981, was indeed a great day for the Sox, who held a press conference to announce an agreement to sign catcher Carlton Fisk, the first superstar acquisition of the new ownership group headed by Einhorn and Jerry Reinsdorf.
Fisk, a 33-year-old All-Star with the Boston Red Sox, was declared a free agent on Feb. 12 that year due to a technicality after Red Sox management failed to mail him his contract by the mandated Dec. 20 deadline. No one at the time believed the White Sox would actually be in the running to sign a player of Fisk’s caliber, not after the just-ended Bill Veeck ownership era that created the rent-a-player concept — acquiring players in their walk year with no intention of re-signing them.