Wrigley Field - U.S. Cellular Field
Comiskey Park
Chicago, Illinois
Formerly, White Sox Park
Groundbreaking: February 10, 1910
First American League game: July 1, 1910
First NFL game: October 1, 1922
Last NFL game: November 30, 1958
Last American League game: September 30, 1990
Razed: 1991
Surface: Natural Grass (1910-68, 1976-90); Artificial "Sox Sod" infield/Grass outfield (1969-75)
Capacity: 32,000 (1910); 52,000 (1927); 50,000 (1938); 46,500 (1942); 52,934 (1953); 44,492 (1969); 43,931 (1989)
Architect: Zachary Taylor Davis
Construction: George W. Jackson
Owner: Chicago White Sox
Cost: $750,000 (1910); $1,000,000 (1926 expansion)
Dimensions:
Foul lines: 363 (1910), 365 (1927), 362 (1930), 342 (1934), 353 (1935), 340 (1936), 352 (1937), 332 (April 1949), 352 (May 1949), 335 (1969), 352 (1971), 341 (1983), 347 (1986)
Power alleys: 382 (1910), 375 (1927), 370 (1934), 382 (1942), 362 (April 1949), 375 (May 1949), 382 (1954), 365 (1955), 375 (1956), 365 (1959), 375 (1968), 370 (1969), 375 (1971), 374 (1983), 382 (1986)
Centerfield: 420 (1910), 450 (1926), 455 (1927), 450 (1930), 436 (1934), 422 (1936), 440 (1937), 420 (April 1949), 415 (May 1949), 410 (1951), 415 (1952), 400 (1969), 440 (1976), 445 (1977), 402 (1981), 401 (1983), 409 (1986)
Height of Fences:
Foul lines and power alleys: 10 ft (concrete), 5 ft (inner-fence, 1969)
Center field: 15 ft (1927), 30 ft (1948), 17 ft (1976), 18 ft (1980)
Center field inner fences: 5 ft (1949), 6.5 ft (1969), 9 ft (1974), 7 ft (1981), 7.5 ft (1982), 11 ft (1984), 7.5 ft (1986)
Hosted World Series: 1917, 1918 (Cubs), 1919, 1959
Hosted All-Star Game: 1933, 1950, 1983
Hosted NFL Championship Game: 1947
Hosted Negro League East-West All-Star Game: 1933-50
The South Side stadium was built on land originally owned by "Long" John Wentworth, a former Windy City mayor. Before he sold it to Charles Comiskey in 1909, the site had been used for a city dump. The rush to build the park in time for its July 1 opening was hindered by a steel-workers’ strike, and the death of a carpenter who fell from a scaffold hours before the first game cast a pall over the Opening Day festivities. The White Sox lost the inaugural game to the Browns 2-0.
The ballpark constructed at 35th and Shields Avenue by the "Old Roman" was one of the most impressive of its period due to its symmetry (unusual at the time) and generous size. Its original 29,000 seats set a baseball record, and it eventually reached a capacity of 52,000 after the original double-deck grandstand was extended on both sides to its final configuration in 1926. The reason for the "opening" between the upper deck in centerfield: The Chicago fire code prohibited Charles Comiskey's plan to completely enclose the grandstand, as that would have raised capacity to 55,000 - 3,000 more than allowed at the time by the code.
The thrifty Comiskey vetoed architect Zachary Taylor Davis's original (and revolutionary!) idea to build a column-free cantilever upper deck with an ornate Neoclassical facade and external landscaping, but the park's brick exterior was nevertheless graced by arched openings and Prairie School details. In its early years it was dubbed the "Baseball Capital of the World." Due to its large seating capacity, it was borrowed by the crosstown Cubs for the 1918 World Series.
Comiskey was ideally suited for dead-ball-era play. Its spacious outfield (originally 362 feet down the lines and 420 feet to center) was influenced by pitcher Ed Walsh, who toured several major league parks with an employee of Davis prior to design. But the changing nature of the game soon made Comiskey Park out of step. The long-ball hitting of the games’ stars was handicapped by a park its size, at a time when the fans demanded high scores and frequent home runs from their heroes.
It wasn't until 1934, after Comiskey's death, that the ownership dealt with this problem. The plate was moved forward 14' to accommodate power hitter Al Simmons, but when he left a year later the plate was moved back to its original location. In 1949 a wire fence was installed by Frank Lane to spur greater power production, but it was the opposition and not the White Sox who profited from the smaller dimensions -- it was removed it after only a few games. However, the section of the new inner fence in centerfield remained in place until 1976. 5 years later, the inner-centerfield fence returned again, and remained for the rest of Comiskey Park's life.
Comiskey was home of the NFL's Chicago Cardinals for 35 seasons, and was the site of the first All-Star game in 1933; it was also the permanent site of the Negro Leagues' yearly East-West All-Star game from 1933-50. The infield was a hazard in those years. Once Luke Appling tripped over a copper kettle protruding near second base which had surfaced after a few decades.
Night games (which began in 1939) helped bolster sagging attendance. In 1950, an electric scoreboard was built in center field, replacing the ones situated on the left and right field walls. Ten years later, new Sox owner Bill Veeck began to put his unique stamp on Comiskey Park. He had the entire exterior of the park painted white, covering the original, natural brick facade. Picnic areas were added in the outfield and restrooms were remodeled. Veeck's signature addition to Comiskey however, was his monster-sized "exploding" scoreboard (below) which debuted in 1960. It featured a "soxogram" message board, fireworks, lights, sirens, sound-effects and multi-colored pinwheels. The board and sound effects often annoyed visiting teams (who called it "bush"), but became so identified with the Sox, that the pinwheels and fireworks design was incorporated into new Comiskey's scoreboard in 1991.
After Veeck sold the White Sox to Arthur Allyn in 1961, Comiskey Park was renamed White Sox Park, a name it would carry until Veeck bought back the club in 1976. One of the strangest changes to Comiskey occured after Veeck sold the team - the six-year "cost-cutting experiment" of having an artificial turf infield with a natural grass outfield (1969-75). When Veeck again owned the team in 1976, he ripped up the astroturf and put in a jumbo-sized shower head in the bleachers for fans to cool off with during those hot Chicago summers.
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Engineering surveys sponsored by both proponents and opponents of demolition failed to document any serious structural hazards, but the owners' threats to move the team and other political hardball eventually doomed old Comiskey. New Comiskey Park, now US Cellular Field, now stands on a site just south of the old ballapark which was completely demolished in 1991, and is now a parking lot.
Courtesy of Baseballlibrary.com
Old Comiskey Park is now an asphalt parking lot,
but do you remember...
Bright green paint along the base of the exterior wall.
Electrical wires, bundled , taped and dripping with countless coats of dried paint, running above the main concourse beneath the stands.
The long rows of wooden tables inside the Picnic Area facing left field through cyclone fencing.
The clubhouse entrance off the main concourse marked "Private" and its enormous fish eye peephole.
The slat-back chairs, some of them directly behind large posts.
The switchback ramp in the left field corner with its view of downtown Chicago through arched windows and the chain link fencing.
The wall of leaves from the large hardwood trees across the alley behind left field, visible from everywhere inside the park through the arched windows.
The outfield seat price zones marked by the white stripe painted onto the top slat of an entire rows of seats.
The two Sox logos visible from the Dan Ryan Expressway outside the right field upper deck.
The little boy fountain adjacent to the mens' washroom opposite the left field picnic area. The water pool (filled with pennies), rock garden and vinyl plants, too.
The Sox-o-Gram messages on Veeck's original monster scoreboard.
The series of tiny ticket window booths just in front of the main entrance.
Nancy Faust's organ booth just in front of the narrow upper deck concourse behind homeplate.
The Daley family box, immediately next to the Sox's on-deck circle along third base.
The center field shower head.
The retired player numbers painted inside large baseballs along the right field wall.
The Pitch-o-Meter perched atop the outfield scoreboard's clock.
The large hardwood tree just outside the right field gate (still there today).
The nine trumpet-shaped speakers mounted on top of the center field wall.
The bullpen benches located underneath the stands in center field.
The stacks of empty beer kegs along the outer wall of the main concourse.
The ubiquitous porcelain troughs in each of the mens' restrooms.
The line of women stretching from inside the womens' restrooms and out onto the concourses.
The growing cloud of cigarette and cigar smoke hanging above the playing field visible through the arc lamps during night games.
The seats in the left and right field corners that faced the seats in the left and right field corners.
The grade school children's baseball drawings mounted along the main concourse.
The fleet of buses waiting in the lot beyond right field to pick up their respective groups at the end of each game.
The six square-shaped light towers perched atop erector-set poles, high above the upper deck roof.
McCuddy's, the squat little tavern directly across 35th Street from the ballpark.
The tiny players' parking lot outside the left field stands and adjacent to the media entrance.
The Zenith color tv's mounted on top of the lower deck posts.
The block-C design worked into the exterior masonry.
The outfield foul poles bent backwards to meet the edge of the upper deck roof.
The center field bleachers, the flaking paint, and the growing slivers.
The upper deck catwalks, tying the left field upper deck concourse with its right field counterpart -- the furthest corner of Comiskey Park.
Rubber-necking your way through an entire nine inning game because of the series of posts blocking your view.
Bullpen I and Bullpen II.
The green aluminum slats weaved into the chain link fencing (much of it torn or missing) behind the last row of seats in the right field upper deck.
The old pinball and baseball arcade games located under the Left/Center
grandstands in the picnic area.
The baseball-shaped signs with bright blue "IN" and "OUT" on the bathroom doors.
The box seats behind home plate that were actually lower than the playing surface.
The electronic scoreboards on the face of the third base and right field upper deck.
The CTA bus race on the scoreboard between innings.
The bar under the 3rd base stands with photos like "sox zero in on
pennant" adorning the walls.
The giant old photos hanging from the wall under the stands behind home
plate (particularly the one in which Campy Campaneris spikes Ed Herrmann and rips his pants open on a close play at the plate).
The "Big White Machine" jalopy that was driven around the perimeter of
the field after home games.
Catching the first glimpse of the floodlit emerald green playing field as you climbed the darkened ramp into the stands.
Your first glimpse of the park, its sights and sounds, emerging from the railroad underpass just west of the park on 35th Street.
The umpire's ball basket that emerged from the ground behind homeplate.
Courtesy of George Bova & WhiteSoxInteractive.com
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Notes Facts & Features
July 12, 1979: Bill Veeck's infamous Disco Demolition Night, Fans who brought disco records were allowed into the stadium for 98 cents. The records were to go into a bonfire between games of a doubleheader with the Tigers. About 50,000 fans attended the game and more than 5,000 ended up on the field where a riot ensured. Veeck made futile pleas for the mob to leave. Umpire Dave Phillips called a forfeit, giving Detroit a sweep.
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Baseball's sparkling new contribution to the glamour and romance of American sports, the All-Star Game, made its debut at 1:15 on the sweltering afternoon of July 6, 1933, at Chicago's Comiskey Park. There were 47,595 fans in the stands, all eager to see a novel concept in action -- action that would be performed by the most glittering assemblage of ballplaying talent ever brought together on the diamond at one time.
AL manager Connie Mack was out to win. He made just one change in his starting lineup (excluding pitching), using 13 players. The NL's John McGraw used 17, including four pinch-hitters. There were some formidable thumpers on the AL side -- including Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, and Al Simmons.
But one American Leaguer was unique...
"We wanted to see the Babe," said Wild Bill Hallahan, the NL starter. "Sure, he was old and had a big waistline, but that didn't make any difference. We were on the same field as Babe Ruth."
Ruth did not disappoint.
With Charlie Gehringer on first in the bottom of the third, The Babe drove a Hallahan delivery into the right-field stands, the first homer in All-Star history. The crowd, according to one account, "roared in acclamation" and the first All-Star Game, won by the AL on the strength of Ruth's homer, was a resounding success, financially and artistically.
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Because of greater crowd capacity, the Chicago Cubs played their 1918 World Series home games at Comiskey Park rather than at Wrigley Field.
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Before the 1927 season, the park was enclosed by a double-decked outfield grandstand.
On August 14, 1939, the first night game in Chicago was played at Comiskey Park, with the Sox defeating the St. Louis Browns, 5-2.
The first large center field scoreboard was built in 1950 and lasted until replaced by Bill Veeck's exploding version in 1960. In 1982, a new scoreboard, complete with color video board, was constructed along with new Golden Box seats, dugouts and a level of luxury sky suites.
The White Sox played their final campaign at old Comiskey Park in 1990. The festive final weekend of the old stadium was capped by a 2-1 Sox victory over the Seattle Mariners in the final game on September 30, 1990.
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Thoughts on Comiskey architect Zachary Taylor Davis
Compare the simplicity of Old Comiskey's design to any of its contemporaries such as Shibe Park or Forbes Field. Note the simple and repetitive patterns in the park's exterior facade and the unified approach to all its design elements. The symmetry of the arched windows is matched by the symmetry of the park's layout. The smooth curves of the building are matched in numerous shapes and lines within the facade.
The original design deliberately included plenty of cheap bleacher seats because both Comiskey and Davis knew the park's working class neighborhood could be counted on to fill them. Davis employed a modern all steel and concrete design which was the new standard for the day. In the best Chicago tradition, Davis went further and proposed a unique cantilevered design for the upper deck which would have eliminated the sight-obstructing posts for the fans. Sadly, in the worst Chicago tradition, Charles Comiskey rejected Davis's plan as too extravagant. Comiskey pocketed the difference and 80 seasons of White Sox baseball were viewed between the resulting posts.
Courtesy of George Bova
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More former ballparks of Chicago
The capacity of the tiny grandstand never exceeded 7,500. It served as the home of the White Sox until June 27, 1910 when the club vacated the park for Comiskey Park at 35th Street and Shields. The grounds were leased to John Schorling, a South Side saloon keeper who owned the American Giants Negro League team.
The park served as the home of Chicago's Negro League teams until the park was demolished in the late 1940s to make way for a public housing project.
23rd Street Grounds, 1876-1877
Location: 23rd and State streets
First N.L. Game: May 10, 1876 -- Chicago 6, Cincinnati 0
Lakefront Park, 1878-1884
Location: South of Randolph Street between Michigan Avenue and Illinois Central Railroad tracks
First N.L. Game: May 14, 1878 -- Indianapolis 5, Chicago 3
West Side Park, 1885-1891
Location: Congress and Throop streets
First N.L. Game: June 6, 1885 -- Chicago 9, St. Louis 2
West Side Grounds, 1893-1915
Location: Polk and Lincoln (now Wolcott) streets
First N.L. Game: May 14, 1893 -- Cincinnati 13, Chicago 12
Last Cubs game: October 3, 1915
Capacity: 16,000
Dimensions: Left field: 340 feet; center field: 560 feet; right field: 316 feet.
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Click on titles for more info
Park Life: The Summer of 1977 at Comiskey Park
by Peter Elliott
Goodbye Old Friend: A Pictorial Essay on the Final Season at Old Comiskey Park
by Frank Budreck
Comiskey Park (Images of Baseball)
by Irwin J. Cohen
The Ultimate Baseball Road-Trip
by Joshua Pahigian, Kevin O'Connell
Fodor's Baseball Vacations: Great Family Trips to Minor League and Classic Major League Ballparks Across America
by Bruce Adams
America's Ballparks
by Kenneth Hogan
Ballparks of North America: A Comprehensive Historical Reference to Baseball Grounds, Yards and Stadiums, 1845 to Present
by Michael Benson
Storied Stadiums: Baseball's History Through Its Ballparks
by Curt Smith
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