On the South Side of Chicago once stood a fortress filled with memories of baseball's past. Often regarded as the "Baseball Palace of the World", Comiskey Park rarely failed to disappoint. Even as its primary tenants built a historically long championship drought. This is its story.
The Conception
After ten years of consistent winning in the old box known as South Side Park, White Sox owner Charles Comiskey was eager to have his ballclub play in a home more suitable for the large crowds that often surpassed the 12,500 limit. He had heard of Chicago architect Zachary Taylor Davis's credentials, how he was responsible for the unique designs of St. Ambrose Church and Kankakee Courthouse. Intrigued, Comiskey sent Davis along with his star pitcher Ed Walsh on a ballpark tour across the East Coast to see the possibilities of the present and to be inspired for the future.
Upon their return, Comiskey listened to their various ideas gleaned from their ballpark tour as he bought a 14 acre tract of landfill and began to design his new ballpark. Ground was broken on February 15, 1910 and White Sox Park opened to the public not even five months later on July 1 later that year.
Located three blocks from South Side Park, the soon-to-be-renamed Comiskey Park was adorned with a red brick facade that resembled a factory from the outside. Inside, the new ballpark could hold 32,000 and had a two-tier grandstand that stretched down the baselines towards a single level of wooden bleachers that sat behind the outfield. The ballpark was all that Charles Comiskey could have hoped for.
The Glory Years
The White Sox opened their stay at Comiskey Park by losing to the St. Louis Browns 2-0 but they quickly rebounded as Doc White led the team to a 3-2 triumph. However, their win came in front of half of the attendance from Opening Day. The White Sox knew that a lot of work had to be done in order to bring people to the their new ballpark.
By 1917, Comiskey had built a powerhouse. With players such as Shoeless Joe Jackson, Buck Weaver, Happy Felsch and Eddie Collins leading the charge, the White Sox won 100 games and made it to the World Series. In the Fall Classic, Comiskey Park shined bright as the White Sox went undefeated at home before defeated the Giants in New York for the title in six games.
The following year was odd. Since Weeghman Park (Wrigley Field) was too small to hold the expected attendance of the 1918 World Series, the Cubs momentarily move across town to use the larger Comiskey Park. The Red Sox won in six games behind the brilliance of a young pitcher named Babe Ruth.
While he was very attentive to his new ballpark, Charles Comiskey could be cheap when it came to paying his players. With resentment brewing in their bellies, eight of Comiskey's players were found to have intentionally lost the 1919 World Series in order to collect on a bookmaker's promise. As the Reds celebrated their eight game triumph over Chicago, each of the players who were found to have participated in the "Black Sox" scandal were thrown out of baseball forever. Thus began one of the sport's longest championship droughts.
As the White Sox began their long stay in the wilderness of despair, Charles Comiskey continued to upgrade his ballpark. In 1927, a double deck grandstand was extended all the way to center field where the single set of wooden bleachers still remained. With this expansion, capacity rose to 52,000. It was the only major expansion ever for the ballpark.
In 1922, the NFL's Cardinals entered Comiskey Park as tenants, beginning an up-and-down period of stints in the ballpark. They stayed there from 1922-1925, 1929-1930 and 1939-1959 when they moved to St. Louis. They won two championships while they called Comiskey Park home, one being before the NFL had a postseason in 1925 and another in 1947.
On that icy day at Comiskey Park, Elmer Angsman helped the Cardinals squeeze out a hard fought win over one of the toughest teams in the NFL, the Philadelphia Eagles. His two 70-yard touchdown runs sealed the deal for his team as they pulled away 28-21 in front of more than 30,000 frost-bitten fans.
In 1939, lights were installed as the sports world began to realize the merits in nightly entertainment. Comiskey Park hosted its first night game on August 14 of that year as the White Sox beat the Browns 5-2.
With lights came the fights as Comiskey Park soon became a top draw for some of America's most famous prize fighters. Joe Louis knocked out James Braddock in 1937 to become the first Black man to win the heavyweight title since Jack Johnson in 1915. In 1962, Sonny Liston knocked out Floyd Patterson at Comiskey Park.
The stadium also proved to be a prime location for the Negro Leagues as it hosted the All Star game from 1933 through 1960. In 1941, the Negro League's American Giants began playing at Comiskey and would remain there through 1952. Arguably Comiskey Park's biggest impact in the civil rights era was when it hosted Larry Doby as he broke the A.L. color barrier with the Cleveland Indians on July 5, 1947. Although he struck out in his only plate appearance and the Indians won 6-5, all of that paled in comparison to the impact on society that that game had.
In addition to the Negro League's All Star Game, Comiskey Park also hosted the MLB's, including the first one in 1933 when Connie Mack's American League squad beat John McGraw's 4-2. It next hosted the Summer Classic in 1950 when Ted Williams collided with the outfield wall, breaking his elbow and sidelining him for the rest of the year. In 1983, Comiskey Park hosted the 50th All-Star game. The AL won that one handily, 13-3.
The stadium underwent a subtle change in 1947 when the centerfield seats were closed and the moveable seats were permanently installed to decrease capacity to 44,492. But that was nothing compared to what would happen to it a dozen years later.
In 1959, Bill Veeck bought the club and immediately began renovating Comiskey Park. First, he painted the red brick facade white, then he added a picnic area to center-field before making the most significant change in his tenure: installing an "exploding" scoreboard. Justd months after the White Sox lost to the Dodgers at home in the World Series, Veeck plunked down $300,000 of his own money on a state of the art scoreboard.
Spectators could watch as digital fireworks and bombs went off after home runs as sound effects seeped out of the new scoreboard's speakers. It was quite a sight for sore eyes and became the talk of clubhouses all over America. When Houston's Astrodome opened a few years later, they too had an exploding scoreboard.
Just two years after he bought the club, Bill Veeck was forced to sell the team to the Allyn family. They soon made their own mark on the stadium by renaming it White Sox Park and installing Astroturf in the infield in 1969.
In an odd twist, Bill Veeck bought back the club from the Allyn family in 1975 and immediately removed the dreaded Astroturf, replacing it with softer sod. In those early days, even he knew how bad that stuff was to his player's knees.
Bill Veeck was always a terrific promoter and in 1979 he decided to try something unique. To encourage attendance, the White Sox had disco's number one critic, WLUP 97.9 DJ Steve Dahl, host "Disco Demolition Night". On July 12, thousands of fans attended with discounted tickets in one hand and records in the other, intended on contributing to the "controlled explosion" that Veeck himself promised would be quite a thrill. After averaging 15,000 fans that year, Comiskey Park was packed with a sellout crowd of 47,795 for the double header.
With a "Youth Night" promo also underway, many impressionable youths threw uncollected records, bottles, lighters and fire crackers onto the field throughout the first game, pausing the contest several times. After the White Sox lost to Detroit 4-1, the controlled explosion occurred between games without a hitch, but then the estimated crowd of over 50,000 became reckless.
In the throes of the moment, thousands stormed the field, digging up and stealing bases, destroying a batting cage and setting a bonfire in the middle of the field. An estimated 7,000 frolicked on the field until the police showed up 40 minutes laters and arrested 39 attendees. Due to the chaotic atmosphere and the destroyed ballpark, the White Sox were forced to forfeit the second game. While it was memorable, Disco Demolition Night always remained a stain on Comiskey Park's sterling reputation.
Bill Veeck sold the ballclub to Jerry Reinsdorf two years later who immediately began putting his own stamp on the old ballpark. With $14 million in hand, Reinsdorf bought new green plastic seats to replace the wooden ones, installed a new Diamond Vision scoreboard to replace the exploding one and added 27 luxury suites below the upper deck.
By the late 1980s, it was clear to Reinsdorf that the White Sox needed a new ballpark. After some searching, he decided to build the new Comiskey Park across the street from the old one. With construction nearing completion, the White Sox beat the Mariners 2-1 in front of 42,849 on September 30, 1990 to close out the "Baseball Palace of the World".
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