Comiskey Park

Lore & Background

Comiskey Park was built on a former city dump that Charles Comiskey bought in 1909 to replace the wooden South Side Park. It was named Comiskey Park from its opening in 1910. The park was renamed White Sox Park in 1962, then changed back to Comiskey Park in 1976. On April 22, 1923, the park was subject to a bombing, suspected to be labor unions in response to it being painted by Landis Award, open shop, painters. The park was very modern for its time, the third concrete-and-steel stadium in the major leagues to be built since 1909. As originally built, it seated almost 32,000, a record at the time. Light towers were added in 1939. The park's design was strongly influenced by Sox pitcher Ed Walsh and was known for its pitcher-friendly proportions. The first game was a 2–0 loss to the St. Louis Browns on July 1, 1910. The first no-hitter was in 1911, hurled by Ed Walsh on August 27. The ballpark was significantly expanded during the 1926–1927 off-season, with single-deck pavilions and outfield bleachers replaced by a double-decked stand.

In Their Own Story

It's a Saturday in July, 1974. The air over 35th Street is thick with the smell of charcoal and the distant clatter of the stockyard trucks still idling down the avenue. You push through the turnstiles with a half-eaten hot dog in one hand and a program in the other, the concrete bleacher step cold under your sneakers. The crowd is a wall of white caps and red socks, a low roar that you feel in your chest before you hear it. The pitcher winds up and the ball snaps through the air, and for a half-second the whole South Side holds its breath. A kid three rows up is screaming. You are not watching a game. You are standing in the middle of your family's history, in the concrete, in the cinder, in the noise that has been rolling off these stands since before your grandfather was born. And it is enough. It has always been enough.

Reader's Guide

Comiskey Park was the site of four World Series: 1917 (White Sox won), 1918 (Cubs borrowed the park, Red Sox won), 1919 (Black Sox series, Reds won), and 1959 (Dodgers won). It also hosted the 1983 ALCS (Orioles won). The park hosted three MLB All-Star Games: 1933 (Americans won), 1950 (Nationals won), and 1983 (Americans won). It was also the most frequent home to the Negro leagues East-West All-Star Game from 1933 to 1960. The Chicago Cardinals won the 1947 NFL Championship Game at Comiskey Park. The Chicago American Giants of the Negro American League called Comiskey Park home from 1941 to 1950. The park was also home to the Chicago Mustangs and Chicago Sting of the NASL, and hosted the final edition of the original Soccer Bowl.

Did You Know?

• No player hit 100 home runs at Comiskey Park; Carlton Fisk set the record with 94.
• The largest crowd was 55,555 on May 20, 1973 for a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins.
• The smallest attendance was 511 spectators on May 6, 1971 against the Boston Red Sox.
• From 1971 until its demolition in 1991, Comiskey was the oldest park still in use in Major League Baseball.