White Sox pinstripes

Lore & Background

In the summer of 1990, Michael Jordan took batting practice at Comiskey Park. The White Sox and Texas Rangers were involved in the longest rain delay in baseball history, at seven hours and 23 minutes, at Comiskey Park on August 12. Bobby Thigpen set a major league record of 57 saves. On July 2, the White Sox unveiled new team colors of black and silver with uniforms based on those worn between 1959 and the early 1970s, featuring a return of pinstripes to the home version; the change officially began on September 25. On July 11, the White Sox played the first Turn Back the Clock game in major league history against the Milwaukee Brewers, wearing their 1917 home uniforms.

In Their Own Story

It was a Thursday in September, the kind of late-autumn Chicago evening where the sky goes the color of a wet penny and the wind finds the gap between your collar and your neck. The stands at Comiskey were not full — they were never full, not really, not the way the North Side's crowd was full — but they were *there*. A row of men in windbreakers with the thin stripes on their sleeves, a woman in a pinstripe dress she'd worn to every home game since her father took her in 1974, a kid no older than eight with a glove three sizes too big. The batter stepped in. The pinstripes caught the last of the sun. For one half-second, the whole South Side held its breath, and the stripes were the only thing that mattered.

Reader's Guide

The 1990 Opening Day lineup included Lance Johnson (CF), Scott Fletcher (2B), Iván Calderón (LF), Greg Walker (DH), Carlton Fisk (C), Carlos Martínez (1B), Robin Ventura (3B), Sammy Sosa (RF), Ozzie Guillén (SS), and Mélido Pérez (P). Notable transactions: Alex Fernandez (first round), Bob Wickman (second round), Ray Durham (fifth round), and Jason Bere (36th round) were drafted on June 4, 1990; Phil Bradley was traded from the Baltimore Orioles for Ron Kittle on July 30, 1990. On July 1, 1990, New York Yankees pitcher Andy Hawkins threw a no-hitter against the White Sox but lost 4–0 due to errors.

Did You Know?

• Bobby Thigpen set a major league record with 57 saves in 1990.
• The White Sox and Texas Rangers endured the longest rain delay in baseball history, at seven hours and 23 minutes, on August 12, 1990.
• The White Sox played the first Turn Back the Clock game in major league history on July 11, 1990, against the Milwaukee Brewers.