Comiskey Park
Chicago, IL
Comiskey Park was the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League. In the late summer of 1990, I flew to Chicago to see a White Sox game at Old Comiskey Park. It was scheduled for the wrecking ball after that season and I wanted to see it before it was gone. This trip marked the first time that I actual did something so silly as to fly to another city for the sole purpose of seeing a baseball game. It was a great and momentus day in my life.
Review by Mike
Comiskey Park sat on the south side of Chicago and I rode the El to get there, which is the only proper way, of course. Walking across from the station, the white brick ballpark looked very small next to the mountainous new stadium going up right next door. It was an understated structure, painted white with "Comiskey Park" in simple green lettering over the entrance.
Inside the tunnels under the stands was like spelunking in a crowded cave and when you stepped into the seating area, the feeling of claustrophobia didn't lessen by much. This was a small, close ballpark. The lower deck was right up next to the foul lines and the upper deck was right down low over the lower deck. The seats and aisles were narrow as well. It made for a very intimate baseball experience.
I saw the longest nine inning game in baseball history at the time, a record which has since been broken. The Texas Rangers battled the Chisox for nearly four hours, with Texas finally winning, 9-8. It was a torturous game where every batter seemed to run the count to 3 and 2. And with all of that, the White Sox did not hit a home run, so I never got to see the exploding scoreboard do its thing.
This was a great old park, but it was clear that its time had come. It wasn't very comfortable and there were a lot of bad seats. Other parks had pillars, but these pillars seemed to block whole chunks of the field. It was, however, old and classic and beautiful in its own way, one of the last of the “band box” ballparks that used to be the norm in Major League Baseball. I’m very glad that I got to see it. I only wish I had taken better pictures.
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1990
7
In the parking lot of Guaranteed Rate Field, the new home of the White Sox, you will find the position of home plate and the infield marked out, should you wish to stand in the spot where so many legends once stood, close your eyes, and imagine...