OT: catching the last comiskey
I thought I was through enjoying MLB and I was wrong. Since about 2000 I have totally written off the modern game. However, as an aged non-practicing white sox fan and southsider, this documentary series is fabulous and even fans of other baseball teams and other defunct stadiums are likely to admit it is pretty cool.
De-evolution is real. Enjoy mutants.
Link? Help a brother out.
It’s on YouTube. Here’s a review that agrees it’s excellent:
March 11th, 2023 at 11:55 AM ^
Trailer looks good! I became a Sox fan some years after moving from Detroit to Chicago. Loved listening to Hawk Harrelson call the games.
Quiz: Who is the only person to play for the White Sox, Bulls, and Blackhawks?
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Nancy Faust! You’ll see she’s mentioned in the Trailer.
I thoroughly enjoyed the first inning and half ever played at the New Comiskey
IYKYK
Switching over from the Detroit feed to WGN and being able to listen to Hawk Harrelson's call made it even more enjoyable.
Personally, I cannot stand Hawk Harrelson. I had to mute every minute of him if I was watching.
But he clearly had his audience to last so long in the booth.
Hate Hawk. Hearing him call the White Sox getting blasted by Detroit in the stadium opener was priceless.
March 11th, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
It's funny - I thought too that it was the first inning and a half - but it wasn't. Mandela Effect, perhaps.
But it was 0-0 after 1.5 innings. It was 16-0 after 3.5 innings.
https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CHA/CHA199104180.shtml
But, do they call you "The Gangster of Love"?
March 11th, 2023 at 10:33 AM ^
They call him Maurice
bet you weren't ready for that but you can just call me steve as I speak of the pompatus of love
bit of a joker I am
Glad I got to see a game at Comiskey.
Will check it out. I went to a game there, must have been 89 or 90 because the place was literally falling apart.
I could be off a bit but I went to about 15 games from the early seventies thru 90 and it always looked rough and smelled about the same. The first few tilts were with my cousins, my dad and his brother, sitting backwards in the station wagon with paneling on the sides on the trip. Ya just don't want to forget this stuff.
The blue-collar ambiance was key to the charisma and contrast with Wrigley. Cheaper beer (old style most the time) simply meant it was a better bang for your buck for the adults. And Nancy was there, and Harry for many of the great years. Underaged young adults were even known to slug a beer once in a while without prosecution.
...to your point it was probably a park with a different character and look for many, many years. I tried to get a year of the photo but no luck. Best I can do is way back when.
I LOVE old Ball Parks.Watched Game 7 of 1952 WS from Ebbetts Field and Game 4 of 1961 WS at Crosley Field just last night.
March 11th, 2023 at 11:41 AM ^
Speaking of old ballparks, I went to a Seattle game at the KingDome. A lousy stadium.
Almost as bad as Tropicana Field, which felt like watching a game in a warehouse. To be fair, I understand they've improved it a bit.
But I am disappointed the Rays are keeping their new planned stadium in St. Pete, rather than in Tampa, where more of their fans live.
March 11th, 2023 at 11:03 AM ^
I still call it Comiskey. I also say Sears Tower, Marshall Field's, and Lake Shore Drive. By the way, I saw your White Sox beat my Cubs yesterday in Mesa.
You picked a good time to come out to AZ, the weather is great.
March 11th, 2023 at 11:16 AM ^
Was at a game in old Comiskey the last year (1990). Felt like old Tigers stadium, which closed 9 years later. Beams blocking view. Old seats. But - a Great experience - amazing that the team went almost a century (from 1919 to 2005) with only ONE WS appearance (1959, lost to Dodgers), and just two division titles (1983, 1993).
Very rough part of town - unlike pricey Wrigley area.
March 11th, 2023 at 11:18 AM ^
I went to one game at New Comiskey and it was the year it opened. My only memories were that we were in the upper deck along the right field line, and the players looked like ants.
Also, there was a super drunk guy in the row in front of us making pirate noises the entire game. Around the 7th inning, he went to go use the bathroom and stumbled down the steps. As he started to roll down, he took a little kid out that was going up the steps and they tumbled dangerously close to the retaining wall. The kid was scream crying, and the guy proceeded to stand up, pick the kid up over his head and let out a giant “ARRRRRRRR!!!”. The guy was escorted away by security. The end.
March 11th, 2023 at 11:49 AM ^
I'm sad that I didn't ever get to the old Comiskey. I did see New Comiskey and have the same memory as you; upper deck, players looked like ants. Even The Big Hurt.
I also never got to see The Ballpark in Arlington. Didn't think they'd trash it after 20 years.
Fortunately, I did get to see Tiger Stadium, which never got its due as a rival of Fenway and better than Wrigley.
SkyDome (Rogers Centre, whatever) and New Comiskey (U.S. Cellular, Guaranteed Rate, whatever) are gar-bage. Everything else of the modern era, starting obviously with Camden Yards, has been a gem. Even the ones that have gone away from the "old" feel are nice. But ask me again in 30 years, I guess.
March 11th, 2023 at 12:00 PM ^
We were in the upper deck when Bo Jackson hit a towering home run. We watched it go up above our eye line and come crashing down in the left field bleachers.
New Comiskey was the last of the old school designed ball parks - almost like a bowl. IIRC - Baltimore opened their park next and ushered in the new baseball park designs.
March 11th, 2023 at 12:17 PM ^
Everything else of the modern era, starting obviously with Camden Yards, has been a gem
The newer stadiums are better than the circular, multi-use stadiums of the 1970s. But in almost all of them, the upper deck is miles away from the action. The current generation of stadium architects has a phobia of obstructed seats, and so puts the upper deck behind the lower deck instead of over it. Personally, I'd rather have one post in my line of vision and be close to the field than have no posts and have the players look like ants.
I don't think Comerica Park is an improvement on Tiger Stadium. Besides the distance issue, many sections are blinded by the evening sun due to the stadium facing south, and the lack of a roof over the stands.
What the 1900-1940s ballparks have along with the 1990s to present is character. Also, I do like the downtown view at CoPa versus Tiger Stadium, as a point in the new park’s favor.
I agree the intimacy of a small park with posts is preferable to the last row of today’s upper deck. But I also have a phobia about obstructed views, and I think most of the seats in new parks are good. In my memory—which may be flawed—the new ChiSox park was uniquely egregious.
Hopefully the next generation of engineers will be able to build stadiums that go straight up without posts.
What the 1900-1940s ballparks have along with the 1990s to present is character.
Not the same. The old parks were totally different, one from the next. The new generation basically all follow the same blueprint. Look at these three:
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Other than the city backdrop, you can hardly tell them apart. They're not as bad as the 1970s stadiums (they have different playing dimensions, at least), but they're still pretty cookie-cutter.
Okay. I'm not saying it's Ebetts Field and the Baker Bowl, but it's still a lot better than The Vet and it's not totally stale. And they're not all like the Jake and PNC, but yes, there are several that are basically Camden Yards without the warehouse.
I went to a day game at Tiger Stadium around 1983 and thought at that time that obstructed view seats along the base lines were a problem. No idea what Comerica Park is like, but the old park oozed history like old comiskey and had a cool look to it. Interesting that you mentioned facing south as an fan issue and design flaw in both newer parks. It's kinda like buying a house on the wrong side of the street...
Always been a Cubs fan but spring break 1984 they were out of town so we begrudgingly caught a Sox game at Comiskey instead. Froze my 13-year old ass off in the right field bleachers with drunk guys all around. Didn't really hit me until about the 7th inning that Jack Morris had a no-hitter going so we stuck around to see some history.
1990 in April was messing around with my radio in Bay City curious how many out-of-town sports markets I could grab on AM.
Happened to grab WMAQ 670 out of Chicago during a White Sox game. I was a big Fisk fan so I let the game play out. Crazy come from behind win, last at bat. I want to say they had 30 or so last at bat wins that year. Almost a third of their total wins.
I remember thinking, "that took some guts and want to do that in crappy weather with a few hundred people in the stands".
The team never disappointed. Great effort, precise preparation, fundamentally diligent at all times, charismatic under-the-radar young talent and team leadership from great veterans who obviously got a bounce in their step from the ride and the youth.
Became a nightly thing down to the final out in October in Boston. Right on MIGHTY Oakland's tail for the entirety.
Moving the antennae around and once I got a sort of clear sound, hoping for a win before something took the sound away. Every night.
Went to see them play Detroit at the old place in July. Come from behind 9th inning win of course. Comiskey was bare basics. But that's what made it great. Smell baseball in the walls.
Win the division or go home in those days. And Oakland was one of the dominant teams of the last 4 decades.
And it was go home.
They ended up winning the division in 93. But by then they were just like every other team. Older players, big payroll.
Fun, unforgettable fan experience for a team I never followed much until odd circumstances brought us together.
Thank you for posting. Great documentary brought back a lot of terrific memories of a unique team and park.
Born in the mid-70s, grew up in the 80s. Awesome time to grow up.