Sometimes I still miss Old Comiskey Park

[chisoxtony]

Whenever the opening games approach I always get a litttle nostalgic about the Old ballpark. Don't get me wrong..the Cell is great..but there was something about the original Comiskey Park.

I became a big Sox fan in the summer of 1990 (which was not a championship year..but was more like a 1977 season..a team and a summer that you just loved)......which is probably why I feel the way I do about Comiskey. I only wish I had been a fan more when I was younger so I could have spent more time there.

Listening to stories from my older cousins, uncles etc. I guess Comiskey was the place to be in the late 70's. Harry Carey, the outfield shower, the bleachers and the walkway..along with the exploding scoreboard and I remember the park sitting alongside Armor Square (not a parking lot or the Dan Ryan)..and having a view of part of the Skyline.

One thing that makes me sad is Anthony never got to see it and some younger fans only get to see pictures of it..

Oh well..guess that's progress though. We probably wouldn't have won the World Series if we still played there.

[Timmy D's]

I loved the old park, hated the new one for a while because of how much I liked the old, but, I eventually came to love the new park to. I still like the old over the new due to nostalgia reasons, but I understand its time had come. The Cell is pretty damn awesome though, isnt it!!?!!!!!:rock:

[StockdaleforVeep]

. Don't get me wrong..the Cell is great..



http://home.ncifcrf.gov/ccr/ccbb/CRLR-GLUC.jpg
"and this cute little cuddlebug is pancreatic cancer"

[Hangar18]

my quirkiest old comiskey memory? I was sitting in the UD in LF I think during the 1980 season. Probably only 10,000 at the game that nite. Sox were playing the Mariners and this Fog starts billowing in from over RF. It was something out of a Hitchcock movie, the Fog keeps billowing in and pretty soon the fans are cheering because now you cant see the light standards anymore. From the UD in LF, all we could see was the CF and RF, it was crazy. The game was soon delayed and the umps and managers were conferring by homeplate when it was decided to have one of the players hit a ball fungo style to the outfielders, to see if they could see the ball. Sox player hits the ball in the air.......the Mariners CF looks up, and waits, waits, waits, waits ....
and shrugs that he can't see the ball, when it suddenly veers past his head by 3 feet or so ................

The game was delayed about 40 minutes .............. pretty crazy

[pdimas]

My quirkiest Old Comiskey story...

My uncle had gotten a school bus full of us and we all went down to the ballpark. The game was crowded and we were in the 200 section above homeplate. Next thing you know the crowd surges forward and this guy goes over the railing. I dont remember who they were playing that day all I remember thinking was wow I had never seen so much blood. That was the first time I saw a person die in front of me. Oh I also remember singing Do Wah Ditty on the way to the game. Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy huh.

[chisoxtony]

My quirkiest Old Comiskey story...

My uncle had gotten a school bus full of us and we all went down to the ballpark. The game was crowded and we were in the 200 section above homeplate. Next thing you know the crowd surges forward and this guy goes over the railing. I dont remember who they were playing that day all I remember thinking was wow I had never seen so much blood. That was the first time I saw a person die in front of me. Oh I also remember singing Do Wah Ditty on the way to the game. Kind of makes you feel all warm and fuzzy huh.

I remember going to the new park in 1991 when they were tearing down the old park across the street and feeling sick to my stomach what they were doing to it. It felt as if someone was coming over with a bulldozer and knocking down my own home....

[pdimas]

I was watching Only the Lonely last night and must admit when they had their date in Old Comiskey I did get quite nostalgic. I think I might rewatch that scene again tonight for old times sake.

[chisoxtony]

I was watching Only the Lonely last night and must admit when they had their date in Old Comiskey I did get quite nostalgic. I think I might rewatch that scene again tonight for old times sake.

I was going to UIC back then and in our student newspaper they mentioned how they were filiming a lot of scenes for that movie in Bridgeport.. (the church where they were supposed to get married was in Bridgeport)...

There's actually been a few films filmed in or around Bridgeport. The bar in Hardball where Keanu Reeves hung out was filmed on 33rd and Lithaunica...the fire Station for Backdraft (which was also filmed in the fall of 1990)...was the old fire station that used to be on Archer...(Ron Howard, Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn actually attended the last game of Old Comiskey)...

[Hangar18]

wait .... someone was killed at old Comiskey? I never heard that happening?

[pdimas]

Yeah man the guy fell over the railing to the lower concourse. It was pretty damned gory. There was just this huge dark puddle of blood after they had taken the body away.

[pdimas]

Before or after you sent me a text at one in the morning?

Way before I was chillin on the couch with my pup watchin it around 8pm. Then went to the bar at 1030 then on my way to the second bar with Jr. in tow I sent you the txt.

[Bonzosa]

I remember feeling the stadium shake when the fans got into it.
I hated the cell when it opened up. So devoid of personality and the seats are so much further from the field in the upper deck. At least those awful blue seats are gone...except for two...

[JohnBasedowYoda]

I wish I had a more vivid memory of Comiskey.

[Hangar18]

I remember feeling the stadium shake when the fans got into it.
I hated the cell when it opened up. So devoid of personality and the seats are so much further from the field in the upper deck. At least those awful blue seats are gone...except for two...

Remember when New Comiskey opened?
"upper deck seats are Higher and Farther away from homeplate than previous Comiskey!!"

years later, when new Petco opened, they proclaimed
"Upper deck seats are LOWER and CLOSER to homeplate than Qualcomm!"

[maurice]

I was just thinking about this today. Too many memories to list, but here are a few:
- The smell of decades of beer, peanuts & cigar / pipe smoke permeating the park
- Chanting "Jor-ge" at George Bell; he turns & smiles; later, he hits a rooftop shot & gives a big thumbs up to everybody in LF
- Andy Hawkins tosses a no-hitter & loses
- Harold Baines launching game-winning HRs

[maurice]

"Upper deck seats are LOWER and CLOSER to homeplate than Qualcomm!"

Qualcomm must have some crazy football dimensions, because the UD at Petco is at least as high and steep as the Cell. I needed a chirpa to get to my UD seats at Petco and could barely see anything, despite being directly behind home plate.

[resistanceisfutile]

I'm looking at a container of dried up grass and dirt that I grabbed in left field September 16, 1983. Sat in the left field stands and when the Sox beat Seattle 7-zip and clinched a tie for the AL West division a few hundred fans jumped onto the field and celebrated.

[Hangar18]

I'm looking at a container of dried up grass and dirt that I grabbed in left field September 16, 1983. Sat in the left field stands and when the Sox beat Seattle 7-zip and clinched a tie for the AL West division a few hundred fans jumped onto the field and celebrated.

Man, I remember doing the same exact thing. I was a pretty young dude back on that rainy nite ........... (it was 9/17 by the way)

[resistanceisfutile]

Man, I remember doing the same exact thing. I was a pretty young dude back on that rainy nite ........... (it was 9/17 by the way)

Way to go, my man.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=198309160CHA

[Hangar18]

Way to go, my man.

http://www.baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=198309160CHA



Actually, I'm still right. It was 9/17/83 when they clinched :O)

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/cws/history/significant_dates.jsp

[resistanceisfutile]

:kukoo: Actually, I'm still right. It was 9/17/83 when they clinched :O)

http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/cws/history/significant_dates.jsp


ahhh... I follow you now. I wrote on that container "magic #1" so I somehow equated that with clinching a tie. Maybe I fell on my head from those stands.

[ChiSoxGirl]

I wish I had a more vivid memory of Comiskey.

You and me both! I was only at the old Comiskey once- in 1987- and I was in a skybox with a bunch of family for my grandma's 65th birthday party, so I never even got the "real feel" of that ballpark. :(

[Hangar18]

:kukoo:


ahhh... I follow you now. I wrote on that container "magic #1" so I somehow equated that with clinching a tie. Maybe I fell on my head from those stands.

wow, so you were still on the field when they clinched a tie?

[resistanceisfutile]

wow, so you were still on the field when they clinched a tie?

It was ok. They played around me.

[Myrtle]

It was ok. They played around me.

:hello:

Make this your avatar:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a359/myrtle72/borg.jpg

[chisoxtony]

I was really lucky in that I distinctly started following the White Sox in June of 1990 (a classmate of UIC invited me to a game) which they won. (It was also one of the first times I got kind of drunk...I was 18 and it was a beautiful summer day).

This was also around the time they were neck and neck with Oakland which had won the World Series the year before so the park and the game had a tremendous amount of energy (maybe if I had went at a different time 1988 or 1989 it wouldn't have had the same effect and I might not have become such a big Sox fan).

Although I had been to the park on scattered occasions in the 70's and 80's..I had never cared too much for baseball until that summer. Almost immediately I started following the White Sox. I listened to every game on the radio the rest of the summer and started going to a game every home stand. That whole season was probably the best I enjoyed (almost as much as 2005) as a fan although they missed the playoffs (they still won 94 games).

The next year I was hooked..but it wasn't the same in the new park. I still followed the team strongly until the 1994 strike and didn't really return until the 2000 season.

I still miss that park. It just reminds me of a great summer (a lot of other good things happened that summer too)...and I get sentimental whenever I think about it.

Finally..the Cell is starting to feel more like a baseball home. It's taken a while for me though...

[chisoxtony]

So many of you caught on to baseball at a late age. I feel superior having been obsessed with baseball since I was 8. :rock:

When I went to a game at the Old Comiskey at 6 I was stung by a bee...

[resistanceisfutile]

:hello:

Make this your avatar:

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a359/myrtle72/borg.jpg


Nice. Haven't a clue how to reduce that to 100 x 100 though.

[resistanceisfutile]

Go to photobucket.com, create an account
Upload it there
Resize it, choose avatar sizing

I think my avatar just resized itself to fit the limits...

Hey, look at me now! thanks.

[Myrtle]

Hey, look at me now! thanks.

:nana:

That's a better one.

[TeeDeeGee]

:nana:

That's a better one.

Myrtle: "Star Trek = cool, Transformers = Not cool" ?
:confused:

[Hangar18]

When I went to a game at the Old Comiskey at 6 I was stung by a bee...

I remember "jacket day" being advertised by Harry Caray, and I told my dad I wanted to go badly. I was greatly disappointed, when we walked thru turnstiles at Old Comiskey, they handed me this folded up package, and I'm thinking ... "this doesn't look like the jacket they were on the field".

It was a White Vinyl jacket with the red SOX logo on the front, button down

[resistanceisfutile]

What the hell is this, some kinda cube?

I think at this point I must give my standard disclaimer about turning you all into drones, installing cybernetic implants and assimilating you all into the collective, blah,blah,blah.

[Hangar18]

I think at this point I must give my standard disclaimer about turning you all into drones, installing cybernetic implants and assimilating you all into the collective, blah,blah,blah.

Isn't that a WGN logo underneath?!

[Myrtle]

Myrtle: "Star Trek = cool, Transformers = Not cool" ?
:confused:

Oh yes.

[Palehose13]

Myrtle: "Star Trek = cool, Transformers = Not cool" ?
:confused:

No. Star Trek = cool, transformers = GAY

Get ready for PRidefest. It's only a few months away.

[Bonzosa]

Will you and Ani be making an appearance? :confused: