Re: COMISKEY PARK
Posted by:
Diogenes9561
()
Date: May 16, 2015 04:51PM
I grew up on the North Side, Wrigley Field was in walking distance so I went to far more Cubs games than Sox games. In the '50s and '60s, the Sox were were really considered to be the "classier" team in town, and playing the great Yankee teams of the '50s and '60s probably helped that image. Plus, winning the pennant in 1959 and being a contender made good seats hard to come by, so the games I saw then were in the back of the grandstands.
Yet, the old park had a charm that the new park doesn't have. It looked a lot bigger than Wrigley and the Sox teams had decent players and good pitching. (Off topic, every Sox pitcher back then had a killer sinking fastball, IIRC Ray Berres was the pitching coach and seems like forgotten man now. I only wish the Cubs would have stolen him, but such is life.)
I always thought that Comiskey was better designed than Wrigley, having convenient restrooms that were entertaining in their own right: there were 2 urinal troughs in each mens' room, one installed lower than the other and over which there was a sign that said, "For Future Sox Players Only."
Bill Veeck seems to be almost forgotten man also, making the Sox contenders in the '50s and then rescuing them from relocation in the '70s; he was enormously entertaining and may he rest in peace.
Old Comiskey may be gone but not forgotten.