Photography by Brian Merzbach

Comiskey Park in Chicago

Written by Julie Greiner

The Chicago White Sox, American Baseball League, is the home team at Comiskey Park in Chicago. Comiskey Park opened its doors to its new stadium in 1991, with a capacity of 45,936 and was designed by architect HOK of Kansas City. The cost was some $167 million dollars. This was the first new baseball-only stadium built in the American League since 1973. This park replaced the original Comiskey built prior to 1920.

History of The Last Comiskey Park

After nine years in the South Side Grounds, Charles Comiskey started construction

Photography by Brian Merzbach

on his "Baseball Palace of the World" at the corner of 35th Street and Shields Avenue. White Sox Park opened on July 1, 1910, and soon became known as Comiskey Park. Architect Zachary Taylor Davis designed the spacious park which featured a double-decked outfield grandstand. On August 14, 1939, the first night game in Chicago was played at Comiskey Park, with the Sox defeating the St. Louis Browns, 5-2. The White Sox played their final game at old Comiskey Park in 1990. Chicago The Cubs played their 1918 World Series home games here to take advantage of its large capacity.

The Star-Spangled Banner

The tradition of playing the Star-Spangled Banner at baseball games started at Comiskey Park in 1918. League officials had considered cancelling the World Series

Photography by Brian Merzbach

due to World War I, until they learned that American soldiers in France were looking forward to knowing the results of the Series. During the seventh-inning stretch of the first game, the band suddenly started playing the song as a patriotic gesture. Players and spectators stood, took off their hats, and sang.

The new Comiskey Park stadium replaces one of the country's oldest with one of the most high-tech. The new stadium has 12 escalators, 11 elevators, three garbage compactors, fireworks facility and six outdoor kennels for pet check-ins. The stadium which incompases 1,300,000 square feet, set a record attendance of 2,934,154 in its first year. The center field hitters' background and the concourse area are being redesigned to allow fans to see the action through a semi-transparent screen. The Club Level concourse is being completely enclosed, and decorative treatments are being added on the main concourse. There is plentiful parking around the park, the concourse offers a great selection of food items and a large scoreboard sits in dead centerfield and shoots off fireworks after every White Sox home run. Take me out to the ballpark... has taken on new meaning at Comiskey Park.