Video of Old Comiskey Park

[tebman]

Prowling YouTube last night I came across three videos at this YouTube site that total about 25 minutes of going to Comiskey Park in September of 1990. They were just posted in the last couple of days -- maybe this guy found a box of old tapes in his basement and realized what he had.

Check it out. They give a great you-are-there feeling of the place.

[soxfan21]

Pretty cool stuff, I faintly remember th only game I went to at old Comiskey, so this was a nice look back on things, thanks.

[Dibbs]

Wow that is awesome. I have been wanting to see concourse footage for a while now. Thanks!

[skobabe8]

This guy really did a nice job! I watched pt. 1 and I am 1/2 way thru part 2 and I gotta hand it to this guy.

-He narrates just enough, but not too much.
-He has cool shots of Andy T. Clown, the players, the pregame, and the fireworks after a HR.
-His wife seems fairly miserable, and he could not care less.
-Nancy provides the soundtrack.
-Shots of the concourse in pt.2 are pretty cool. He says at one point "There's the Mexican food" and he pans over to a concession stand with a sign hanging over it that says simply "Mexican Food." I dont know why I found that funny, I guess I'm just used to concession stands having cute names today.
-Also, notice the exposed, unpainted brick while they walk the concourse. Just a glimpse of what the place looked like under all of that white paint.

[sox1970]

Originally Posted by skobabe8

This guy really did a nice job! I watched pt. 1 and I am 1/2 way thru part 2 and I gotta hand it to this guy.

-He narrates just enough, but not too much.
-He has cool shots of Andy T. Clown, the players, the pregame, and the fireworks after a HR.
-His wife seems fairly miserable, and he could not care less.
-Nancy provides the soundtrack.
-Shots of the concourse in pt.2 are pretty cool. He says at one point "There's the Mexican food" and he pans over to a concession stand with a sign hanging over it that says simply "Mexican Food." I dont know why I found that funny, I guess I'm just used to concession stands having cute names today.
-Also, notice the exposed, unpainted brick while they walk the concourse. Just a glimpse of what the place looked like under all of that white paint.

I laughed at that too. Very cool videos.

Also reminds me of how out of date that place was. It was a great old park, but it was time to go.

[Huisj]

How cool is it to see the footage of Alex Fernandez pitching, and Ventura fielding a chopper and throwing it over to Frank Thomas at first? And then watching Thomas' smooth young stroke put one up through the middle for a base hit?

That must have been this game, on Sept. 13 again Boston I think. Was that Calderon who hits the homer toward the end of the first video?

[sox1970]

Originally Posted by Huisj

How cool is it to see the footage of Alex Fernandez pitching, and Ventura fielding a chopper and throwing it over to Frank Thomas at first? And then watching Thomas' smooth young stroke put one up through the middle for a base hit?

That must have been this game, on Sept. 13 again Boston I think. Was that Calderon who hits the homer toward the end of the first video?

Yes, it was.

[roylestillman]

Is that the same vendor yelling "Hot Dog" that we here today?

[Thome25]

GREAT video.....THANKS for sharing!! It definitely gives you a "you are there feel". One of the things I regret as a White Sox fan is that I never got a chance to go to Old Comiskey Park.

I was a kid in 1990 and my dad was never the type who would have a father and son moment and take me to a ballgame.

I got to go to the new park in 1991 when it first opened with a friend and his family. (they played the Yankees.) The old park was still standing for the most part and I'll never forget looking at the field through a gaping hole in the wall in right field up against a a chain link fence, wishing that I had gotten the chance to watch a ballgame in the grand old place.

A couple of obsevations from this video....The ballpark had a very cozy feel to it. For those of you who actually got to go there, was it really as cozy as it seemed in this video?

The Cell is a beautiful ballpark and I love it....but after watching this video, it just seems like Old Comiskey park is the true home of the White Sox and it doesn't get any better than that for them. It's practically where they spent their entire lives as a franchise and they just belong there. You can feel the ghosts of White Sox past in that place......even in that video.

I felt myself thinking about the 1917 Sox, Shoeless Joe, The 1959 Sox and all the rest of the history of that place and those White Sox teams. You can just feel it. Was it like that when you were actually there? Or was it even better?

Seeing the new ballpark rising up from inside the old park made me think, When the old park was planned, and designed, built, and opened it didn't get any better than that. The people who were there back then couldn't and wouldn't have envisioned a time when a new park would've been rising up across the street and their grand old ballpark would be closing.

One other thing: The White Sox absolutely need to go back to playing more Nancy at games just like they did in this video.

[skobabe8]

Part 3 is REALLY cool.

At about the 2:15 mark they go up to the catwalk next to the scoreboard.
3:37 - A nice shot of the city skyline and Armour Park.
4:00 - They find themselves in the last row in the LF corner, where there appears to be 2 rows where the seats have been removed and bare concrete remains.
4:08 - She takes the camera and points it at him, and to me he resembles a young Tom Hanks for some reason. Especially when he claps. ?
5:09 - She shoots a broken seat resting up against a wall.
5:26 - They record a guy watching the game thru either a telescope or the scope of an assault rifle.
6:21 - One on one with NANCY!!
7:32 - They play the attendance game! And guess what?? The highest number is incorrect!!!

Finally, a mysterious twist at the end.

[thomas35forever]

FuzzyMemories.TV has a special that aired on the old ETC that was taped during the last game.
http://www.fuzzymemories.tv/screen.p...key%20park&p=1

[tebman]

Originally Posted by Thome25

GREAT video.....THANKS for sharing!! It definitely gives you a "you are there feel". One of the things I regret as a White Sox fan is that I never got a chance to go to Old Comiskey Park.

I was a kid in 1990 and my dad was never the type who would have a father and son moment and take me to a ballgame.

I got to go to the new park in 1991 when it first opened with a friend and his family. (they played the Yankees.) The old park was still standing for the most part and I'll never forget looking at the field through a gaping hole in the wall in right field up against a a chain link fence, wishing that I had gotten the chance to watch a ballgame in the grand old place.

A couple of obsevations from this video....The ballpark had a very cozy feel to it. For those of you who actually got to go there, was it really as cozy as it seemed in this video?

The Cell is a beautiful ballpark and I love it....but after watching this video, it just seems like Old Comiskey park is the true home of the White Sox and it doesn't get any better than that for them. It's practically where they spent their entire lives as a franchise and they just belong there. You can feel the ghosts of White Sox past in that place......even in that video.

I felt myself thinking about the 1917 Sox, Shoeless Joe, The 1959 Sox and all the rest of the history of that place and those White Sox teams. You can just feel it. Was it like that when you were actually there? Or was it even better?

Seeing the new ballpark rising up from inside the old park made me think, When the old park was planned, and designed, built, and opened it didn't get any better than that. The people who were there back then couldn't and wouldn't have envisioned a time when a new park would've been rising up across the street and their grand old ballpark would be closing.

One other thing: The White Sox absolutely need to go back to playing more Nancy at games just like they did in this video.

I knew when I found these on YouTube last night that I needed to get them on here so more people would find them. I'm old enough to have spent time in the old ballpark from the '60s through the '80s so it was a real kick to see these.

"Cozy" is a good word, but "comfortable" is what I would call it. The place was old and had the character that a building can only get with age. The best parts of these videos are being under the stands, in the picnic area, in the bleachers, behind the scoreboard, and in the upper deck seats. That's how you catch the feel of it. It was full of corners and crannies that made it feel cozy and comfortable even when it had 40,000 people in it.

I remember the sound of it. The ballpark was concrete and steel and because of the wraparound upper deck it had its own acoustic quality that you get a sense of in these videos. It had a characteristic smell too, mostly of beer, hot dogs, and cigars -- that was also part of what made it comfortable. I always felt like I was at a friend's party when I went to a game.

The whole place was old-school, which made it very easy to see Joe Jackson or Luke Appling or Babe Ruth on the field next to Frank Thomas. There was a tangible connection to the previous 80 years. And yes, Nancy is the goods!

Those were great nights. The ballpark really had reached the end of its life by that point, and I miss it, but it's okay. After 18 years I can see lines of character seeping into USCF too. I hope that years from now somebody keeps a similar record of USCF before the next ballpark comes along.

[Jim Shorts]

Originally Posted by tebman

I knew when I found these on YouTube last night that I needed to get them on here so more people would find them. I'm old enough to have spent time in the old ballpark from the '60s through the '80s so it was a real kick to see these.

"Cozy" is a good word, but "comfortable" is what I would call it. The place was old and had the character that a building can only get with age. The best parts of these videos are being under the stands, in the picnic area, in the bleachers, behind the scoreboard, and in the upper deck seats. That's how you catch the feel of it. It was full of corners and crannies that made it feel cozy and comfortable even when it had 40,000 people in it.

I remember the sound of it. The ballpark was concrete and steel and because of the wraparound upper deck it had its own acoustic quality that you get a sense of in these videos. It had a characteristic smell too, mostly of beer, hot dogs, and cigars -- that was also part of what made it comfortable. I always felt like I was at a friend's party when I went to a game.

The whole place was old-school, which made it very easy to see Joe Jackson or Luke Appling or Babe Ruth on the field next to Frank Thomas. There was a tangible connection to the previous 80 years. And yes, Nancy is the goods!

Those were great nights. The ballpark really had reached the end of its life by that point, and I miss it, but it's okay. After 18 years I can see lines of character seeping into USCF too. I hope that years from now somebody keeps a similar record of USCF before the next ballpark comes along.

That was a well said summary of your experience at Comiskey. I agree with all of it. I really miss that place a lot.

Another thing to note is that times were really different then. When I was a kid, my folks had no problem with me roaming the park on my own and letting me discover what great place it really was. Can't do that today for both reasons of society/safety and it's not allowed.

[C-Dawg]

Great set of videos! Great find!

I will forever kick myself for never taking a camera (any camera, still or video) into the old place. I had the great idea to bring one to my first game in the new park (Game #2 of the 1991 season) but never brought one to the old place. Videos like these help fill the gap.

[DaveIsHere]

Did anyone catch in the first video when he pans to his wife and ask if she is having a good time, she says she is, and tell her "It looks like It."

She then replies "I haven't had a shot and a beer yet"