Comiskey Park I

Loose Sod

When Comiskey Park opened on July 1, 1910, the ground was not ready for the men who had to play on it. Four home-team pitchers went down injured in the first five games — loose sod was the culprit, though the problem was quickly resolved. Ed Walsh took the mound for the opener, and the home team lost 2-0 to the St. Louis Browns. He came back the next season, in 1911, and threw a no-hitter in the park. The rough start passed. The building settled into its long life at 35th Street and Shields Avenue in Chicago's Armour Square neighborhood, where it would stand as the home of an American League club.

Owner Charles Comiskey had wanted a modern concrete-and-steel stadium to replace the obsolete South Side Park, and architect Zachary Taylor Davis drew up the plans. The original outfield measured 362 feet down each foul line and 420 feet to center field. The outfield stands rose 70 feet. The park was known for those vast dimensions and the height of the stands — home runs were honestly earned, and only the mightiest hitters reached the roof. The dimensions made it a pitchers' park from the first season, and that character held for as long as the building stood.

The Span

The park stood in Chicago from 1910 to 1990. In 1918 the Chicago Cubs borrowed it for the World Series against the Boston Red Sox because Comiskey had a larger seating capacity than their own park, and the Red Sox eventually took the series four games to two. Bill Veeck installed the first exploding scoreboard in the majors, high above the center field bleachers, for the 1960 season. The infamous Disco Demolition Night took place in 1979. The park was also known as White Sox Park during its years.

The park closed in 1990.

Reporting: SABR, ballparks.com, baseball-almanac.com. Park data: MLB StatsAPI and Retrosheet, via the Fever engine.