South Side Park III

The Short Porch

Charles Comiskey built the park in 1900 on ground that had served as a cricket pitch during the 1893 Columbian Exposition. It sat at W. 37th and 39th Streets between S. Princeton and S. Wentworth Avenues on Chicago's South Side, home plate near the northeast corner of Princeton Avenue and Pershing Road, the third base line running along Princeton and the first base side along Pershing. Right field was 270 feet from the plate. Erve Beck hit the first home run there on April 25, 1901, one day after the White Sox beat the Cleveland Blues 8-2 before 9,000 fans in the opener. Herm McFarland followed with the first grand slam on May 1. The park was later stretched to conventional dimensions, but the original short right field gave the new park its early reputation as a place that played friendly to hitters.

Ten Seasons

The White Sox called it home from that 1901 opener through June 27, 1910, when the Cleveland Naps took the final major league game there, 7-2. Seating started at 12,500 and grew to 15,000 by 1910. Attendance swung from 286,183 in 1903 to 687,419 at its 1905 peak, the volatility of early American League baseball on the South Side. Nixey Callahan pitched a no-hitter there on September 20, 1902.

After the Sox

When the White Sox departed mid-season in 1910 for new Comiskey Park three blocks north, the park was renamed Schorling's Park. Starting in 1911, Rube Foster's Chicago American Giants made the venue their home, and it became one of the most important in Negro League baseball history.

The 270-foot porch in right field belonged to the first ten years.

Reporting: Retrosheet, StatsCrew, Baseball-Reference, Deadball Baseball. Park data: MLB StatsAPI and Retrosheet, via the Fever engine.