Chicago White Sox Tickets

DURING THE FINAL SEASON of play in Old Comiskey Park in 1990, the new stadium towered over the old one like a corporate monolith, diminishing the intimate, the comfortable, and the past. As the 1991 season began in the new ballpark, corporations battled over the remains of Old Comiskey-people had discovered value in the seats, bricks, and detri¬tus. The old ballpark still had not been razed five months into the season, as the White Sox and the wrecking company argued over who owned this material. The White Sox prevailed, the demolition proceeded, and there is now a park¬ing lot where Old Comiskey once stood-as Joni Mitchell sang, "They paved paradise, put up a parking lot."

The main problems with New Comiskey are the elevation and the angle of the upper deck. There are two levels of club seats and luxury boxes above field level. But unlike all the other new stadiums built in the nineties, New Comiskey does not allow for both these decks and a reasonable height to the upper deck. In fact, the first row of the upper deck in New Comiskey is farther from home plate than was the last row of the upper deck in Old Comiskey. And it isn't only the height that is disconcerting; it is the pitch, a steep gradation that makes watching a ball game from here an uncomfortable experience. Another problem is the location of this ballpark, in a run-down spot on the South Side. Although accessible to Chicago's elevated rail line, it does not feel connected to the city, and no effort was made to improve the sur¬rounding neighborhood, as was done in Cleveland and Baltimore.

On the other hand, field-level box seats afford an outstanding view, and there is still an exploding scoreboard. And Sox pitchers seem to enjoy this ballpark for its spacious dimensions, as opposed to most of the other hitters' parks in the American League. In 1991, prior to the opening of the new park, the hype led people to believe that this place would evoke Yankee Stadium. It does not. The only thing that New Comiskey has in common with Yankee Stadium is that the White Sox and Yan¬kees are both in the American League.

RENE LACHEMANN (COACH) "Every-thing is new in there, but it's not like a lot of the new parks. It seemed like it had very steep angles up on top. I guess the people are hav¬ing problems with that."

JAMES BALDWIN "Chicago, Comiskey Park, was the first time I got to the big leagues to see a major-league stadium. That was very impressive, because when you look at the stadiums in the minor leagues, you look at maybe five to six thousand people. And when you get to a big-league ballpark, you see forty, fifty thousand. So that's a big jump."

RON SCHUELER "Contrary to all the things you hear about how steep it is, I think it's a great ballpark. I think it's very fair for pitchers. Hitting, you can get frustrated a little bit in April and September because of the winds. But to me, a very warm, friendly ball-park, and excellent for pitchers."

KEN HARRELSON "Comiskey Park is my favorite place to broadcast from. We have the best booth in baseball. A lot of people don't like it. They say that the upper deck is too steep. But the upper deck is no steeper there than it is in Texas, Cleveland, and any of these other places. If you put a plane on there and you've got the degrees of steepness, it'd be about the same."