South Side Park was the name used for three different baseball
parks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois at different times, and
whose sites were all just a few blocks away from each other.
At
a glance...
SOUTH SIDE PARK
Facility
statistics
Location
South
side of
Chicago
Broke
ground
1883
Opened
I:
June 18, 1883
II: April 30, 1890
III: April 24, 1901
Unions
(UA, 1884)
Pirates (PL, 1890)
White Stockings (NL, 1891-1893)
White Sox (AL ,1901-1910)
Giants (Negro NL, 1920)
American Giants (Negro NL, 1920-31)
American Giants (Negro SL, 1932)
American Giants (Negro NL, 1933-35)
American Giants (Negro AL, 1937-40)
Seating
capacity
15,000
Dimensions
(Lost
to history)
The first South Side Park was somewhere in the neighborhood of
39th Street and South Wabash Avenue, and was the home of a short-lived
entry (Chicago Unions) in the Union Association of 1884. It was also known
as Union Ball Park, Union Association Park, Union Grounds, 39th Street
Grounds, and the Chicago Cricket Club Grounds.
The second South Side Park was at 35th Street and South
Wentworth Avenue, just east of the eventual Comiskey Park. It was first
the home of the Chicago entry of the Players League of 1890 (whose roster
included Charles Comiskey), and then was the home of the National League
team now called the Chicago Cubs (but then called the White Stockings)
during parts of 1891-1893.
Fly
to the site of South Side Park!
If you have Google
Earth installed, click here
to be "flown" to the site of South Side Park. Of course
the stadium is no longer there, but you can see the old
neighborhood. (If you do not have it installed, get
it from Google. It allows you to view virtually anywhere on
Earth in 3D using satellite imagery.)
The third South Side Park, the best known and longest lived venue
by that name, was on the north side of 39th Street (now called Pershing
Road) between South Wentworth Avenue and South Princeton Avenue. It was
the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League, first in 1900 as
a minor league team, and then from 1901 to June 27, 1910 as a major league
team.
The team abandoned the wooden ballpark, which sat 15,000, in the middle
of the 1910 season after their new steel-and-concrete, and much larger Comiskey
Park was finished, just three blocks north of the old park (corner to
corner), where they began an 80 1/2 season run. Meanwhile, South Side Park
became the home of the newly-formed Negro League baseball team called the
Chicago American Giants in 1911. It was renamed Schorling's Park
for team owner Rube Foster's white business partner, John C. Schorling,
who happened to be Comiskey's son-in-law.
South Side Park!
Chicago's South
Side Park.
Postcard
courtesy of LCPC
FIRSTS
at SOUTH SIDE PARK
Game
04/24/1901
Blues (Indians) 2, White Sox 8
Umpires
Tommy Connolly
Managers
Clark Griffith, White Sox
Jimmy McAleer, Blues
Starting Pitchers
Roy Patterson, White Sox
Bill Hoffer, Blues
Ceremonial Pitch
Robert E. Burke, Aide to Chicago's
Mayor
Attendance
9,000
Batting
Batter
Ollie Pickering (fly out)
Hit
Jack McCarthy (single)
Run
Fielder Jones
RBI
Fred Hartman
Single
Jack McCarthy
Double
Erve Beck
Triple
Fritz Buelow (04/29/1901)
Home Run
Erve Beck (04/25/1901)
Grand Slam
Herm McFarland (05/01/1901)
IPHR
Frank Shugart (04/29/1901)
Stolen Base
Fielder Jones (04/25/1901)
Sacrifice Hit
Dummy Hoy
Sacrifice Fly
Ed Hahn (06/20/1909)
Cycle
(None)
Pitching
Win
Roy Patterson
Loss
Bill Hoffer
Shutout
Clark Griffith (05/26/1901)
Save
N/A
Hit by Pitch
Bock Baker hit Dummy Hoy
(04/28/1901)
Wild Pitch
Bill Hoffer
Balk
John Skopec (05/31/1901)
No-Hitter
Nixey Callahan (09/20/1902)
Primary
research by Jim Herdman & David Vincent
Courtesy of Retrosheet.
The American Giants played their games there through the 1940 season.
Then on Christmas Day of 1940, Schorling's Park was destroyed by fire. The
American Giants would play their remaining 10 seasons at Comiskey Park.
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