Get the Picture

Well, it’s official—I’m now an admitted fossil, dinosaur, old man.  Why?  Because every day I look forward to my “Comiskey Park photos” search on eBay.  You never know what will pop up.

This week, I bought two snapshots, both showing Comiskey in 1947.  The park has to be at its 46,000-plus capacity, with fans crowded on a ramp that ran down from the upper deck in left field to the bleachers—also filled—in center.  It’s Opening Day, or the Yankees are in town.

You want quirks, or personality, in a ballpark?  Study the photo, my friends, study the photo.  It was probably taken from on top of the visitors’ dugout on the first-base side.  Front and center is an Andy Frain usher in full uniform—hat, epaulets on the jacket, double-striped pants.  As a kid, you didn’t dare cross an Andy Frain usher.  As a teenager, you had the chance to become an Andy Frain usher.  The company still exists, but it stopped ushering White Sox games long ago.

The picture also shows Comiskey in all its pitchers’ glory, up to and including the center-field wall 440 feet from the plate.  On the far left side of the wall is a clock that looks to be a good ten feet in diameter—and it’s in play.  Ditto the horns of the PA system at the top center of the wall and the flagpole in front of that, on the warning track.  You played center field at Comiskey Park at your own risk in those days.

The second photo is an exterior shot showing the crowd leaving the ballpark.  Inside or out, those sublime arches of Comiskey show clearly.  What a waste, or so says a dinosaur.