Ethos

Old Comiskey Park home plate marker

Historic site · Chicago, Illinois

A marble plaque marking the home plate of the original Comiskey Park, across from Rate Field, with the old foul lines painted on the asphalt; the marked plate is 503 feet due north of the current home plate. The original Comiskey Park stood at 324 West 35th Street in the Armour Square neighborhood, was designed by Zachary Taylor Davis with Osborn Engineering, opened on July 1, 1910, closed on September 30, 1990 and was demolished in 1991. No historic-landmark designation for the site or the plaque was established, no ZIP code could be corroborated for the now-vacant address, and no source dated to 2026 confirms that the plaque and painted lines are still physically present.

History

Bill Veeck installed the pinwheels on the park's "exploding" scoreboard during his ownership periods, 1959 to 1961 and 1976 to 1981; the scoreboard and the center field bleachers were among the last structures demolished. On July 12, 1979 a Major League Baseball promotion at Comiskey Park called Disco Demolition Night ended in fans storming the field after a crate of disco records was detonated between games of a doubleheader. Attendance was officially reported at 47,795, though Veeck estimated 50,000 to 55,000 in the park. The second game was forfeited to the Detroit Tigers 9-0 by order of the American League president Lee MacPhail, and that unplayed second game remains the last American League game to be forfeited.

Visit

324 West 35th Street, Chicago, IL

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