Schorling's Park / South Side Park [III]

[milladrive]

The third South Side Park, the best known and longest lived venue by that name in Chicago, IL, was on the north side of 39th Street (now called Pershing Road) between South Wentworth Avenue and South Princeton Avenue.

The 39th Street Grounds served as the playing field of the Chicago Wanderers cricket team during the 1893 World's Fair. After Charles Comiskey built a wooden grandstand on the site in 1900, it became the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League. It served as home to the White Sox 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, with its capacity of 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 80½ 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, a south side saloon keeper who leased the grounds and happened to be Comiskey's son-in-law.

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. Today, the Chicago Housing Authority's Wentworth Gardens housing project occupies the site.

The South Side Park / Schorling's Park / Wentworth Gardens site is located across Pershing Road from a junkyard site which was named a Superfund site in the late 1990s.

Schorling's Park (Home of Rube Foster's American Giants), ca. 1920's

Schorling's Park, ca. 1920's.jpg

ca. 1930's

south_side_park - Schorling's Park_Chicago ca. 1930's.jpg

[milladrive]

South Side Park [III]

1907:
South_Side_Park_1907.jpg

Ty Cobb at bat, 1908:
TyCobbBatting at South Side III 1908.jpg

ca. 1900's (sorry about the low resolution)
South_side_park_1900s.jpg

(photos courtesy of Wikipedia)

[Chevy114]

Any idea how many people could fit in the "upper deck"?

[Capital City Goofball]

1938 aerial image of Schorling's Park:

Schorling's Park.jpg

[Capital City Goofball]

A pic of the crowd at South Side Park:

s004881.jpg

[SultanOfWhat]

Here are 799 pics of South Side Park:

http://www.loc.gov/search/?q=&fa=Sub...%29&st=gallery

[SultanOfWhat]

Old scoring book:




CIRCA 1905: Image of vendor carrying a basket, walking in front of the crowd in the grandstand during a baseball game at South Side Park in the Armour Square community area of Chicago, Illinois, 1905. From the Chicago Daily News collection.






CIRCA 1905: Image of South Side Park scoreboard during a game between Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers, Chicago, 1905. Two boy score changers are standing on the ledge of the scoreboard. Other teams shown on the scoreboard are St. Louis, New York, Philadelphia, and Boston. From the Chicago Daily News collection.

[alpineinc]

Might be South Side Park. Branch Rickey (St. Louis Browns) circa 1906 from Chicago newspaper.

Awesome shot of Rickey, but it's from Comiskey Park, 1915 (scoreboard match on LOC), in his last year as Browns' manager.

[SultanOfWhat]

Awesome shot of Rickey, but it's from Comiskey Park, 1915 (scoreboard match on LOC), in his last year as Browns' manager.

Thanks, I'll remove that one.

[SultanOfWhat]

1910, South Side Park. Ray Demmitt of the Browns is rounding third.

[alpineinc]

Nice shot here. Future Black Sox conspirator Chick Gandil takes BP (or a pepper game?) at South Side Park in 1910. Note the quite prominent and ultimately ironic "NO BETTING ALLOWED ON THE GROUNDS" along the fence.

tumblr_mtcch3HpdH1s3wjevo2_1280.jpg
1280x1033

http://theshoelessjoe.tumblr.com/page/3

[alpineinc]

1903, college baseball game per source. Typical fencing affixed to poles appears absent.

$(KGrHqN,!qsE-ZVl00)sBPyUyM2SKw~~60_57.JPG

http://www.ebay.com/itm/1903-CHICAGO...item540db4720e

[BSmile]

1904 Boston Americans vs. Chicago White Sox Panoramic
110 Years Ago Today - South Side Park, Chicago - August 14, 1904
"American League Park, Chicago, Boston and Chicago, Aug. 14, 1904, Attandance 30,198"
For its 110 anniversary, here's another total re-edit of a classic panoramic from the LOC (original here: http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2007663978/). The Boston Americans (name changed to "Red Sox" in 1908) won that day, 5-2. There's a colorization of this one on-deck and coming soon. Cheers! [B]~B[/

[Lucas718]

Seems to be too many fielders in that pic.

[RUKen]

Seems to be too many fielders in that pic.

Yes--here is the conversation between me and Dto7 about this same picture in the Vintage Panoramic Pictures thread:

RUKen: That's an interesting defensive shift in the 1904 Boston/Chicago photo in post #2183. The bases are loaded, and the outfielders are very shallow, which was normal in the deadball era, but it appears to me that the left fielder is in the lower center of the picture, and the center fielder is directly behind the shortstop, just a few strides onto the grass. The right fielder, I assume, is directly behind second base, at the edge of the grass. The first baseman is not holding the runner at first; instead, he is at the edge of the grass near the right field line. Around the base paths, the runner at first is talking to a coach, the second baseman is at the edge of the infield grass, the runner at second is just a few steps off the bag, the shortstop and third baseman are essentially in the base path, and the runner at third is standing on the base. This looks like it is the bottom-of-the-ninth, less-than-two-outs, with the score tied, and yet this must be the top of the inning, when Boston scored three runs on three singles, a double, and a sacrifice hit, according to Sporting Life. Chicago was scoreless in the bottom of the inning.

Dto7: The Boston player on first base has a glove on and looks like Candy LaChance.
LaChance.jpg

RUKen: I agree that it looks like LaChance on the right, and it appears that he has a glove on his left hand. But LaChance is wearing dark socks, just like the player standing near second base and like the player standing on third base, who must be base runners. The outfielders are all wearing white socks, like the Chicago player to the left of LaChance. Is it possible that LaChance carried his glove (perhaps tied to his belt) when he batted and ran the bases? ...And regardless of which team is in the field, since we have established that there is no coach near first base, then there are four outfielders and four infielders in the picture. Sporting Life lists the umpire as Sheridan--Jack Sheridan was a regular AL umpire, so this is not a situation in which a player was pressed into umpiring duty. What was going on?

Dto7: There are 10 White Sox players on the field and the Boston player on third looks like he has a glove on his right hand. Maybe some practice with both teams before the game?

RUKen: It could be a pregame warm-up, but Jimmy Collins was not a left-handed third baseman. This is a tough one...

Dto7: To me it looks like Chick Stahl at third.
Collins.jpg

boxscore.jpg

RUKen: I think it's more likely Jimmy Collins (as a base runner), with Freeman at second and LaChance at first following the three consecutive singles in the ninth inning; Ferris is at the plate about to hit a double to put the Americans ahead. The box score supports this hypothesis, but doesn't indicate that the White Sox were allowed to have four outfielders.

Dto7: Looks like you could be right. I just don't understand the 10 White Sox players on the field.