This Day In Sox History...June 30

[Lip Man 1]

June 30, 1978 – Former Sox outfielder Larry Doby was named manager replacing Bob Lemon. Doby became the second minority manager in Major League history after Frank Robinson. His tenure would be short. He was fired at the end of the season, replaced with Don Kessinger. The Sox record under him was 37-50.

 

June 30, 1988 - After years of saying that the original Comiskey Park was outdated, Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn came very close to moving the team to the Tampa Bay/St. Petersburg, Florida area.

At the stroke of midnight, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill allowing the construction of a new stadium, thus saving the Sox.  Technically it was midnight but Illinois Governor Jim Thompson actually stopped the clock in the meeting room since no bills could be passed after that time period and when the final vote was taken it was past the witching hour. But it was a close call. Minutes before House and Senate members walked into their chambers late that Thursday, leaders from both parties predicted that the $150 million Sox stadium bill would fail, leaving the Sox no choice but to leave the South Side for St. Petersburg, Florida. House Republicans left their caucuses, saying they had only five votes for the package. Their Democratic counterparts said only 50 votes could be mustered. And Senate Democrats said they had only 10 votes in favor of the deal. But a few minutes before midnight, Senate Democrats ratified the measure by gathering 30 votes. The House then passed the measure by a 60-55 vote.

Meanwhile Florida baseball fans were stunned as they realized they had been used as a pawn to get a new facility by the power brokers and politicians of Chicago.

The new stadium built with taxpayer money would open its doors on April 18, 1991.

 

June 30, 2008 - White Sox outfielder Nick Swisher became only the second player in franchise history to homer from both sides of the plate, twice in the same season, when he hit two in a 9-7 win over Cleveland. Swisher did it the first time a few weeks earlier in a game against the Twins. Only Jose Valentin had ever done that before and he did it three times between 2000 and 2003. One of Swisher’s home runs was a grand slam as he drove in five runs on the night.

 

June 30, 2015 – When Chris Sale struck out the Cardinals Jhonny Peralta in the sixth inning of a game the Sox would eventually win 2-1 in 11 innings at St. Louis; it marked the eighth consecutive start that he fanned 10 or more hitters. That tied Sale with Pedro Martinez for the longest streak in baseball history. The stretch for Sale started on May 23 against the Twins and he fanned 97 batters.

Even though Sale was overpowering, the White Sox offense was so weak that his record in those eight starts was three wins, three losses and two no-decisions.

 

[WBWSF]

Looking back at it the $150 million White Sox stadium  deal was a good one for everybody. A few years later the Bears  Soldier Field  deal cost  over $660 million. JR has to be relieved that he didn't move the team to St. Pete. It would have been the biggest mistake of his life.

[The Mighty Mite]

1 hour ago, WBWSF said:

Looking back at it the $150 million White Sox stadium  deal was a good one for everybody. A few years later the Bears  Soldier Field  deal cost  over $660 million. JR has to be relieved that he didn't move the team to St. Pete. It would have been the biggest mistake of his life.

Looking back the original ballpark was an ugly concrete monstrosity with a steep upper deck with 29 rows which you entered the UD at row 1. We sat in row 29 at the 1993 division clincher and after climbing the 29 rows we found our seats and we never left them until the game was over, we felt like we needed seat belts. On top of the ugliness some genius decided to fill the park with powder blue seats. 
At least the Sox braintrust saw the errors of their ways and in 2004 started almost a complete makeover of the place starting with lopping off 8 rows of the upper deck and replacing the blue seats with the green seats we have now. Other cosmetic changes were made down through the years and the place even though nothing could be done with the steep upper deck is now a very nice place to watch a game. I check the ratings of the ballparks every year and Sox Park moves up a bit step by step in the rankings where it’s not at the bottom anymore with the likes of the Trop and the Oakland Mausoleum. 

[The Grinder]

In the age of billion dollar stadiums, 150 million seems pretty cheap even back in 1988

[WBWSF]

1 hour ago, The Mighty Mite said:

Looking back the original ballpark was an ugly concrete monstrosity with a steep upper deck with 29 rows which you entered the UD at row 1. We sat in row 29 at the 1993 division clincher and after climbing the 29 rows we found our seats and we never left them until the game was over, we felt like we needed seat belts. On top of the ugliness some genius decided to fill the park with powder blue seats. 
At least the Sox braintrust saw the errors of their ways and in 2004 started almost a complete makeover of the place starting with lopping off 8 rows of the upper deck and replacing the blue seats with the green seats we have now. Other cosmetic changes were made down through the years and the place even though nothing could be done with the steep upper deck is now a very nice place to watch a game. I check the ratings of the ballparks every year and Sox Park moves up a bit step by step in the rankings where it’s not at the bottom anymore with the likes of the Trop and the Oakland Mausoleum. 

Nobody ever mentions that the upper deck was JRs idea. He wanted the 2nd level of suites which was not in the original design. Even tho some of the rows of seats  were taken out the problem remains that the upper deck is too high. Its 2 different parks. The lower level is tremendous. The upper deck is for the birds.

[South Side Hit Men]

Billionaire Jerry was given far more than $150M over the years with all of the free remodeling that has taken place, not to mention rent free and real estate tax free for approaching a half century.

[The Mighty Mite]

32 minutes ago, WBWSF said:

Nobody ever mentions that the upper deck was JRs idea. He wanted the 2nd level of suites which was not in the original design. Even tho some of the rows of seats  were taken out the problem remains that the upper deck is too high. Its 2 different parks. The lower level is tremendous. The upper deck is for the birds.

He also could have eliminated the Club Level seats.