When Sox ruled city--and airwaves

[rangercal]

.... the South Siders drew bigger crowds and WGN-TV put both local teams on simultaneously

 

 

 

By Bob Vanderberg

Tribune staff reporter

 

June 17, 2005

 

 

This past week marked the first time this season that the White Sox and Cubs were playing home games on the same dates.

 

Such scheduling quirks have become quite commonplace in recent years, but when it first happened--July 12, 1962--it was news.

 

The Cincinnati Reds were in town for a Thursday-Saturday series at Wrigley Field, and the Detroit Tigers were on the South Side for a Thursday-Sunday set at old Comiskey Park.

 

WGN-TV--which at that time did not televise home night games, meaning all Cubs home games were on Ch. 9, along with mostly just Saturday and Sunday Sox home games--announced plans for a special telecast that Saturday.

 

The station would do both games, with Jack Brickhouse handling the call on the North Side and Vince Lloyd doing the same on the South Side.

 

For the most part, it worked. Arne Harris' cameras caught the key blow at Comiskey, Floyd Robinson's two-run, first-inning homer off Detroit's Jim Bunning, and Harris switched to the other side of town just in time to capture Cubs catcher Dick Bertell's homer in the fifth. Later he showed Ron Santo's game-winning, three-run blast off Jim O'Toole in the eighth.

 

There were victories on both sides of town, the Sox winning 4-1 and the Cubs 6-3. Back then, however, no one made much of the teams' attendance figures, neither that day nor the previous two.

 

For the record, here's how they compared:

 

July 12: The Cubs drew 12,886 (9,748 paid) on Ladies Day as the Reds won 8-4; that night, the Sox drew 25,051 as Juan Pizarro threw a two-hitter to beat the Tigers 3-2.

 

July 13: Only 4,983 showed up at Wrigley Field on a threatening afternoon to see Cal Koonce shut out Cincinnati 1-0 on one hit, Don Blasingame's fourth-inning single. At night, the Sox, between rain delays, got a three-hitter from Ray Herbert and won 4-1 before 21,191.

 

July 14: A gathering of 4,629 turned out at Wrigley Field for the 34-57 Cubs' victory, while 10,367 watched the 46-45 Sox.

 

Total paid attendance for each club for the three dates: Cubs 19,410; Sox 56,609.

 

The only other known time the two teams had home games on the same day during the 1960s was on May 9, 1963, a Thursday.

 

The second-place Cubs (16-11) played their scheduled game that afternoon with the Pirates; the first-place Sox (15-10) met the Yankees that night in a hastily arranged makeup of an April 29 rainout.

 

At Wrigley Field, Dick Ellsworth beat Pittsburgh 3-1, allowing only two hits before 5,961. A few hours later, with temperatures dropping to the low 50s, Herbert pitched a two-hitter and blanked the world champs 2-0. Paid attendance: 32,405.

 

A reminder that the White Sox were not always the second team in town.

 

 

http://chicagosports.chicagotribune.com/sp...-baseball-print

 

Copyright © 2005, The Chicago Tribune

 

 

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Edited June 17, 2005 by rangercal

[Guest JimH]

The upper deck at Wrigley was often closed during the early part of the 60's and for several years in the mid 70's. My how times have changed.

[rangercal]

The upper deck at Wrigley was often closed during the early part of the 60's and for several years in the mid 70's.  My how times have changed.

wasn't the wrigley area like the slums of chicago?

[Guest JimH]

wasn't the wrigley area like the slums of chicago?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Well ... not really. It was a typical bungalow/residential neighborhood with a lot of retail businesses on Clark Street from roughly Diversey up to Irving Park Rd. I had a buddy from grade school who liked the Cubs and he would take a bus from well east on Touhy Ave. and I would take a Halsted St. bus north from Bridgeport and we'd meet at the game. This was 1973, and that neighborhood wasn't much different than Bridgeport as I recall, with the exception being more retail businesses due to all the major intersections ... Clark, Addison, etc.

 

There were always a few bars and restaurants in the immediate vicinity because they would draw year around ... the Bears games were at Wrigley through 1970 and the Cubby Bear has been there in some incarnation or another since the 40's at least.

 

One of my uncles was a truck driver who had routes on the north side and if he finished early, he would catch a few innings at Wrigley during games in the late 50's and 60's. From the stories he's told it was a rather ordinary neighborhood, certainly not a slum but nowhere near the tourist bar/restaurant mecca it's become. In the early 60's Lincoln Park was not the best of neighborhoods and started it's huge real estate boom in the late 1970's ... and then things spread further north.

[Guest JimH]

Oh and by the way, the bar business around old Comiskey was very brisk in the 50's and early 60's. There were more local taverns then but especially the more well taverns/restaurants were packed before and after games. Places like Schaller's Pump, the Stock Yard Inn, McCuddy's, Governers Table and several more represented the before/after game scene. Almost all guys though ... not the whole party atmosphere thing.

 

When the mid late 60's came along, especially 1967/1968 there were unfortunately more social tensions and one of the columnists in town was always talking about how dangerous it was to go to games at Comiskey, which was total BS. I must've walked to 100's of games ... literally ... from 29th and Poplar by myself or with my cousin, and we never got hassled once. I will have to look up the name of that columnist, he had an agenda of some sort.

 

Anyways, 1967 was the year the Sox were in the pennant race until the last weekend and still couldn't draw 1 million. Most if not all due to the media spin re: the neighborhood and a somewhat apathetic Sox fan base who was tired of seeing the team always come up short, mostly to the Yankees. I remember going to games in 1968, 1969, 1970 when the ballpark was a ghost town. The Sox would always give away tickets at McGuane Park in Bridgeport and even then lots of people wouldn't even go for free.

[rangercal]

Oh and by the way, the bar business around old Comiskey was very brisk in the 50's and early 60's.  There were more local taverns then but especially the more well taverns/restaurants were packed before and after games.  Places like Schaller's Pump, the Stock Yard Inn, McCuddy's, Governers Table and several more represented the before/after game scene.  Almost all guys though ... not the whole party atmosphere thing.

 

When the mid late 60's came along, especially 1967/1968 there were unfortunately more social tensions and one of the columnists in town was always talking about how dangerous it was to go to games at Comiskey, which was total BS.  I must've walked to 100's of games ... literally ... from 29th and Poplar by myself or with my cousin, and we never got hassled once.  I will have to look up the name of that columnist, he had an agenda of some sort.

 

Anyways, 1967 was the year the Sox were in the pennant race until the last weekend and still couldn't draw 1 million.  Most if not all due to the media spin re: the neighborhood and a somewhat apathetic Sox fan base who was tired of seeing the team always come up short, mostly to the Yankees.  I remember going to games in 1968, 1969, 1970 when the ballpark was a ghost town.  The Sox would always give away tickets at McGuane Park in Bridgeport and even then lots of people wouldn't even go for free.

I see a bright future for the sox. The area around the park is changing. You can tell when liquor stores are being closed, condo's and starbucks are being built. I think this will get us in the 30-35,000 attendance mark consistantly 10 years from now.

[TLAK]

Jim, what was that rib place on Halstead? It was great, moved to Beverly and I don't know where it is now. I want to say the Homestead?

[Guest JimH]

Jim, what was that rib place on Halstead?  It was great, moved to Beverly and I don't know where it is now. I want to say the Homestead?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The Hickory Pit?

 

To my knowledge that was the only rib place on Halsted. It was originally on the NW corner of 28th and Union, which is now the St. Joseph's Club. In 1972 it moved to a building on the east side of Halsted, in the 2800 block. That building was torn down and senior apartments are now being built on the site. The family didn't want to run it any more and they closed it down about 3 years ago.

 

I don't recall a BBQ restaurant that moved anywhere else ... ?

[Yossarian]

Great posts as usual by Jim H. The area around Wrigley Field was blue collar predominately German and Scandavian, with a good bit of Irish also. By the late 60s and early 70s the neighborhood was getting a little rough around the edges. In 1976 a little book called Stuck on the Cubs by die hard fan Rich Schwab was for sale in local bookstores and supermarkets. He alluded to the rough tone of the neighborhood at that time.

 

This post interrupted by Mark Buerhle finishing off the Dodgers. Way to go Mark! Dye! Big Frank!

 

Back to the topic. Gentrification around Wrigley Field started in earnest in the late 70's. By 1984 you could see some rooftop fans on Sheffield Avenue.

 

I was an 11 year old kid when WGN covered the Sox and Cubs at home simultaneously due to a scheduling anomaly for that time. Yes, it was definitely a Sox town in that era.

[TLAK]

The Hickory Pit?

 

To my knowledge that was the only rib place on Halsted.  It was originally on the NW corner of 28th and Union, which is now the St. Joseph's Club.  In 1972 it moved to a building on the east side of Halsted, in the 2800 block.  That building was torn down and senior apartments are now being built on the site.  The family didn't want to run it any more and they closed it down about 3 years ago.

 

I don't recall a BBQ restaurant that moved anywhere else ... ?

Great job , you got it. Now I don't have to rack my brains overnight thinking about it, just he one in Beverly I can't remember. Damn, I remember the ribs, saucy and a tad overdone -like the Copper Mug in Cicero- but I can't place the name. b**** getting old.

 

Thanks!