C is For Carlton

White Sox Homerun hitters from A.J. to Zeke

C is for Carlton

Carlton "Pudge" Fisk

Today at my other blog, Home School Dad, I wrote about Old Comiskey Park, the home of the Chicago Whites Sox from 1910 to 1990. Carlton Fisk called Old Comiskey home from 1981 until the historic ballpark bit the dust and by the time it did, Pudge had become the White Sox all-time home run leader.

All told, Fisk hit 214 home runs for the White Sox from 1981 to his ignominious dismissal in the middle of  the 1993 campaign.  Note: I spent the year of 1993 abroad and it has been well documented (in my mind) that the White Sox would have never pulled shenanigan level antics like that, had I remained stateside.  Fisk hit more than 55 % of his 376  Major league home runs with the White Sox.  The rest came from the team where he hit this famous postseason home run.  If you haven't seen it before you've never watched Good Will Hunting.






Fisk is now 4th  most on the list of White Sox Home Runs. Fisks best 2 years for the White Sox, Homerun wise, were in 1985 when he hit 37, and in 1983 Fisks 26 homers helped win ugly.  Wearing both colors of SOX, Fisk averaged 24 home runs for every 162 games he  played.  Carlton Fisk was inducted into Baseball's Hall of Fame in 2000.

For more A to Z blogging click here.  

C is for Comiskey Park (Place)

Today, I take a look at a place that is near and dear to my heart.  Especially, this time of year.  Comiskey Park was the home for the Chicago White Sox from 1910 to 1990. m It was replaced by a second stadium also called Comiskey Park in 1991.  Sometime they are referred to as Comiskey Park I and II or Old Comiskey Park and New Comiskey Park.  When New Comiskey was renamed U.S. Cellular Field in 2003, I gradually took to calling the new park by it's new moniker and the old park as Comiskey.

Here is a video baseball played in Comiskey in 1977 when the Sox were enjoying their South Side Hitmen success.  

It was somewhere around 1977 that Comiskey became the oldest baseball stadium still in use.  It held that distinction until 1990.

I started going to White Sox ga mes in the early 70's.  The year before my older sister had won two tickets at School and my Dad took her.  We were (and they still are) a Cubs family.  So I believe this was my Dad's first trip there.  I remember hearing all about the game  when I got home and I decided the next year, I would get perfect attendance and spend a day with my Dad.  We were a family of 4  kids at the time and 5 was not long after that, so 1 on 1 time with my Dad was at a premium.

The next year I had perfect attendance and I went to my first game.  Dick Allen,  hit a homerun and I fell in love with the team.  Ie still liked the Cubs and enjoyed our annual trips to Wrigleyield as a family.  But I cherished my trips to Comiskey.  My Dad took me most every year to a White Sox game,  I remembere being dedlighted to be able to watch former Cub heroes of mine Ron Santo and later Don Kessinger after they were moved to the Sox.

I could talk Comiskey all  day, but I was informed to keep these A to Z posts short.  So, I will just give you a quick guided tour.

Game 1 1959 World Series at Comiskey Park

The exploding scoreboard that shot off fireworks after every Sox Homer

The Exterior of the stadium

I think I sat behind one of these at nearly every game I went to.
We got a lot of give-a-way seats and these were what they gave away

Carlton Fisk switched Sox (from Red to White) in 1980 and was still with Chicago in 1990

Fisk is featured today at my sports blog

In 1990, The White Sox ad copy for the final season of Comiskey was years from now, you'll say that you were there.  Well that was 25 years ago and the advertising was right, I do say I was there.  I was living 4 and a half hours from Chicago at the time. Some friends came to my folks house for the weekend in July.  One of my friends had never seen a skyscraper before,  and we all watched a fantastic White Sod  victory.  What a great way to spend my last game there. 

Final Game at Comiskey

Out with the old.  In with the blue.

They Tore Down Paradise

Left Home Plate in the Parking Lot

Prior to demolition of the stadium,
the seats were removed and sold to television stars



For More A to Z Blogging click here. Back in A To Z 2012 I posted about Car Trips.

B is for Bill

White Sox Homerun hitters from A.J. to Zeke

B is for Bill

"Beltin'" Bill Melton

For many years of my life my dream job has been being the starting third baseman for the Chicago White Sox.  Bill Melton, played that position so marvelously for the White Sox when I was a kid, that I wanted to follow in his footsteps.  

Melton hit 154 home runs for the White Sox from 1968 to 1975.  That is 96.25% of his 160 career home runs.  The 154 dingers  puts him 8th overall on the WhiteSox HR leaderboard. Melton was first on that list until 1987, when surpassed by Harold Baines.      Through his career, Melton has averaged 23 home runs for every 162 games played.   Melton's 2 best home run years were in 1970 and 1971 where he hit 33 each year.  This was about the same time that his performance was making Third Base for the White Sox my dream job.

For more A to Z blogging click here.  

B is for Bibimbap (Thing)

Day 2 of nouns.  Did a person yesterday.  Today a thing is on the docket.   Tomorrow, we will do a place, but after that it will be up for grabs. We might go place, place, thing, person, place, person.  Who knows?  All I know is that there will be nouns and there will be plenty of them.

Today's thing is bimimbap.  Which up until a few minutes ago, I had never typed, or printed, or wrote in cursive.  I had eaten it.  Boy, had I eaten it.  Bibimbap is a Korean dish and looks like this ...

I first fell in love with bibimbap at first sight as it is a multisensory treat.  The texture, the taste and the look all meld together.  I used to frequent this Chinese/Korean restaurant in Evanston, Illinois back in the 1980's.  The owners were Korean so I always ordered the Korean fare rather than the Chinese.  In all the times I went there, I think I only got the Bibimbap, it was so wonderful there was never a reason for me to branch out.  I have to tell you, I'm the guy who loves to get new things on the menu.  I once had fried pork brains while waiting for a train at a Memphis dive.  I ordered them because they were the most unique thing on the menu.  So when Mr. Pork Brains has a go-to dish that is high praise indeed.  I realize that I have major league digressed as well as not yet told you what Bibimbap is.  So, click here to see what Food Republic says about it.

About 10 years after I first ate this Korean wonder food, I found myself serving as a missionary in Russia with several Korean Amercian Missionaries.  Once they found out that I loved bibimbap, they would make it for me every time I was over.  This of course was awesome.  Now in the past 20 years I have not eaten a lot of the aforementioned dish.  But when I think back about it, I celebrate the memory of every morsel.  If I have made you interested in this fantastic dish, check out this recipe from  Bon Appetit.

For more A to Z blogging click here.  Be sure to check out my Boring A to Z  post from 4-2-12 

A is for AJ

White Sox Homerun hitters from A.J. to Zeke

A is for A.J.

AJ "The Ajitator" Pierzynski being punched by Cubs backstop Micheal Barret in 2006

A.J Pierzysnki is an easy guy to hate.  Unless of course he plays for your team as he did from 2005 to 2012 for the White Sox.  All his attributes that I hated when he played for the Twins (his ability to get the best out of his pitchers and his ability to make the most of every opportunity ,offensively and defensively,  to give his team a chance to win) I fell in love with when he played for the White Sox .  These attributes are most remembered to the outside world when he got safely to fist base in a 2005 ALCS against the Angels by  running on a third strike that had not been called the third out of the inning.  The pinch runner for Pierzynski later scored the winning run of the game.

A.J. hit 118 of his so far 177 MLB home runs with the White Sox.  This puts him 16th on the ChiSox all time home run list.  Through his career so far, Pierzynski has averaged 15 home runs for every 162 games played.   His first and last years with the CHI SOX were his most prolific home run totals, hitting 18 in 2005 and 27 in 2012.  Pierzynski ended last season with the St. Louis Cardinals and is signed with the Atlanta Braves through the end of 2015.  

For more A to Z blogging click here.