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53-676: The NRDL was established in 1995 by Lou Sanchez, Sr. Sanchez is a former Roller Games skater known for his underhanded, violent tactics while playing for the Texas Outlaws in the 1960s and 1970s. After retiring from skating, he managed various teams in different roller derby revivals. The NRDL began with two teams, the Los Angeles Aztecs and the San Francisco Bay Bombers, skating in exhibition matches in mid-1995. Potential investors were sought to fund

106-533: A crowd of 55,555 (which was 11,063 over capacity) on May 20 for a doubleheader against the Minnesota Twins , which also had the promotion of "Bat Day". By contrast, just over two years earlier, the smallest attendance at the park was recorded, with 511 spectators attending a game against the Boston Red Sox on Thursday, May 6, 1971 . A major and oft-mentioned promotional event held at Old Comiskey

159-833: A disastrous exposition match in Phoenix, Arizona against a team of young female skaters associated with the modern revival of the sport. As of December 2004, the Bob Sedillo-owned Roller Games International (RGI) league still operates a single team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds). A match between the ARSD's San Francisco Bay Bombers and RGI's Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds) took place on July 29, 2006 at Kezar Stadium in San Francisco. The Bay Bombers defeated

212-456: A disco demolition," Dahl said in a Tribune interview. "Unfortunately, some of our followers got a little carried away." That was the last anti-disco rally for WLUP. But it brought Dahl national attention and established him as a radio superstar in Chicago. When Bill Veeck re-acquired the team, he took out the center field fence, reverting to the original distance to the wall (posted as 440 in

265-503: A forfeit the next day, the fourth in American League history, all in the 1970s. Later, some blamed Dahl; some blamed Veeck. Howard Cosell even blamed then-White Sox announcer Harry Caray, saying Caray contributed to a "carnival" atmosphere. In reality, a handful of rowdies had taken advantage of a situation for which stadium security was woefully unprepared. "I never thought that I, a stupid disc jockey, could draw 70,000 people to

318-428: A grounder to second baseman Scott Fletcher , who in return threw it to first baseman Steve Lyons for the force-out. The crowd then joined the organist by singing a final rendition of their unofficial victory song " Na Na Hey Hey Kiss Him Goodbye ". Comiskey Park was demolished in 1991; starting from behind the right field corner, the process took all summer to complete. The last portion to come down

371-418: A mostly televised, increasingly theatrical version of the sport. Roller Games and its flagship team, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds (T-Birds) has endured several boom and bust cycles, including a roller derby attendance record in 1972, a major reorganization in 1975, appearances on ESPN in 1986, a TV series called RollerGames in 1989–1990 (and its corresponding arcade game by Konami and its video game for

424-508: A record at the time. Briefly, it retained the nickname "The Baseball Palace of the World". Light towers were added in 1939. The park's design was strongly influenced by Sox pitcher Ed Walsh , and was known for its pitcher-friendly proportions (362 feet (110 m) to the foul poles ; 420 ft (128 m) to center field). Later changes were made, but the park remained more or less favorable to defensive teams. For many years this reflected on

477-434: A route through various south side neighborhoods and toward downtown Chicago. On May 6, 1964, White Sox outfielder Dave Nicholson hit a home run that either bounced atop the left-field roof or entirely cleared it. The home run was officially measured at 573 feet, and is one of baseball's all-time longest. †= Team's stadium under construction or refurbishment at time 1 = A team used the stadium when their permanent stadium

530-530: A shower behind the speaker horns in the center field bleachers, for fans to cool off on hot summer days. From 1960 to 1990, Sox fans were also entertained by Andy the Clown , famous for his famous Jerry Colonna -like elongated cry, "Come ooooooooooon, go! White! Sox!" Starting in the 1970s, Sox fans were further entertained by organist Nancy Faust who picked up on spontaneous chants of fans who were singing tunes like, " We will, we will, SOX YOU! " and popularized

583-406: Is a marble plaque on the sidewalk next to Guaranteed Rate Field, and the field is a parking lot. Foul lines are painted on the lot. Also, the spectator ramp across 35th Street is designed in such a way (partly curved, partly straight but angling east-northeast) that it echoes the outline of part of the old grandstand. Shortly before the park's demolition, the ballpark was featured in the movie Only

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636-871: The Los Angeles Dodgers . Games one, two and six were played at Comiskey Park. The White Sox won game one and lost games two and six. With their win in Game 6 at Comiskey Park, the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first West Coast team to win a World Series. Comiskey saw its last post-season action in 1983 , when the White Sox lost the American League Championship Series to the Baltimore Orioles 3–1, with Games 3 and 4 in Chicago. Baltimore went on to win

689-715: The Nintendo Entertainment System ; there was also a pinball machine based on the show), and a small number of untelevised exhibition matches in 1987, 1988, 1990, 1993, and the early and mid-2000s. In 1960, after Roller Derby had settled into its new home in the San Francisco Bay Area , former Roller Derby skater Herb Roberts founded the Los Angeles-based National Skating Derby, Inc., and its flagship Los Angeles Thunderbirds team. The first match

742-686: The Philadelphia -based team, the Warriors, whose games were broadcast on Kaiser-owned WKBS with announcer Elmer Anderson. The revitalized league prospered in the late 1970s and early 1980s: its home venue, the Olympic Auditorium, was sold out for matches on Saturday nights; games were aired on TV (as Roller Superstars ); and skaters "Psycho" Ronnie Rains and Ralphie Valladares became minor celebrities in Los Angeles. In 1985,

795-548: The World Series . Comiskey Park was the site of three Major League Baseball All-Star Games , and each marked a turn in the direction of dominance by one league or the other: From 1971 until its demolition in 1991, Comiskey was the oldest park still in use in Major League Baseball (it had already been the oldest in the American League since 1955). Many of its known characteristics, such as the pinwheels on

848-616: The "International Roller Derby League" name was reactivated (although it was still in the Roller Games format), retaining many skaters from Roller Superstars (renamed Championship Roller Derby ) and recruiting new skaters. Along with the Los Angeles T-Birds, the other teams were now known as the Northern Devils, Western Outlaws, Golden State Bombers, Hollywood Hawks and Eastern War-Chiefs. Games were skated at

901-445: The "exploding" scoreboard, were installed by Bill Veeck (owner of the White Sox from 1959 to 1961, and again from 1976 to 1981). Another Veeck innovation was the "picnic area", created by replacing portions of the left field walls (the side of the field not facing the setting sun) with screens and setting up picnic tables under the seating areas. This concept was later extended to right field. During Veeck's second ownership, he installed

954-458: The 1940s, re-measured as 445 in the 1970s) ... a tough target, but reachable by sluggers like Oscar Gamble and Richie Zisk and other members of a team that was tagged "The South Side Hit Men". They were long removed from their days as "The Hitless Wonders". During that time the ballpark also featured a lounge where one could buy mixed drinks. This prompted some writers to dub Comiskey "Chicago's Largest Outdoor Saloon". In 1969 , AstroTurf

1007-631: The Bay Bombers, Midwest Pioneers, and Jolters, among others. Some former Roller Derby stars found new fame in the Roller Games, and a handful of skaters simply went back and forth between the two organizations. After 1968, however, the Roller Derby to Roller Games defections were quite few; instead, a handful of Roller Games skaters returned to their roots and began skating for the Derby again. On September 15, 1972, an interleague match between

1060-497: The Bombers were infringing on their territory; the Bombers continued to skate in spite of this. (This incarnation of the Bombers was also unique in that three notable veterans, Ann Calvello , Joan Weston , and Annis Jensen all skated on the same team. Jensen's daughter, Barbara Baker , also skated for the Bombers.) In 1975, Griffiths shut down Roller Games operations in the face of dwindling popularity, which some attributed to

1113-567: The Illinois state legislature, in that the Speaker ( Michael Madigan ) stopped the clock on the evening of June 30, 1988, so that the legislature could report that the money had been granted on June 30, and not July 1. The stadium now called Tropicana Field was constructed by officials in St. Petersburg in an effort to lure a Major League Baseball club to Florida (which arrived in 1998 in the form of

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1166-796: The International Skating Conference (ISC), which was to focus on the Los Angeles Thunderbirds. Teams in the ISC included the L.A. T-Birds, the Eastern Warriors, and several international teams: Team Canada, the Tokyo Bombers, and the Latin Libertadores. The league also featured the San Francisco Bay Bombers in certain games, in which the storylines were built around the Thunderbirds claiming

1219-462: The L.A. Thunderbirds, NRD/NRL teams over the years included the Chicago Hawks, Detroit Devils, New York Bombers, Texas Outlaws, Philadelphia Warriors, and Brooklyn Red Devils. Many matches were broadcast live on Los Angeles television affiliate KTLA , with Dick Lane calling the play-by-play. He was famous for saying "Whoaaaa, Nelly" (predating Keith Jackson ) when fights broke out between

1272-613: The Las Vegas High-Rollers (mixed gender). Recent games include the following: Roller Games Roller Games was the name of a sports entertainment spectacle created in the early 1960s in Los Angeles, California as a rival to the Jerry Seltzer -owned Roller Derby league, which had enjoyed a monopoly on the sport of roller derby — and its name — since its inception in 1935. Roller Games provided

1325-509: The Lonely . John Candy 's character (on a first date) arranged to have a private picnic on the stadium grass under the lights with his date ( Ally Sheedy ). Candy made a reference of the stadium's impending demolition during the date. When the Sox won the 2005 World Series , their victory parade began at U.S. Cellular Field, and then circled the block where old Comiskey had stood, before heading on

1378-590: The Los Angeles Thunderbirds of Roller Games (National Skating Derby) and the Midwest Pioneers of Roller Derby (International Roller Derby League) set a roller derby attendance record of 50,118 at Comiskey Park in Chicago . In 1973, Jerry Seltzer shut down Roller Derby and sold the promotional rights to Bill Griffiths, who immediately disbanded Roller Derby's IRDL and his own NRL, but recruited some of IRDL's star skaters to skate in an NRL successor league,

1431-587: The Negro American League called Comiskey Park home from 1941 to 1950. The park was also home to the Chicago Mustangs and Chicago Sting of the NASL , and hosted the final edition of the original Soccer Bowl . The park was demolished in 1991 , after a new Comiskey Park stadium (later renamed U.S. Cellular Field, then Guaranteed Rate Field ) opened just to the south. White Sox Park

1484-736: The Showboat Sports Pavilion in Las Vegas , with the exception of Eastern War-Chiefs games which were played at the Hartford Civic Center in Hartford, Connecticut . This version of the IRDL was broadcast on ESPN and hosted by Los Angeles radio personality Paul Greenwood with play-by-play analysis by former roller derby skaters Ted Marolf and Jess Adams. Despite having a number of games skated from 1985–1986,

1537-644: The T-Birds 81-79. The T-Birds' last home was at the Pomona Fairplex. Several games were skated there in 2007 and 2008. Promotions ceased once trademark owner Bill Griffiths sued Sedillo's Pegasus Media Group. Bob Sedillo died in December 2009. Comiskey Park Comiskey Park was a ballpark in Chicago , Illinois, located in the Armour Square neighborhood on the near-southwest side of

1590-588: The White Sox style of play: solid defense, and short, quick hits. The park was unusual in that no player hit 100 home runs there: Carlton Fisk set the record with 94. The first game in Comiskey Park was a 2–0 loss to the St. Louis Browns on July 1, 1910 . The first no-hitter at Comiskey Park was in 1911 , hurled by Ed Walsh on August 27, a 5–0 win over Boston . The Sox won their first home night game, over St. Louis on August 14, 1939 , 5–2. Comiskey Park

1643-581: The city. The stadium served as the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League from 1910 through 1990 . Built by White Sox owner Charles Comiskey and designed by Zachary Taylor Davis , Comiskey Park hosted four World Series and more than 6,000 Major League Baseball games. The field also hosted one of the most famous boxing matches in history: Joe Louis ' defeat of champion James J. Braddock , launching his 11-year run as

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1696-423: The club again fell into decline, with its aging skaters having no place to practice after the closure of the training facility. Griffiths retained the rights to the Roller Games name, however, and organized several matches in 1987 and 1988. In 1989, television producers David Sams and Mike Miller worked with Griffiths to produce RollerGames , a U.S. television show that presented an even more theatrical variant of

1749-640: The expansion Devil Rays ), but Miami beat the Tampa Bay area to the punch when it launched the expansion Florida Marlins in 1993. The deal was sealed in a last-minute legislative maneuver by then-governor James R. Thompson . On September 30, 1990, with 42,849 in paid attendance, the Chicago White Sox played the last game at Comiskey Park, defeating the Seattle Mariners 2–1 . Mayor Richard M. Daley (a lifelong White Sox fan) threw out

1802-455: The fans would sing along when they realized that none of them sang any worse than Harry did; Caray would take this tradition with him to the Cubs at Wrigley Field, which has continued even with Caray's death in 1998. Harry would sometimes broadcast from the center field bleachers, where he could hobnob with fans and get a suntan (or a burn). The largest crowd at Old Comiskey Park was in 1973 with

1855-626: The final season when the Sox contended for much of the year before losing the western division title to the Oakland Athletics . White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf received more than $ 200 million in public financing for the new stadium after threatening to move the club to St. Petersburg, Florida (a similar threat was later used by the San Francisco Giants until they broke ground on what would be their current ballpark in late 1997). An interesting phenomenon occurred in

1908-697: The founding teams plus two more, the L.A. Thunderbirds and the New York Chiefs, in an enterprise to be promoted as Roller Derby 2000, but nothing materialized. As of 2006, one of the NRDL teams, the L.A. Stars, is sometimes billed as the L.A. T'Birds, and the Texas Outlaws are sometimes billed as just the Outlaws. In May 2006, the NRDL announced it was forming two Las Vegas -based teams, the Las Vegas Royal Rollergirls (all female) and

1961-403: The frequency of which was 97.9 MHz (98 FM). More than 50,000 fans were in attendance, along with another 20,000 who crashed the gates even though the game was sold out. The demolition tore a huge hole in center field and several thousand fans, many of them intoxicated, stormed the field, stole equipment, and destroyed the infield. The nightcap was postponed, but league officials ruled it

2014-785: The heavyweight champion of the world. The Chicago Cardinals of the National Football League also called Comiskey Park home when they were not playing at Normal Park , Soldier Field , or Wrigley Field . They won the 1947 NFL Championship Game over the Philadelphia Eagles at Comiskey Park. Much less popular than the Bears , the Cardinals had their last season at Comiskey in 1958 , and they left for St. Louis in March 1960 . The Chicago American Giants of

2067-465: The now-ubiquitous farewell to departing pitchers and ejected managers, "Na-na-na-na, na-na-na-na, hey-hey, GOOD-BYE!" Before he became an institution on the north side with the Cubs, Sox broadcaster Harry Caray was a south side icon. At some point he started "conducting" Take Me Out to the Ball Game during the seventh-inning stretch , egged on by Veeck, who (according to Harry himself) said that

2120-424: The opening pitch, legendary Sox player Minnie Miñoso delivered the lineup card to the umpires, and well-known ball-park organist Nancy Faust played for the crowd during the final game. Also, former White Sox Vice President Charles Comiskey, grandson of the man for whom the park was named, was on hand. The final play occurred when White Sox closer Bobby Thigpen forced Mariners' second baseman Harold Reynolds to hit

2173-507: The organization's increasing emphasis on theatrics and entertainment. However, skaters quickly organized a new version of the club, and a new training center opened. Thunderbirds games were locally broadcast on KBSC Channel 52, the Kaiser Broadcasting station for the Los Angeles market, allowing for distribution to other Kaiser stations like San Francisco's KBHK-TV , Chicago's WFLD and Detroit's WKBD . Jerry Hill headed up

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2226-498: The players. Lane's play-by-play was often assisted in the press box and on the infield by Bill "Hoppy" Haupt. The Olympic Auditorium was the league's primary venue. Eventually, the flagship station for Thunderbirds games was changed to KCOP , with taped repeats appearing in prime time on KBSC . In order to compete with Roller Games' international flair, Seltzer's Roller Derby also formed its own International Roller Derby League (IRDL), which included Roller Derby's most famous teams,

2279-593: The popular American Gladiators . Sams provided color commentary while Chuck Underwood handled the play-by-play, and was famous for saying "That was absolutely DEV-A-STAT-ING!" Shelley Jamison served as the "on-the-track" commentator while the late Wally George did halftime commentary. The show currently airs in reruns on Fox Sports 2 and Fox Sports 1 . Following the cancellation of RollerGames , Griffiths organized three untelevised Roller Games International (RGI) events: All three matches were T-Birds vs. RGI All-Stars. The organization remained dormant for

2332-482: The rest of the 1990s, although the six teams from RollerGames still performed for the public in the Super Roller Dome with the same rules. Griffiths' son, Bill Griffiths Jr., relaunched Roller Games International in 2000. In 2003, former Roller Games skater Lou Sanchez used the T'Birds name in a one-off match, National Roller Derby League . In 2004, Bob Sedillo purchased the T-Birds name for use in

2385-429: The sport for a national audience. It featured a steeply banked figure-eight track, an alligator pit, and a number of skaters who had been in the Roller Games league, as well as younger participants. It was broadcast for one season (1989–1990) before its distributor, Quintex Media, went bankrupt . The bankruptcy was not related to the popularity of RollerGames . Ratings for the series were actually quite high, even beating

2438-527: The world than a ballpark full of people!" On its best days, Comiskey was stuffed to the gills, with 55,000 people or more lining the aisles and even standing for 9 (or 18) innings on the sloping ramps that criss-crossed behind the scoreboard. The nearly-fully enclosed stands had a way of capturing and reverberating the noise without any artificial enhancement. Chicago sportswriter Alan Solomon remarked in 1988 that growing up in Chicago, "Wrigley Field yayed and Comiskey Park roared . 'Old' Comiskey's home plate

2491-517: Was "Disco Demolition Night" in 1979 , organized by longtime Chicago radio personality Steve Dahl and White Sox promotions manager Mike Veeck (Bill's son) on Thursday, July 12. Between games of a make-up doubleheader between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers , Dahl and his crew destroyed a pile of disco records that fans had brought in exchange for a ticket with a discounted price of 98 ¢ in honor of Dahl's station at that time, WLUP-FM ,

2544-436: Was built on a former city dump that Charles Comiskey bought in 1909 to replace the wooden South Side Park . Within three years, it was renamed Comiskey Park. The original name was restored in 1962 , then it changed back to Comiskey Park in 1976 . Comiskey Park was very modern for its time. It was the third concrete-and-steel stadium in the major leagues to be built since 1909. As originally built, it seated almost 32,000,

2597-414: Was installed in the infield and the adjacent foul territory, with the outfield and adjoining foul territory remaining as natural grass. It was the first outdoor field in the major leagues to install artificial turf. After seven seasons, the artificial turf was removed prior to the 1976 season . During its last eight years, Comiskey's annual attendance surpassed the two million mark three times, including

2650-564: Was skated in 1961. In late 1961, the company was acquired by Bill Griffiths Sr. and Jerry Hill. In the 1960s, Roller Games experienced rapid growth, and established teams in Baltimore, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Florida, Hawaii, Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan. Roller Games eventually encompassed several separate leagues: National Roller Derby (NRD), which was renamed to National Roller League (NRL); Canadian National Roller League (CNRL); and Japanese National Roller League (JNRL). Aside from

2703-412: Was the center field bleachers and the "exploding" scoreboard. The site of the old park was turned into a parking lot to serve those attending games at the new Comiskey Park (later renamed U.S. Cellular Field , now Guaranteed Rate Field ). At the time Comiskey was demolished, Chicago's two baseball stadiums were a combined 157 years old. Bill Veeck once remarked that "There is no more beautiful sight in

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2756-684: Was the site of four World Series contests. In 1917, the Chicago White Sox won Games 1, 2 and 5 at Comiskey Park and went on to defeat the New York Giants four games to two. In 1918, Comiskey Park hosted the World Series between the Chicago Cubs and Boston Red Sox . The Cubs borrowed Comiskey Park for the series because of its larger seating capacity . The Red Sox defeated the Cubs four games to two. Games 1–3 were played at Comiskey Park. The Red Sox won games one and three. Attendance

2809-475: Was under capacity in that war year. The best crowd was Game 3, with some 27,000 patrons. In 1919, the White Sox lost the infamous " Black Sox " World Series to the Cincinnati Reds , five games to three in a nine-game series. Games three, four, five and eight were played at Comiskey Park. The White Sox won game three and lost games four, five and eight. In 1959, the White Sox lost four games to two to

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