I was raised on South Wells Street, so I grew up knowing all about Comiskey Park. Your article (”Remembering Comiskey,” photos by Tom Harney and essay by Bill Granger, April 1), however, did bring back the memory of taking our two sons to the park one Saturday in the early `50s and coming up the ramp and looking down on the field. Our son, Eric, exclaimed, ”Look, Mom, it`s in color!” (We had a black-and-white TV.)
Our heartfelt thanks for all the memories. SOURCE: Theora Berg Mackay Wheaton
Tom Harney says a ballpark ”is a common denominator fusing generations over time.”
Yes, it certainly is. And I`d like to ask one simple quesion of my fellow Chicagoans who, for the next six months or so, will be rubbing their eyes out of sentimentality for this once proud baseball palace.
Comiskey Park could have been saved from the wrecker`s ball. Its alleged
”irreversible deterioration” was a fraud all along. But it was also a useful fraud, as any glance at the groveling output of Chicago`s journalistic community who covered Sox ownership`s stadium grab would attest. So the question is: How can you hypocrites shed tears over the fate of the old ballpark now, your almost univocal failure to question the can`t-be-saved fraud having been so instrumental in ensuring it wouldn`t be saved? SOURCE: David Peterson Evergreen Park
While death is not a prerequisite for attending a funeral, honesty usually counts when delivering the eulogy. Bill Granger`s essay is flawed by the author`s amnesia. In his Magazine column of May 4, 1986, he wrote: ”But if you think about it in an honest and sober morning light, Comiskey Park stinks. It always has.” He complained of bad seats and how ”the decades of neglect show.”
Now he writes about the last season for the ”cathedral of hope.” Did Granger recant, or does his conscience bother him after the fact? At least one friend of the soon-to-be-deceased would like to know. SOURCE: Douglas Bukowski Oak Park
The Magazine welcomes letters from readers. Letters intended for publication must include a signature and address, and they may be edited for space and clarity.
Mail should be sent to The Editor, Chicago Tribune Magazine, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, Ill. 60611.
