Never mind what the thermometer says when the Cubs take the field April 10; ignore the weather forecaster`s warnings when the Sox open on April 13. Opening Day means summertime is here, even if that summer seems just a bit nippy for the first month or so.
Comiskey Park
This year, like last year, the big news is on the South Side. The White Sox are ready to challenge for the division title, and the new Comiskey Park, beginning its second season (already no longer the league`s newest baseball stadium, thanks to Baltimore), is ready to work out its premiere-season kinks. The first thing sharp-eyed Comiskey fans will notice this year is that the original Comiskey is gone. Demolition of the old park, a heart-rending sight at every game last year, is complete. What once was the oldest park in baseball is now a parking lot.
Of course, that parking lot will come in mighty handy. It holds 1,000 cars, and Rob Gallas, senior vice president of marketing for the White Sox, is confident that last year`s parking problems have been solved.
”We now total 7,000 parking spaces, which is very good for an urban site,” Gallas says. ”And not only have we added spaces, but there`s an additional walk-up ramp (from the lot to the stadium, above 35th Street) for easier access.” Say goodbye to the McCormick Place overflow lot. As it did last year, parking will cost $6.
Inside the stadium, fans will find the concession lines moving quite a bit faster than last year. Illinois Sports Service, which handles concessions at Comiskey, has installed modern cash registers-a big improvement over last season, when workers struggled with hand-held calculators. There are new, larger pizza ovens this year, to increase productivity and decrease customer waits.
The Comiskey menu, already legendary for its wide variety, adds only a few new items this year-a meatball sandwich, chocolate eclairs, orange juice and Diet Sprite, says Illinois Sports Service general manager Pat Redden. The pizza also has been improved, Redden says. More good news: Concession prices haven`t changed, with one exception. Beer is up 25 cents; a 12-ounce beer is now $3.
One of Comiskey`s most innovative features last year was the Kids Corner, a concession stand just for kids (with discounted prices). Next to the Kids Corner this year will be a new souvenir stand, featuring merchandise geared to-you guessed it-youngsters.
Ticket prices are up a bit; the top seat in Comiskey, a lower-deck box, is now $15. Upper-deck boxes are $12, outfield reserved seats are $11 and bleacher seats and outfield reserved seats are $8. Monday games, as always, are half-price; but Opening Day, which happens to be a Monday, is not.
There are several notable promotions on the White Sox calendar. Among them:
Women in Baseball: A series of Saturday afternoon clinics for women. The cost of each clinic, including four tickets to one upcoming Sox game, is $49. Guest speakers will include women involved in baseball. Clinic dates are June 24, July 21 and August 22; call the White Sox sales department, 312-924-1000, for tickets.
Tribute to the Negro Leagues: On May 2, the Sox will bring together Negro League players from all over the country for a pregame ceremony. The first 20,000 fans will receive a replica cap of the Chicago American Giants, a Negro League team; in tribute, the Sox players will wear the Chicago American Giants caps during that day`s game.
Friday Night Sox Party: Even if you come alone, you can be part of a group. For $33 you can get admission to the stadium`s picnic/patio area
(ordinarily available only to groups) for a buffet dinner with drinks, plus a bleacher ticket (in a section reserved for the picnic group). Will this become the newest singles hot spot? The promotion starts in mid-May; tickets are available only through the sales department at 312-924-1000.
Wrigley Field
Things are looking down at Wrigley Field, and that`s no reflection on the team`s chances the pennant. But the big changes at the Friendly Confines are underfoot.
First, the concourse. The cracked, worn, ugly concrete walkway has been replaced, foul pole to foul pole, with concrete pavers. Cosmetically, it gives the concourse a look of old-fashioned brick; from a practical standpoint, it`s a cleaner, better-looking, long-wearing surface.
Also new (though you can`t see it yet) is the Wrigley Field Walk of Fame, a stretch of concrete underneath the marquee outside the ballpark, which eventually will display the footprints of Chicago Cubs greats.
On June 12, the first four players will be immortalized on the Walk of Fame; those four will be selected from among 40 former players (active major- leaguers are excluded) by fan ballot. Voting starts Sunday; you`ll find ballots in the Sunday Tribune.
The Wrigley Field season gets a false start at noon Saturday; that`s when the second of two exhibition games against the Milwaukee Brewers (the first game is 6 p.m. Friday in Milwaukee) takes place in what`s being billed as the ”Battle of the Border” (Taco Bell has a promotional tie-in). Last year`s games drew 67,000 fans (30,000 there, 37,000 here).
Another exhibition of note is the annual Cubs-Sox game, held this year on Memorial Day (May 25) in Wrigley Field.
You`ll want to keep a close eye on Cubs` starting times this season. Most day games start at 1:20 p.m., except for Friday day games after April, which start at 2:20 p.m. Saturday games start at 12:05, 1:20, 2:00, 3:05 and 7:05 p.m., depending on the day. As we said, check your tickets carefully.
If you check your tickets, you`ll see the prices have gone up a bit, too. The Cubs, trying something new, have instituted a two-tiered pricing policy this season. Ticket prices for weekday afternoon games have stayed the same
(except for lower-deck boxes, which went up $1); prices for weekend, holiday and night games are all up $1 (except lower-deck boxes, which are up $2). The top ticket now is $12; upper-deck reserved and bleachers are $7 ($6 on weekday afternoons), and upper-deck reserved tickets for children (13 and younger) are $5, $4 on weekday afternoons.
Fans will find a few new things at the concession stands this season. Inspired by the success of last year`s barbecued chicken sandwich, ARA (which handles concessions at Wrigley) is introducing spicy chicken wings, served with fries and bleu cheese dressing. (If the world can handle the collapse of Communism, presumably it can deal with bleu cheese in Wrigley Field.)
Also new is a Maxwell Street Polish sausage, and the odd-sounding fried chili stick-which turns out to be a burrito shell stuffed with chili (”So you can eat it with one hand,” says general manager John Doncrank).
Hot dog prices are up for the first time in five years, Doncrank says. There`s a different dog in Wrigley, too-ARA switched to Scott Petersen hot dogs (served at Comiskey for years), which will cost $2.50. Beer is up slightly, though the $3.25, 16-ounce beer is a good deal.
Doncrank will be rooting hard for the Cubs this year-though not for the reason you think.
”The way the team plays is how the concessions go,” he says. ”If the Cubs score in the first inning, it means a minimum of $30,000 in additional sales that day.
”A nothing-nothing game,” Doncrank says, ”does nothing for me.”
