Elliott: Memories of Comiskey and the Great Bambino

Babe Ruth at Comiskey Park in Chicago.

By Bob Elliott

Canadian Baseball Network

Getting a ride from US Celluar or Comiskey Park to the Westin Hotel downtown was always difficult after games.

Allan Ryan of the Toronto Star and I used to pay a visiting clubhouse attendant to drive us downtown. Cabs were tough to come by.

Years ago on a trip to new Comiskey, legendary scribe Joe Goddard of the Chicago Sun-Times offered me a ride downtown. We headed across the street to the media lot but he insisted we visit a larger lot.

For there was the original home plate from the old yard.

“Go ahead stand in the left-handed batter’s box,” Joe said.

Naw, I don’t want to.

“Go ahead you’ll enjoy it.”

I stood in the box.

“There, now you are standing in the exact same spot Babe Ruth stood in 1919 when he hit his first home run in Chicago,” Goddard said.

Suddenly I did not feel like a dope standing in the batter’s box almost two hours after the Blue Jays-White Sox game. I told Joe he had made the right decision to call me over to this lot -- it was memorable.

“Of course you are also standing in the same stop as Gail Hopkins,” Goddard said.

Ruth went 3-for-4 with a homer off reliever Dave Danforth as the Boston Red Sox beat the White Sox 12-4 on July 12, 1919. It was the 31st homer of his career, a career which saw him play 22 years for the New York Yankees, Red Sox and Boston Braves as he hit 714 homers finishing with a 1.164 OPS.

As I was soaking in all the history -- and frankly beginning to enjoy it --Goddard added another line ... “Of course you are also standing where Jordan Danks stood.”

An outfielder, Danks played 180 for the White Sox from 2012-14. He batted .227 with 10 doubles, eight homers, 26 RBIs and a .629 OPS.