| Charles Comiskey | |
|---|---|
 Comiskey c. 1909 | |
| First baseman /Manager /Owner | |
| Born:(1859-08-15)August 15, 1859 Chicago, Illinois, U.S. | |
| Died: October 26, 1931(1931-10-26) (aged 72) Eagle River, Wisconsin, U.S. | |
Batted: Right Threw: Right | |
| MLB debut | |
| May 2, 1882, for the St. Louis Brown Stockings | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| September 12, 1894, for the Cincinnati Reds | |
| MLB statistics | |
| Batting average | .264 |
| Home runs | 28 |
| Runs batted in | 883 |
| Stolen bases | 416 |
| Managerial record | 840–541 |
Stats atBaseball Reference  | |
| Managerial record at Baseball Reference | |
| Teams | |
As player
As manager As Owner | |
| Career highlights and awards | |
| |
| Member of the National | |
 Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1939 |
| Election method | Old-Timers Committee |
Charles Albert Comiskey (August 15, 1859 – October 26, 1931),nicknamed "Commy" or "the Old Roman", was an AmericanMajor League Baseball player,manager, and team owner. He was a key person in the formation of theAmerican League and was also founding owner of theChicago White Sox.[1]Comiskey Park, the White Sox's storied baseball stadium, was built under his guidance and named for him.[1]
Comiskey's reputation was permanently tarnished by his team's involvement in theBlack Sox Scandal, although he was inducted as an executive into theBaseball Hall of Fame in1939.[1]
Comiskey was born on August 15, 1859, inChicago, the son of Illinois politicianJohn Comiskey. He attended public and parochial schools in Chicago, includingSt. Ignatius Preparatory School, and then attendedSt. Mary's College inSt. Mary's, Kansas. He played baseball at St. Mary's and played for several professional teams in Chicago while apprenticed to a plumber and working at construction jobs, including driving a brick delivery wagon for the construction crews building the fifth Chicago City Hall, which stood from 1873 to 1885.[2]
Comiskey started his playing career as apitcher, and moved tofirst base after developing arm trouble. He is credited with being the first to play hitters off first base, allowing him to cover balls hit to more of the infield. He entered theAmerican Association in 1882 with theSt. Louis Brown Stockings.[3] He managed the team during parts of its first three seasons and became the full-time manager in 1885,[3] leading the Browns to four consecutiveAmerican Association championships and a close second in 1889.[4] He also played and managed for theChicago Pirates in thePlayers' League (1890), theBrowns again (1891), and theCincinnati Reds in theNational League (1892–1894).[5]
Comiskey left Cincinnati and the majors in fall 1894 to purchase theWestern League Sioux City Cornhuskers inSioux City, Iowa and move it toSaint Paul, Minnesota, renaming the team theSt. Paul Saints.[3] He had compiled a .264batting average with 29home runs, 883RBI and 419stolen bases. As a manager, he posted an 839–542 record.After five seasons of sharing the Twin Cities with another Western League club inMinneapolis, Comiskey and his colleagues arranged to share Chicago with theNational League, whose club (theChicago Cubs today) played on the West Side. The St. Paul Saints moved to the South Side as the White Stockings (also the original name of the Cubs; it was eventually shortened to White Sox) of the renamedAmerican League for the 1900 season. The American League then declared itself a major league starting in 1901.[3]
As owner of the White Sox from 1900 until his death in 1931, Comiskey oversaw the construction ofComiskey Park in 1910 and won five American League pennants (1900, 1901, 1906, 1917, 1919) and two World Series (1906, 1917).[3] He lost popularity with his players, who eventually came to despise him. The players' animosity towards Comiskey has been cited as a major cause of theBlack Sox scandal, when eight players on the AL champions conspired to "throw" the1919 World Series to the NL championCincinnati Reds.[3] Comiskey was notoriously stingy (his defenders called him "frugal"), even forcing his players to pay to launder their own uniforms.[3] Traci Peterson notes that, in an era when professional athletes lacked free agency, the White Sox's formidable players had little choice but to accept Comiskey's substandard wages. She writes: "Swede Risberg andLefty Williams made less than $3,000 a year ($54,409 today).Joe Jackson andBuck Weaver made only $6,000 a year ($108,818 today).Eddie Cicotte had been promised a $10,000 ($181,363 today) bonus if he could win 30 games in a season. When Cicotte closed in on the 30-game goal, Comiskey had him benched to keep him from reaching the mark."[3] Comiskey's stated reason for having managerKid Gleason bench Cicotte was that with the Sox headed for the World Series, he had to protect his star pitcher's arm (Cicotte ended up with a 29–7 record in 1919 ). In one incident, he promised his players a bonus for winning the 1919 pennant — the "bonus" turned out to be a case of flat champagne.[6]
When the scandal broke late in the 1920 season, Comiskey suspended the suspected players via telegram, admitting that he knew this action cost the White Sox a second straight pennant. However, he initially defended the accused players and, in an unusual display of largesse, provided them with expensive legal representation. He ultimately supported baseball commissionerKenesaw Mountain Landis' decision to ban the implicated White Sox players from further participation in professional baseball, knowing full well that Landis' action would permanently sideline the core of his team.[3] Indeed, the White Sox promptly tumbled into seventh place and would not be a factor in a pennant race again until1936, five years after Comiskey's death. They did not win another pennant until1959 and another World Series until2005.
In 1914, Comiskey became involved in a landmark legal case that challenged baseball's reserve clause system, which he had co-authored withBan Johnson in 1903 as part of theBaseball national agreement. When first basemanHal Chase exercised a 10-day termination clause in his contract to sign with theBuffalo Blues of theFederal League, Comiskey sought an injunction to prevent Chase from playing. InAmerican League Baseball Club of Chicago v. Chase, 149 N.Y.S. 6 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. July 21, 1914), New York Supreme Court Justice Herbert Bissell ruled against Comiskey, finding that organized baseball was "as complete a monopoly of the baseball business for profit as any monopoly can be made" and that this monopoly was "in contravention of the common law in that it invades the right to labor as a property right; in that it invades the right to contract as a property right and in that it is a combination to restrain and control the exercise of a profession or calling."[7]
Following the court's decision, American League president Ban Johnson, Comiskey's longtime associate and co-architect of the reserve clause, declared: "Federal League teams will not get one single player from Charles A. Comiskey, owner of the Chicago White Sox, and if Hal Chase jumps his contract he will never play with any other club."[8] Despite the Federal League folding in 1915, Chase faced persistent allegations of game-fixing throughout his subsequent career, culminating in his ban from baseball in 1920. In a 1918 interview, Johnson acknowledged that Chase had been "overtly blacklisted" for his challenge to the reserve clause and defection to the Federal League.[9]
_at_Calvary_Cemetery%2c_Evanston_1.jpg)
Comiskey is sometimes credited with the innovation of playing thefirst base position behind first base or inside the foul line, a practice which has since become common.[3] Later, he had played a large role in the dissolution of theNational Commission, baseball's former governing body, following a quarrel withBan Johnson.[10] He was inducted into theNational Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.[1] He was also named to theSt. Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in May 2022, as the selection of Cardinals managing partnerWilliam DeWitt Jr. for his accomplishments as manager of the St. Louis Browns.[11]
Comiskey died inEagle River, Wisconsin in 1931 and was buried atCalvary Cemetery in Evanston. Comiskey's sonJ. Louis inherited the team but died a few years later. The trustees of his estate were going to sell the team, but J. Louis' widowGrace was able to gain control of the team and avoid a sale. Her two children,Dorothy Comiskey Rigney andCharles "Chuck" Albert Comiskey II (who served in the White Sox front office in the 1940s and 1950s before he became owner),[12] became co-owners of the team following Grace's death in the 1950s.[10] Dorothy sold controlling interest in the team toBill Veeck in 1958, but Chuck remained a minority owner until 1962.[13]
When the White Sox moved to a new ballpark in 1991, theComiskey Park name was retained from their previous home (since 1910). It is now known asRate Field. A statue of Comiskey stands near center field in the new ballpark.[14]
| Team | From | To | Record | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | Win % | |||
| St. Louis Browns | 1883 | 1883 | 12 | 7 | .632 |
| St. Louis Browns | 1884 | 1889 | 465 | 214 | .685 |
| Chicago Pirates | 1890 | 1890 | 75 | 62 | .547 |
| St. Louis Browns | 1891 | 1891 | 86 | 52 | .623 |
| Cincinnati Reds | 1892 | 1894 | 202 | 206 | .495 |
| Total | 840 | 541 | .608 | ||
| Ref.:[5] | |||||
Federal League teams will not get one single player from Charles A. Comiskey...and if Hal Chase jumps his contract he will never play with any other club
overtly blacklisted for his attempt to play in the Federal League
· Baseball Almanac| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |