Charles Comiskey was a key person in the formation of the American League, and was founding owner of the Chicago White Sox.
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19 Facts About Charles Comiskey
3.
Charles Comiskey was born on August 15,1859, in Chicago, the son of Illinois politician John Charles Comiskey.
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4.
Charles Comiskey attended public and parochial schools in Chicago, including St Ignatius Preparatory School, and, later, St Mary's College.
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5.
Charles Comiskey 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.
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6.
Charles Comiskey started his playing career as a pitcher, and moved to first base after developing arm trouble.
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7.
Charles Comiskey is credited with being the first to play hitters off of first base, allowing him to cover balls hit to more of the infield.
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8.
Charles Comiskey entered the American Association in 1882 with the St Louis Brown Stockings.
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9.
Charles Comiskey managed the team during parts of its first seasons and took over full-time in 1885, leading the Browns to four consecutive American Association championships and a close second in 1889.
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10.
Charles Comiskey played and managed for the Chicago Pirates in the Players' League, the Browns again, and the Cincinnati Reds in the National League.
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11.
Charles Comiskey left Cincinnati and the majors in fall 1894 to purchase the Western League Sioux City Cornhuskers in Sioux City, Iowa and move it to Saint Paul, Minnesota, renaming the team the St Paul Saints.
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12.
Charles Comiskey lost popularity with his players, whose views of him became hateful, seen as a factor in the Black Sox scandal, when eight players on the AL champions conspired to "throw" the 1919 World Series to the NL champion Cincinnati Reds.
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13.
Charles Comiskey was notoriously stingy, even forcing his players to pay to launder their own uniforms.
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14.
When Cicotte closed in on the 30-game goal, Charles Comiskey had him benched to keep him from reaching the mark.
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15.
Charles Comiskey ultimately supported baseball commissioner Kenesaw 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.
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16.
Charles Comiskey is sometimes credited with the innovation of playing the first base position behind first base or inside the foul line, a practice which has since become common.
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17.
Charles Comiskey was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.
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18.
Charles Comiskey was named to the St Louis Cardinals Hall of Fame in May 2022, as the selection of Cardinals managing partner William DeWitt Jr.
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19.
Charles Comiskey died in Eagle River, Wisconsin in 1931, and was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Evanston.
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