Steve Fiffer
From the early 1980s to the early 1990s, I did a great deal of sports writing for the New York Times. Whenever the newspaper was unable to send one of its full time reporters to Chicago, it called on me. Afraid that the Times would find someone else if I refused, I said “yes” to every assignment—including trekking down to the old Chicago Stadium on a January night when the wind chill was 30 below to cover a Blackhawks/Islanders game.
That assignment is not on my “favorites” list, which does include: covering the Cubs in 1984 and 1989 as they bid for the playoffs (and riding up to the press box each day with Harry Caray on the back of his golf cart); winning the trust of the White Sox sometimes curmudgeonly, but always glorious, catcher Carlton Fisk for a lengthy Sunday profile; and covering the trial in federal court of sports agents Norby Walters and Lloyd Bloom. Witnesses included—I kid you not—Father Hesburgh, Dionne Warwick, Bo Schembechler, Cris Carter, and convicted crime boss Michael Franzese, who entered the courtroom in shackles, wearing an orange prison jumpsuit.
My childhood friend Fred Nachman, whose wonderful piece also appears today, reminded me of another favorite. On July 11, 1990, I covered “Turn Back the Clock Day” at the old Comiskey Park. Yes, 31 years before this month’s “Field of Dreams” game, the White Sox and Brewers faced each other dressed in uniforms from 1917 (at the time, the last year the Sox won the World Series). In keeping with the times, the electronic scoreboard was shut down, and an accordion replaced the park’s organ. Popcorn was five cents, but replica hats were, of course, $38.
Jack McDowell pictured in today’s photo, was the Sox starting pitcher. And in case you don’t remember, the starting lineup was Lance Johnson, Robin Ventura, Ivan Calderon, Ron Kittle, Fisk, Steve Lyons, Scott Fletcher, rookie Sammy Sosa (!!!), and Ozzie Guillen.
Here is a link to my article: https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1990/07/12/840990.html?pageNumber=31
Close readers will note I quote longtime Sox fan Adolph Nachman, then a youthful 78. This is the same fellow about whom Fred writes today. The topper: Adolph was my family’s pediatrician until we moved from Chicago’s South Shore neighborhood to the suburbs in 1955!
One more “Turn Back the Clock” fun fact: In olden times—I’m talking 1990, not 1917—I had to file my stories by writing them out in longhand, phoning a special number at the Times, and dictating to a stenographer. That’s almost as hard to believe as the fact that Sammy Sosa looked like this when he trotted out to right field in 1990.
