Chicago Sports Online
The owner of the Brewster Baseball Association’s once-and-future Chicago Black Sox unveiled details of the team’s new stadium on Thursday.
Vinnie Vitale, who owns the South Side Towing Co. in Calumet City, told assembled Chicago sports journalists that the stadium will be called “Black Sox Park” and is currently under construction.
The stadium, which initially will seat 35,000 fans, will be located near the I-94 interchange with Dolton Road. It will border the Little Calumet River to its north, the freeway to its west, Dolton Road to its South, and Paxton Avenue to its east.
“This will be a state-of-the-art baseball facility in every respect,” Vitale said. “Its proximity to the freeway will make it convenient for fans to attend games, and will help facilitate its off-season use as an overflow impound lot for South Side Towing.”
Questioned on this last point, Vitale said the stadium and its parking lots will be used by South Side from October to March, giving it year-round utility.
“You think I’m gonna just let it sit there empty for six months? Whadda you guys think I am, some kinda philanthropist? I’m a businessman and this is a business.”
Calumet City Mayor Otha Phillips said the city has no objections to Vitale’s plans for off-season use of the park.
“Seeing as how the stadium is replacing an abandoned public storage facility, anything that goes in there is a major step up,” Phillips said. “We applaud Vinnie … Mr. Vitale … for finding a creative way to revive this area of our city.”
Vitale bought the team – which has been known as the Huntsville Phantoms since moving from Chicago following the 2020 baseball season – last November. Although he originally assured Huntsville fans he had no immediate plans to move the team, the situation changed when the BBA announced plans to expand the league into Portland, OR, and Charlotte, N.C., beginning with the 2040 season.
“The league said if I had any intention of moving the team back to Chicago, they would rather do it now so they can make all of the alignment decisions at once instead of dribbling them out over several years,” Vitale said. “I was only too happy to oblige.”
He has spent the past several months arranging for construction of the new ballpark, which he said will be patterned after the old Comiskey Park, which was home for decades to the old MLB Chicago White Sox.
“I wanted to make sure we paid proper respect to the sports history of Chicago,” Vitale said. “Also, Comiskey had nice big outfields, which will double nicely as an impound facility during the offseason.”
During his news conference, he released details of the stadium’s playing dimensions, saying experts have told him it will be a “pitcher’s park, unlike that homerun heaven piece of crap we’ve been playing in down at Huntsville.” The BBA commissioner’s office has signed off on the plan, he said.
The dimensions of the playing field, along with other ballpark details, will be as follows:
Ballpark Details
Ballpark name: Black Sox Park
Type: Open Ballpark
Surface: Grass
Capacity: 35,000
Ballpark Factors:
AVG Overall: .934
AVG LHB: .934
AVG RHB: .934
Doubles: 1.000
Triples: 1.000
Home runs overall: .934
Home runs LHB: .934
Home runs RHB: .934
Distances and Wall Heights
Left line: 352 feet, 10 feet high
Left field: 359 feet, 10 feet high
Left-Center: 365 feet, 10 feet high
Center Field: 410 feet, 5 feet high
Right-Center: 365 feet, 10 feet high
Right field: 368 feet, 10 feet high
Right line: 352 feet, 10 feet high
“So, there you have it,” Vitale said. “It’ll be a new stadium for a renewed team. Our message to baseball fans everywhere in Chicagoland is to come on out to Cal City this spring and watch your new Chicago Black Sox!
“And should you need any towing services in the meantime, you know where to reach me …”
