page_title: West Side Park
section_title: The second West Side Park (1893–1915)
hierarchical_section_title: West Side Park / The second West Side Park (1893–1915)
caption_attribution_description: English: This is a photo taken at West Side Park in Chicago on Thursday, October 11, 1906. It is an action shot from Game 3 of the 1906 World Series, with Cubs pitcher Jack Pfiester pitching to an unknown White Sox batter. The Chicago Daily News collection writeup says that it's from the 1906 Series, but does not identify the game number or the players. However, Pfiester was the Cubs' only left-hand pitcher in the Series. From that info, coupled with play-by-play info from the 1975 book, The World Series, by Cohen, Neft, Johnson and Deutsch, certain facts can be inferred, including the only game situation that fits. It is the top of the 6th inning of Game 3, which is scoreless to that point. The Sox have the bases loaded with less than 2 outs (note the batter squaring for a bunt, and the infield pulled in). That means the batter is either Fielder Jones, who eventually fouled out, or Frank Isbell, who eventually struck out. Jones and Isbell both batted left, so it is unclear who it is in this photo. Some sources say definitively that it is Jones. In any case, with 2 outs, George Rohe (a right-hand batter) would come up and hit a bases-clearing triple to left. The Sox would go on to win 3-0 behind Ed Walsh's complete game shutout. Things being done differently in those days, Pfiester also pitched the full game. Pfiester would be the loser-of-record in 2 of the 4 Cubs losses in that Series. The visibility of shadows indicates that it was a bright and sunny day, and their length indicates that it was fairly late in the afternoon. West Side Park's diamond was at the northwest corner of the property, so this picture is looking southeast, with the sun approaching sunset in the west, i.e. behind the first base stands. At that time, the roof over the stands only extended to about first and third base. This is known from other photos and can also be inferred from this photo. By 1908, the roof and its rooftop seating had been extend to nearly the right field foul pole. and also into the more spacious left field side. The clubhouse building can be seen in the corner of the lot, just to the left of straightaway center field. By 1908, a taller bleacher section had been built in front of it, obscuring it from view from this angle.
context_page_description: West Side Park was the name used for two different baseball parks that formerly stood in Chicago, Illinois. They were both home fields of the team now known as the Chicago Cubs of the National League. Both parks hosted baseball championships. The latter of the two parks, where the franchise played for nearly a quarter century, was the home of the first two world champion Cubs teams, the team that posted the best winning percentage in Major League Baseball history and won the most games in National League history, the only cross-town World Series in Chicago, and the immortalized Tinker to Evers to Chance double-play combo. Both ballparks were what are now called "wooden" ballparks.
context_section_description: In May 1893, the club opened the second West Side Park a few blocks west-southwest of the first one, on a larger block bounded by Taylor, Wood, Polk and Lincoln (now Wolcott) Streets. It was located at 41°52′13″N 87°40′21″W. During May and June, they split their 1893 schedule with South Side Park, playing Sunday games on the West Side and weekday games on the South Side. By mid-summer they had abandoned the South Side park and moved into the West Side park full-time.
  Home plate for this ballpark was in the northwest corner of the property, toward the Polk and Lincoln intersection. The right field fence paralleled Taylor, with flat apartments between the alley behind the right field area, and Taylor itself. There were also flats across Wood Street to the east, behind left field, giving the park (for a few years, at least) a degree of the ambiance that Wrigley Field would later be famous for. Cook County Hospital was across the street to the north, behind third base. Like the first West Side ballpark, the new facility was restricted by the streets around it, creating a rectangular playing area.
  The field layout was reported in the Inter Ocean on April 16, 1893: "The diamond is 90 feet (27 m) from the grand stand, and the right and left field fences are 340 feet (100 m) from the home plate, 130 feet (40 m) further than the old west side fence. The distance from the home plate to the extreme center field is 560 feet (170 m). The club will play all their Sunday games at the new grounds during the World's Fair, and after the fair is closed will probably play all their games there."
  An artist's conception of the new field includes a rooftop tier of private seating on the grandstand, and roofed bleachers beyond first and third base. Photographs from the early 1900s suggest those plans were left dormant until starting in 1905, when the team began playing well and expansion of the ballpark seating was begun.
  Although the 340-560-340 sounds symmetrical, the left field side was much more spacious, and the distance to center was actually very deep left-center, possibly the far corner of the property.
  The original layout of the park sat about 12,500 patrons. As with other parks of the era, fans were often permitted to stand along the outer perimeter of the playing field itself. When the team began playing winning ball under Frank Chance, overflow crowds became more frequent.
  On August 5, 1894, during its first full season as home to the Cubs (at that point known as the Colts), West Side Park suffered severe damage from fire during a game against the Cincinnati Reds. As the fire spread through the first-base side stands, panicked fans trying to escape pressed up against the barbed wire fence separating them from the playing field. Only quick action by several players in wrenching the fence open averted a major tragedy. The burnt stands were simply roped off, and the season resumed the next day, with the burnt area fenced off, and the spectators sitting on the left side of the diamond. Despite that near-disaster, the club rebuilt the burnt portion out of wood.
  One highlight, albeit for the visitors, occurred on July 13, 1896, when Philadelphia Phillies outfielder/firstbaseman Ed Delahanty smacked four home runs in one game, only the second player to do so. In contrast to Bobby Lowe's feat two years earlier, which was aided by a short foul line, two of Delahanty's were inside-the-park. After Delahanty's third, center fielder Bill Lange drew a laugh by calling "time", stationing himself in deep-deep center, near the clubhouse, seemingly a mile away, and then waving the pitcher to continue. Delahanty then got the laugh on Lange by knocking it between the clubhouse and the fence, again circling the bases while Lange scurried for the ball. The normally partisan home fans cheered Delahanty's effort. Chicago got the last laugh, winning the game, 9–8.
  As the park entered the new century, it featured a small covered grandstand behind home plate.  Behind the home plate stands, the team and ticket offices were housed in a fairly ornate two-story b
caption: Action in the 1906 World Series
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