Chicago White Sox: A Visual History, Hosted by Jean Shepherd - VHS 1987 

This is gold for a millennial like me who missed out on the Sox golden years. 05 and the Blackout games have been historic as well.

My Grandfather was bird hunting and baseball friend with Dizzy Trout . Dizzy Trout (Detroit tigers ) & son of White Sox and cubs pitcher Steve trout . My grandfather rode around with Dizzy in the White Sox promotional station wagon . Dizzy worked for the promotional department . I’ve got pictures. My grandfather was Lester Russell , a St. Louis cardinals pitching prospect

I had to do some delving on the first use of Sox's stadium pyrotechnics - the famous "Exploding Scoreboard". And I found something I never knew when I was born. 10 years before I was born in 1970, the first fireworks were used at Comiskey. Generally they were used to celebrate Sox home runs, but in a few cases, fireworks were used for some major non-home-run milestones. For example, the Apollo 11 moon landing in the 1960s. When word got out that the landing was successful, during a Sox game in the daytime, during one of the inning breaks (bottom of the 7th), an accordion band (Nancy Faust was not there at that time) played 'Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in a Dixieland style jazz groove, and after they finished playing, several puffs of smoke and flashes "boomed" in the air over the scoreboard across an afternoon blue sky (yep, aerial bomb fireworks), immediately followed by a Banshee-like "breathing air noise". Also--in the 1960s exploding scoreboard master controls, lever switches and push-button switches were used not just for the firework shoots, but things like sound effects and maybe even pre-recorded music too.

The Sox's post game firework shows in the 1960s/1970s at Comiskey focused on much less of the electronic firing systems and the fireworks were mainly manually lit. The displays in the first years lasted up to 15 minutes to probably 20 or so. Manual firing of fireworks were done in the actual ballfield with racks scattered about the field, and not at the back of the stadium like they now do at Guaranteed Rate, where electronic firing is used now. There was a lot of dead time between explosions (usually, they would do that "one shell shot at a time" thing - the pyrotechnicians would shoot the lift charge of the shell, wait for that shell to detonate in the air, and then, immediately light up another shell, let that go into the air, wait for the boom, and then start all over again), static displays, and the grand finale cake firings. Old-time stuff such as a 1,000-firecracker ground display (especially in the 1970s/1980s) kept the crowd in suspense up to the final bang of the finale. The smell of sulfur would be present after the old-time pyro shows were over.

White Sox forever Go Sox 2021

Great story! ⚾️

My 2nd cousin 3x removed is Urban "Red" Faber!

Thanks, JD. So appreciate this. TF

This came out in the mid 1980's after the Christmas story movie

I need that VHS

just decided to look up the history of the Chi White Sox

The Sox traded Bullfrog, for four eyes Shottenhoffen!

amazingly neither the Chicago White Sox or the Chicago Cubs won a world series from 1918 to 2004, that's 86 years and 172 chances, now that is a record no city will ever beat

Babe had hang over when they beat him 12to4 lol

What the hell did you trade Jay Buhner for?

43:45

The White Sox had almost nothing to note from 1920-1992. One AL pennant in 1959 and one Western Division title in 1983. That's even less than the Cubs accomplished. The Cubs had 5 WS appearances and a couple of division titles between 1920-1992. I think it is fair to say that over this 73-season period, there was no franchise less-accomplished than the White Sox.