Preview of Ken Burns'
Baseball: The 10th Inning
Ken Burns (right), the legendary award winning film director and producer, with Chicago Baseball Museum Executive Director Connie Kowal during a special luncheon at Chicago's Union League Club promoting Burns' upcoming PBS special, "Baseball: The 10th Inning", a sequel to his highly acclaimed 1994 series "Baseball".
Photo by Bill Richert
Burns' upcoming 4-hour documentary covers many new and fascinating stories that touched and changed baseball since 1994.
The Chicago promotional tour on August 19th featured lunch and dinner functions presented by WTTW, Channel 11, Chicago's public broadcasting station which will air the special premiere beginning September 28 at 8 pm on WTTW/11 in Chicago.
"It was a pleasure to meet Ken Burns, truly a one-of-a-kind producer, who just loves the game of baseball", said Kowal. "His passion for baseball is special, his baseball filmmaking is special, and he captures the history of baseball in a most special way. For fans and followers of the Chicago Baseball Museum, this is 'must-see' TV appointment when "Baseball: The 10th Inning" airs in September."
CBM's Duffy/Voelker Team Up With Legendary Sports Writer Furman Bisher at National Baseball Historian's Conference
(Bisher Scored Joe Jackson's Only Interview About the Black Sox Scandal in 1949 To Recast Image of Joe Jackson and Charles Comiskey)
Atlanta, Georgia- August 7, 2010 Paul Duffy, legal counsel for the Chicago Baseball Museum, and Dan Voelker, CBM board member, appeared on a panel discussion at the 40th Annual Society for American Baseball Research (SABR) national convention in Atlanta. They were part of a panel discussion with 91 year-old legendary sports-writer Furman Bisher, who wrote for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution from 1950 until 2009. In 1949, Bisher scored Joe Jackson's only interview about the aftermath of Black Sox Scandal and his banishment from baseball.
Duffy and Voelker, who are attorneys at Freeborn and Peters in Chicago, received international acclaim for their landmark article "It Ain't So, Kid, It Just Ain't So: History's Apology to "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Charles Comiskey and Chicago's Black Sox" that appeared in the September 2009 issue of Chicago Lawyer magazine challenging assertions made by Eliot Asinof, author of Eight Men Out. The 1963 book that has been widely accepted as the definitive story about the eight White Sox players accused of fixing the 1919 World Series and later made into a popular film of the same name in 1988.
Duffy and Voelker presented to a room packed with more than 350 baseball historians that Asinof got the story wrong about both Jackson and White Sox founder Charles A. Comiskey. They presented their research which recasts the widely portrayed image of Charles A. Comiskey, a skin-flint owner accused of covering up the Black Sox scandal and the image of Joe Jackson, an illiterate crooked ball player, who took $5,000 to help fix the 1919 World Series and who forever was exiled from baseball.
They were joined by Bisher, who got Jackson on record about the scandal. Duffy and Voelker were able to prove that Asinof had ignored Bisher's 1949 interview in his 1963 book.
Read the full story...
CBM and "Fans"
Congratulate Dawson
The Chicago Baseball Museum and the fans of Andre Dawson gave their congratulations to the newest member of Baseball's Hall of Fame on Wednesday, July 28 at Alexian Field in Schaumburg at the Schaumburg Flyers "Andre Dawson & Friends" Celebrity Softball Game event.
In pre-game ceremonies, Connie Kowal, Chicago Baseball Museum Executive Director, addressed the crowd and presented Andre a "Congrats Card" signed by hundreds of Dawson's fans as a keepsake for Dawson and his induction into the Hall of Fame. Joining Kowal in the pre-game ceremonies were CBM legal counsel Paul Duffy along with CBM contest winners Chris Kearney of Buffalo Grove and his 10-year old son, Ryan, who presented the Congrats Card to Dawson on fhe field. "The fans of Chicago have meant so much to Andre, so we thought it was important to have the fans of Andre Dawson thank him with a special congratulations card, presented to him by a father and his son, and something that Andre can take home, share with his family and keep forever", said Kowal.
View Event photo album on Facebook...
Dedication Ceremonies for 100th Anniversary of Comiskey Park
The Chicago Baseball Museum was proud to attend the special pre-game ceremonies hosted by the Chicago White Sox prior to their game against the Angels at US Cellular Field on Monday, July 5th, commemorating the 100th Anniversary of Comiskey Park. Several generations of the Comiskey Family were in attendance for a dedication ceremony of a special Comiskey Park plaque, located in the centerfield concourse next to a sculpture of Charles Comiskey. It was on July 1, 1910 that the first game was played at old Comiskey Park.
CBM's Founder & President Dr. David Fletcher, Executive Director Connie Kowal, and Legal Counsel Paul Duffy were part of a VIP delegation of attendees that also included Billy Pierce, Moose Skowron, Ron Kittle and Minnie Minoso of the White Sox. Sox PA Announcer Gene Honda presided over the ceremony that included remarks by Billy Pierce, White Sox historian Rich Lindberg, and the Comiskey family.
The Chicago Baseball Museum appreciates the invitation to this event by Bill Kellens (great-great-grandson of Charles Comiskey) and Illinois State Representative Patti Rigney Bellock (great- granddaughter of Charles Comiskey), and Patti's sister Mary Sharon Rigney Kellens and the valuable friendship with all members of the Comiskey Family.
A special ballpark... with special memories... and a special dedication in keeping the history of old Comiskey Park alive.
View video of Comiskey children speech at the ball park July 5, 2010...
"Never on a Friday"
The Baseball Palace of the World Turns 100 Years Old...
David J. Fletcher, MD, Chicago Baseball Museum
"Make no little plans;
they have no magic to stir men's blood..."
Daniel Burnham, Chicago Architect and Visionary
Comiskey Park Turns 100... still alive in our hearts
click image to view larger version...
It didn't make it to its 100th birthday party, but nonetheless the "Baseball Palace of the World" turns 100 years old on Thursday, July 1, 2010 and is still alive in the hearts of Chicago baseball fans.
It never saw its home team win a World Championship on its field in its 80 year-year history (that is if you don't count the Chicago Cardinals 1947 NFL Championship thrilling 28-21 come-from-behind win over the Philadelphia Eagles on December 28, 1947).
It did, however, witness some incredible history and is one of the most hallowed grounds in our nation's history.
