CHICAGO AMERICAN GIANTS BALL PARK
(aka South Side Park and Schorling’s Park)

Years of operation: 1939

Location: located north of 39th Street (Pershing Road) in Chicago between Wentworth Ave. and Princeton Ave. (Chicago Housing Authority’s Wentworth Gardens housing project currently occupies this site.)

Notes:  one midget racing program for Negro drivers was held on September 24, 1939…Curtis “Cyclone” Ross won the 20-lap feature race that day followed by Wilbur Gaines and Bill Walthron.  South Side Park was the home of the Chicago White Sox from in 1900 as a minor league team, and then from 1901 to June 27, 1910 as a major league team.  Was then home of the newly-formed Negro League baseball team called the Chicago American Giants in 1911.  It was renamed Schorling’s Park for team owner Rube Foster’s white business partner, John C. Schorling, a south side saloon keeper who leased the grounds and happened to be Charles Comiskey's son-in-law.  Facility destroyed by fire on Christmas Day, 1940.

Young Wayne Adams, who years later would become the "voice" of Raceway Park, took this picture on September 24, 1939 as the Chicago American Giants Ball Park got ready to host midget auto racing.  Curtis "Cyclone" Ross won the 20-lap feature race which highlighted the program for Negro race drivers.
(Wayne Adams Photo)

Cyclone Ross poses with his pit man at the American Giants Ball Park in 1939.
(Wayne Adams Photo)