Lloyd Rutzky - White Sox Parks Amazing Vendors

Images of Modern America

WHITE SOX PARKS
AMAZING VENDORS

The iconic exploding scoreboard at Comiskey Park blasts its amazing news for the seasons final game on October 4, 1981. A magnificent eight-run rally in the last two innings resulted in a memorable 13-12 victory for the Chicago White Sox. However, this season was stained by a horrendous two-month summer strike that not only ruined the teams chances, but also meant its vendors would have to survive the winter missing one-third of their earnings. But the South Side sun would come out again the next seasonand forever!

Front Cover: US Army Vietnam veteran Sherwin Tycher salutes to the fans with a bag of peanuts as the White Sox wave goodbye on the last day of the 1980 season.

Upper Back Cover: In 1978, David Shanker works his way through medical school selling hot dogs from the boiler on a warm July day. He would become a dermatologist.

Lower Back Cover (from left to right): Marty Schatzman uses the high thrust method of selling beer in 1979; co-author Lloyd Rutzky sells freshly baked pizza from a heated metal box in 1972; and Gary Newman sells cans of pop he needs to pour in 1975.

Images of Modern America

WHITE SOX PARKS
AMAZING VENDORS

LLOYD RUTZKY AND JOEL LEVIN

Copyright 2019 by Lloyd Rutzky and Joel Levin
ISBN 978-1-4671-0324-4
Ebook ISBN 9781439667163

Published by Arcadia Publishing
Charleston, South Carolina

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019930752

For all general information, please contact Arcadia Publishing:
Telephone 843-853-2070
Fax 843-853-0044
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For customer service and orders:
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Visit us on the Internet at www.arcadiapublishing.com

This book is dedicated to the White Sox fans who keep the amazing vendors of White Sox Park in business, like these four in Box 125 from Rensselaer, Indiana, who were frequent customers of co-author Lloyd Rutzky: (from left to right) Lanny Sigo, Herschel Cook, Jerry Gerrard, and Bruce Babcock. Sigo, a sportscaster, interviewed Rutzky for his radio program on WJCK on this day, October 2, 1977. Gerrard was a TV broadcaster who worked with WGN legend Arne Harris.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND
INTRODUCTION

Its almost too great to put into words. Almost. The experience of writing Wrigley Fields Amazing Vendors and seeing it come to life last year filled me with so much joy, I felt almost as eternally blessed as when I saw my two daughters being bornwell, almost.

Witnessing my creation with co-author Joel Levin being rejoiced by my family and friends, my pictures and our words entertaining the world, was a one-of-a-kind miracleand now its happening again! Please, if Im dreaming, dont wake me up from such utter ecstasy; especially because now, as a native South Sider, I can pay homage to my team, the White Sox.

Many might surmise my 54 years of climbing up and down aisles in the heat, the cold, and the rain for over 8,000 games could have been a struggle, an epic burden. But to me, its been a magnificent obsession. I can only explain it the way Peter OToole did in Lawrence Of Arabia when he demonstrated his ability to extinguish a match with his fingers: The trick is not minding that it hurts. Theres no simpler way to describe what I think of my job other than fun.

That was primarily why I began taking pictures nearly half a century ago of everybody I worked with and had fun with at the old ballpark. Even if they thought I was a screwball, taking pictures of strangers that nobody would ever care about. But oh my, they definitely do. They absolutely, definitely do, especially when people see a face from decades ago that is no longer around, a friend they thought was forgotten, as if they never existed. Until these books came to be, they existed only in their memoriesbut now, they are immortal.

Assembling what you now are holding in your hands could also have been likened to a laborious task. And it very well might have been if I hadnt been blessed with so much inspiration and assistance from others. Starting with my father, Jules Rutzky, who worked harder than anybody Ive ever known but also instilled in me a love for baseball that steered me into finding an occupation I would enjoy participating in, even if it wasnt as a baseball player, but I still got paid to go to a ballpark. My mother, Pearl, earns a rich acknowledgment for her work ethic, which I embraced: If youre going to do something, do it well. Accordingly, I must thank my beloved computer-expert wife, Helita, for everything she has done to not only make me desire to make her proud, but also for how much her technical assistance got me through some confusion about making Microsoft products achieve all that theyre supposed to. Im also in debt to my two daughters, Katie Rutzky Gerber and Liz Rutzky Forcier, for their invaluable knowledge of the intricacies of iPhones, the internet, and the art of cut and paste and copy that I needed to rely on to complete this project.

I have also been blessed with a great many friends who have supported my new career in book writing and done their best to promote its success, like Arnold Lipski, Mark Reiner, Abe Rapuch, Michael Ginsburg, Dave Levenson, Howard Wolinsky, Art Newman, Jack Beermann, Brandon Medow, Harlan Grabowsky, Cindy Fosco Gaborek, Dave Gaborek, Dave Hoekstra, David Kaplan, Gary Tuch, Steven Leahy, John Studnicka, Mike Rubin, Mike LaPapa Sr. and Jr., my union president Vince Pesha, and many others. Not to be forgotten are very helpful Arcadia staff members Stacia Bannerman, Jim Kempert, Erin Owens, and Leigh Scott. Ive also been moved by two former vendors who have achieved mightily out of the park and have sent us fond words.

The first is John W. Rogers Jr., whom I have known since he was 10 years oldsome 50 years agowhen he came to White Sox games with his dad. He later worked as a competing vendor and, still later, founded Ariel Investments, befriended fellow Chicagoan Barack Obama, and became one of the presidents economic advisers (see ):

In 1974, when I was 16 years old, I started my first summer job as a vendor at Comiskey Park. My inspiration was Lloyd Rutzky, who used to sell pizzas at the ballpark to my father and me on Sunday afternoons.

The experience of being a vendor was transformative for me. It was a job I looked forward to every single day because it combined my love of sports, my desire to stay physically active, and my motivation to become an entrepreneur.

I started at the bottom selling Coke. I worked my way up to peanuts, then hotdogs, and finally the ultimatebeer! I ended my career as a proud Strohs vendor at Comiskey and an Old Style vendor at Wrigley. I had reached the peak.

I had the opportunity to meet and work with some extraordinary and wonderful people. I also learned valuable life lessons that remain with me to this day. To be strategic and maximize my selling time. I soon realized there was a direct correlation between my hard work and results. To be a successful vendor, one needed to be competitive and decisive. I have so much respect for the vendors with whom I worked, especially those like Lloyd, who have devoted over 50 years to their jobs. Every one of them inspired me to do my best work.