McCuddy's Tavern

A sad day in 1989

There's a chapter in the James Farrell book I'm reading (My Baseball Diary) called "Baseball Players Call Her Ma" about McCuddy's Tavern.

McCuddy's was located in that small strip of buildings on the southside of 35th street, which was razed to make room for the new park. I remember seeing it when I was a kid, but I was too young to go in. After reading this chapter, it adds to my frustration over the building that is "New" Comiskey Park (I still refuse to use the corporate moniker). Why didn't the Sox and the city go with the Armour Square plan instead (for more on this, see the Flying Sox link at right). To tear down that irreplaceable history is just mind-boggling. McCuddy's would've been a HUGE draw. Instead, there's nothing.

Here are some gems from Farrell about McCuddy's, which he penned in the 1950s:

The social history of baseball cannot be told or written without mention of Ma McCuddy and her family. Baseball players called her "Ma" with real afffection because she was for several decades, a mother to many of them. She created a little way station where there was love, kindness, good cheer, fun and understanding. She has meant much to some of these players, and hence to the game itself. It is no exaggeration to characterize her as one of the living legends of baseball.

"Mother," Babe Ruth often used to say to her, "you're the best woman in the world."

Sometimes when Babe was playing in Chicago, he would send a message across the street. "Tell Ma to put six bottles of beer on ice - it's two out in the ninth."

Long Live McCuddy's!

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