CHICAGO (AP) — While the White Sox were busy piling up runs in a lopsided 22-1 win over Kansas City on Friday night, a wedding was quietly taking place in a ballpark suite. Former Chicago slugger Ron Kittle exchanged vows with his girlfriend, Barbara, as team chairman Jerry Reinsdorf served as the officiant.
The ceremony unfolded in Reinsdorf’s suite right in the middle of a 10-run third inning. Chicago’s run total that night was the highest for the franchise since a 22-13 win at Boston on May 31, 1970.
Kittle, who won the American League Rookie of the Year award in 1983, joked the next day about Reinsdorf’s habits. “He’s so superstitious he might marry somebody today in the bottom of the third,” Kittle said.
Two of Kittle’s former teammates from the 1983 White Sox squad — Harold Baines and Greg Walker — attended the ceremony along with their spouses.
Kittle described keeping the event low-key out of respect for his new wife. “My better half doesn’t want any notoriety, recognition. She wants to keep it to herself,” he said. “But I invited Harold Baines and his wife and Greg Walker and his wife, and we did it and I was pretty excited. I think Jerry is excited. We’ve become a family over the years.”
The wedding came on the same weekend the 1983 White Sox — who captured the AL West title that year — were honored in a pregame ceremony before Saturday’s matchup between Chicago and Kansas City.
Kittle also revealed a unique distinction: he is himself an ordained officiant and performed a wedding ceremony in the outfield last season during Bill Veeck Day. “Now I’m the only player to marry someone at the park and get married at the park,” Kittle said. “And I’m good.”
Other members of the 1983 team who took part in the pregame reunion at Rate Field included Hall of Famer Tony La Russa, who currently serves as a White Sox special adviser, along with Richard Dotson and Greg Luzinski.
