White Sox chairman Reinsdorf officiates wedding of former Rookie of Year Kittle during game
CHICAGO -- As the White Sox were slugging their way to a 22-1 victory over the Royals on Friday night, former player Ron Kittle was getting married in a ballpark suite with Chicago chairman Jerry Reinsdorf officiating.
Kittle tied the knot with his girlfriend, Barbara, in Reinsdorf’s suite during Chicago’s 10-run third inning. The White Sox went on to score their most runs since a 22-13 victory at Boston on May 31, 1970.
“He’s so superstitious he might marry somebody today in the bottom of the third,” Kittle, the 1983 AL Rookie of the Year, said Saturday about Reinsdorf.
Harold Baines and Greg Walker, Kittle’s teammates on the 1983 White Sox squad, and their spouses also attended the quick ceremony.
“My better half doesn’t want any notoriety, recognition. She wants to keep it to herself,” Kittle 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 1983 White Sox, who won the AL West, were honored before Saturday’s game between Chicago and Kansas City.
Kittle said he also is ordained and that he officiated a wedding in the outfield last season on 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 attended the pregame reunion at Rate Field were Hall of Famer Tony La Russa, who serves as a White Sox special adviser, Richard Dotson and Greg Luzinski.
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