White Sox fan shows prized item

HUNTLEY — It was the best of times for the Chicago White Sox of owner Charles Comiskey. The year was 1917 and the baseball team had just won the World Series, four games to two, over the New York Giants.

A Huntley resident has a keepsake of that glorious 100-win year in team history, a print, and showed it at a White Sox Fan Club gathering Feb. 19.

The original photo was taken on a glass negative, printed, and hung at the former Chicago White Sox neighborhood bar Jimbo’s restaurant. It has been featured in the Chicago Sun Times and another print copy is at the team’s executive offices.

“I bought it in 2005, from my friend, Tony Izzerillo, their team photographer. I saw it at his house and I had to have it,” Felkamp said. “I bought it before they made the playoffs.”

Shown in the photo is a 1917 wide team photo, with Comiskey. It  includes players Theodore Jackson, Fred McMullen, Claude Williams, Joe “Shoeless” Jackson, James Scott, Urban Faber, Eddie Cicotte. Dave Danforth. Eddie Collins, Happy Felsch, Fred McMullen, Reb Russell, Ray Schalls and Buck Weaver.

“The picture is just the coolest thing I’ve ever had,” Felkamp said.

It’s not for sale, he told fellow baseball fans.

Felkamp, a  long-time baseball fan, originally from Chicago, mentioned another love of his baseball life. He had many years playing ball at the White Sox Fantasy Camps. He reported each year to play catcher and learn from White Sox heroes.

“A friend of mine had gone to a Dodgers (Los Angeles) fantasy camp, showed me a photo, and I got hooked,” Felkamp said. “The camp was so much fun, to be on teams coached by Harold Baines, Ron Kittle, and Robin Ventura.”

At the camps, he became friends with several of the MLB players, especially Baines, the hero of the 1983 AL West winning clincher game.

“I attended Game Three of the 2005 World Series in Baines’ box,” Felkamp, who grew up on the south side of Chicago, said.