After years of saying that the original Comiskey Park was outdated, White Sox owners Jerry Reinsdorf and Eddie Einhorn came very close to moving the team to St. Petersburg, Fla. At the stroke of midnight, the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill allowing the construction of a new stadium, thus saving the Sox. Technically it was midnight, but Governor Jim Thompson actually had stopped the clock because no bills could be passed after that time period.
Meanwhile, Florida baseball fans were stunned as they realized they had been used as a pawn to get a new facility by the power brokers and politicians of Chicago.