White Sox chairman Reinsdorf officiates wedding of former Rookie of Year Kittle during game

CHICAGO (AP) — 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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