Pitching Patriotism: Fourth of July Baseball in the Late Nineteenth Century

Abstract

Pitching PatriotismFourth of July Baseball in the Late Nineteenth Century Adam J. Criblez (bio) An 1884 article in the Charlotte Observer noted, "The fourth of July is no sort of a fourth at all without a game of baseball."1 From the end of the Civil War to the turn of the twentieth century, both the sport of baseball and commemorations of the national holiday changed dramatically. In 1869, Harry Wright and the Cincinnati Red Stockings fielded the first openly professional baseball team and, just seven years later, a group of businessmen founded the National League. By 1900, Ban Johnson's American League threatened the baseball monopoly and, after a merger, the modern big leagues began to take shape, culminating in the first World Series, held in 1903. Just as baseball changed, so too did Independence Day celebrations. Patriotic orations and civic-sponsored parades which typified antebellum Fourths gave way to family picnics, fireworks, and, of course, baseball games. Professional baseball teams in the second half of the nineteenth century understood the importance of holidays to maximize revenue. In the era of the six-day work week and blue laws banning Sunday baseball in many major league cities, owners took full advantage of off-days, like the Fourth of July, to bring folks to the ballpark.2 As early as 1877, Chicago's Fourth of July baseball attendance was breaking national records—drawing an estimated twelve thousand for a single game.3 By 1895, a record thirty-six thousand Chicagoans packed the West Side Ball Park to watch a doubleheader featuring the hometown Colts and the visiting Cincinnati Reds.4 This tradition of the holiday doubleheader persisted until the mid-1960s, as owners routinely scheduled two games apiece on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Independence Day.5 Unsurprisingly, then, during the nineteenth century, the Fourth of July marked an important financial milestone for many professional clubs. "The Fourth of July is a sort of day of salvation for the weak and tottering clubs," an 1894 newspaper article remarked, "and they bravely keep heads above water long enough to get the benefit of a good-paying holiday crowd."6 [End Page 1] But National and American League owners were not alone in recognizing the potential alliance between baseball and the Fourth of July. In fact, my emphasis here is not on professional baseball, but is instead focused on amateur baseball—specifically contests between nearby towns or rival civic organizations broadly referred to as match games. Over the course of the late nineteenth century, match games on the Fourth of July encouraged debates about the role of sporting traditions in American patriotism, to stimulate interregional civic rivalries, and to provide cathartic release and relaxation for players and fans. Today, few Americans have a difficult time connecting the Fourth of July to baseball. In March of 2018, for example, Major League Baseball released its jersey and cap designs for the Fourth and every team had a patriotically themed alternate uniform. Even the Toronto Blue Jays sport a jersey with American and Canadian flags on opposite sleeves. But in the late nineteenth century, Americans were divided on the patriotic significance of baseball. Some reports demonstrate a clear and positive connection between baseball and the Fourth. One newspaper declared that "the national game is the most appropriate sport for the national holiday."7 Another argued that "it was extremely proper that the nation's birthday should be celebrated in the baseball game, with a close, and remarkably fine, game between the Providence nine, the reigning champions, and the Chicagos, the undisputed coming heroes of the diamond."8 In Buffalo, a local paper lamented the fact that the local Bisons only split an 1897 doubleheader with the Toronto Canucks, for "it would have been a treat to the loyal Americans who patronize baseball in this city, to have seen the Yankees trounce Her Majesty's subjects right out of their boots … [on] the celebration of the Glorious Fourth."9 Yet not all reports were so positive, and many blamed baseball for negatively impacting celebrations of the national holiday. Overemphasizing baseball, it seemed, took away from the sentimental meaning of America's natal day. "This holiday...