Sunday Baseball Research Articles

When Sunday Baseball Came to Brooklyn

When Sunday Baseball Came to Brooklyn

Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball by Richard Hershberger

Reviewed by: Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball by Richard Hershberger Lindsay John Bell Richard Hershberger. Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2019. 320 pp. Cloth, $38.00. Why are players allowed to overrun first base and no other bases? Why are teams allotted three outs per their half inning? Why did the National League once have the power to fire umpires? In Strike Four: The Evolution of Baseball, Richard Hershberger addresses the answers to these questions—and many more—as he explores the transformation of baseball rules from the early years of amateur play to today's professional game. His work attempts to recreate the possible questions and conversations that led to the modifications to America's Pastime. Hershberger offers a comprehensive examination of rule changes over the years, but the extent of his analysis is limited by his insular approach to the topic. Strike Four posits that any change to how people played baseball can be traced to one—or a combination—of three reasons: a desire to shorten the length of the game; increasing or decreasing the number of runs scored in a game; and aiding the umpires in performing their duties. The book's implicit argument is the contention that baseball's only constant has been change. Hershberger asserts that the evolution of the rules were small and effective tweaks that did not radically alter the play of the game at the time of the change, producing a perception by many today that baseball has never really changed at all. He arranges the chapters chronologically to reveal how slow and steady adjustments to one particular part of the game over several decades completely transformed it without creating a massive disruption to playing the sport at any point along the way. His chapters dealing with pitching illustrate this point. The sport always used a pitcher to put the ball in play, but the act of throwing the ball to a batter underwent multiple modifications that make the modern delivery nearly unrecognizable in comparison to the game's early years. The most fascinating parts of Strike Four are the anecdotes and random facts related to particular phases in the sport's history, which offer compelling stories about the rules. Hershberger discusses the meaning of "knocking a pitcher out of the box." He mentions that people's desire to play baseball on the ice in the winter contributed to a rule that allowed a baserunner to overrun first base. He also adds an intriguing point about the expansion of the umpires' jurisdiction of the strike zone by noting that the first recorded instance of a player arguing balls and strikes occurred in 1866. Accounts like these are what make Strike Four an entertaining read. Hershberger states that his work is important in-part because, "Surprisingly [End Page 127] little attention has been devoted to the evolution of the rules" (285). His assertion is correct because there is not an abundance of books devoted exclusively to baseball rules. However, his statement also reveals the main weakness of Strike Four. Baseball—and the various changes to the game's rules—did not occur in a vacuum. They are the product of economic, political, and/or cultural forces from which sports cannot be separated. He states, "Rules are changed to counter perceived problems" (269), yet perceived problems extend beyond the play on the field. The closest Hershberger comes to accounting for cultural influences on the sport comes in chapter 19 with his look at blue laws. He details that in 1931 Pennsylvania was the last state to abolish a law that prohibited Sunday baseball. At times, Hershberger appears preoccupied with the ball diamond to the point he neglects certain influential events in American history that could offer a more persuasive conclusion for certain rule changes. Divorcing his analysis of the developments in the game from the broader history of the United States removes eras like the Gilded Age. His work does not consider the effect of unbridled capitalism on all types of businesses, including baseball. Owners had interest in growing profits, which affected the game's rules at times. There are also pages with lengthy block quotes...

Kansas Baseball, 1858–1941 by Mark E. Eberle

Reviewed by: Kansas Baseball, 1858–1941 by Mark E. Eberle Charlie Bevis Mark E. Eberle. Kansas Baseball, 1858–1941. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2017. 400 pp. Paper, $27.95. In this extensive survey of baseball played by many types of teams, Eberle undertakes an ambitious effort to document the growth of the sport in the state of Kansas that ranges the full spectrum from amateur and semipro to professional (both minor and major league). Divided into two parts, “Early History of Baseball in Kansas” and “Historical Baseball Parks in Kansas,” this book is not just a study of baseball from a single-state focus. The author’s insights extend to towns and cities in every state through his lens that intersects baseball and community development. As Eberle aptly notes, “In many towns, the local baseball team was an important source of community pride and unity, perhaps even a surrogate for the competition among towns vying for advantage in economic growth and prosperity” (32–34). [End Page 186] In Part I of the book, Eberle examines seven varieties of baseball teams to illustrate the diversity of the sport within the state, utilizing hard-to-locate research from the basements of archives and microfilm cabinets of local libraries. In addition to white-male town teams, minor-league teams, and barnstorming major-league teams, Eberle reviews teams comprised of women, African Americans, American Indians, and Mexican Americans. In each chapter Eberle toggles between a comprehensive review of the team type and a related broader theme or biographical sketch of a player. This combination helps to extend the applicability of the material beyond Kansas. Excursions into the history of Sunday baseball and night baseball in Kansas are highlights of Part I. In the chapter on town teams, Eberle provides an overview of Sunday baseball legality, where ball games on the Lord’s Day were “nestled between church services in the morning and evening” and played amid “strong sentiment into the early 1900s opposing any type of organized recreational activities on the Sabbath” (37). Even after the Kansas Supreme Court in 1909 officially sanctioned Sunday baseball, local municipal ordinances continued to stifle Sunday games in some locales. Eberle’s analysis of the first-ever minor-league night game in April 1930 at Riverside Park in Independence, Kansas, is also enlightening, as this game ushered in the era of baseball under artificial lights, which began “as a novelty, but became a necessity during the 1930s” (139–140). How the portable lighting system of the Kansas City Monarchs, a Negro League team, found its way to permanent installation at Larks Park in Hays, in western Kansas, is also intriguing. Biographical sketches add context to what some readers may view as an overly dry review of teams and games in each chapter in Part I. Most compelling are the portraits of John “Topeka Jack” Johnson, an African American, and Emmett “Chief ” Bowles, an American Indian. Eberle’s lengthy examination of how Blue Rapids, Kansas, came to be a stop on the 1913 cross-country barnstorming tour of the New York Giants is a fascinating look at baseball’s role in community development. Of the four dozen playing sites on the tour, Blue Rapids, a small rural community in northeastern Kansas, “was the smallest town to host a game and was the only town in Kansas to do so” (154). In Part II of the book, Eberle examines the nine oldest ballparks in Kansas that are still in use today, which provides a valuable look at how Depression-era relief programs (especially the WPA) fueled ballpark construction and gave longevity to baseball in the state. Beyond the construction details of the grandstand built at each ballpark, Eberle provides a history of baseball in the city or town where the ballpark is located. These nine chapters are perhaps the greatest strength of the book, as each chapter is a case study of how baseball [End Page 187] played a fundamental role in community development, culminating in the ballpark as physical manifestation of those development efforts. For example, the baseball team in the town of Chanute, in southeastern Kansas, started out as a town team, progressed to a minor-league...

Tim Keefe: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Pitcher and Player-Rights Advocate by Charlie Bevis

Reviewed by: Tim Keefe: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Pitcher and Player-Rights Advocate by Charlie Bevis Frank G. Houdek Charlie Bevis. Tim Keefe: A Biography of the Hall of Fame Pitcher and Player-Rights Advocate. Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2015. 292 pp. Paper, $29.95. Despite winning 342 major-league games and serving as a driving force behind both the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players, baseball's first labor union, and its offshoot, the Players' League (PL), Hall of Fame pitcher Tim "Sir Timothy" Keefe is virtually unknown to the average fan and often overlooked by even knowledgeable baseball writers. That he played in the nineteenth century, left behind little written evidence of his life outside the ballpark, and was a "virtual recluse" (236) during the final three decades of his life is part of the explanation. But he also has been overshadowed by John Montgomery Ward, his New York Giants teammate, fellow labor leader, and, for a time, brother-in-law. Unlike Keefe, Ward, a Columbia-trained lawyer, wrote prolifically about player rights and continued to represent them in the courtroom long after his own playing days were over. Consequently, when the leadership of the Brotherhood and PL is discussed, the focus is almost always on Ward, seldom on Keefe, though both were intimately involved in their creation and operation until they collapsed in late 1890. Not surprisingly, Ward is the subject of two full-length biographies, Keefe none. Charlie Bevis seeks to address this oversight in his new book on Keefe, the first-ever biography of the man who holds the record for most consecutive seasons of 30 or more pitching wins (6) and remains tied with Rube Marquard for the record for most consecutive victories in a season (19). As with his other baseball work, most notably his book on Sunday baseball, Tim Keefe is extensively researched, with frequent reliance on primary sources, and well written. Bevis is to be commended not just for achieving a fully realized portrait of the modest and privacy-seeking Keefe, but also providing the reader useful information about the potato famine and resulting Irish emigration; amateur, [End Page 190] semi-pro, and college baseball in the 19th century; the struggle between players and owners which led first to the Brotherhood in 1885 and then to the Players' League in 1889–90; and, most important, the artisan tradition in which Keefe was raised (his father was a skilled carpenter and house builder) and which he sought to apply to his career as a ballplayer. Bevis writes that "Keefe considered himself to be an artisan of the baseball profession" (9), and he continually stresses the significance of the apprentice-journeyman-master system for Keefe. Bevis tells Keefe's story in a linear fashion, beginning with the emigration of his father from Ireland to the United States in 1847, moving quickly through his childhood (in part because there is little information about it), covering his growth as a ballplayer playing with amateur and semipro teams and in the minor leagues, and his ascension to the major leagues with Troy of the National League in 1880 at the age of 23. Bevis is able to describe Keefe's greatest successes as a pitcher, with the New York Metropolitans of the American Association (1883–84) and New York Giants of the National League (1885–89), in much detail because of the extensive coverage newspapers of the day gave to the national pastime. He focuses on Keefe's abilities as a master of "strategic" or "clever pitching" (103), noting the many types of pitches he threw, all with varying speeds, arm motions (sidearm to overhand), and positions in the pitcher's box, as well as his decidedly modern approach of studying the strengths and weaknesses of each batter. Separate chapters are devoted to his 42-victory season in 1886, his 19 consecutive wins in 1888, and his ability to adapt to the numerous pitching rule changes that occurred during his career (a complete list is provided in an appendix). Bevis also records Keefe's offseason work as a college pitching coach, land owner, and sporting goods proprietor, as well as his contributions about pitching to...

The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game by Edward Achorn (review)

Reviewed by: The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game by Edward Achorn Ron Kates Edward Achorn. The Summer of Beer and Whiskey: How Brewers, Barkeeps, Rowdies, Immigrants, and a Wild Pennant Fight Made Baseball America’s Game. Philadelphia: Public Affairs, 2013. 291 pp. Paper, $26.99. As author Edward Achorn notes in his preface, “the American Association’s summer of 1883 … marvelously opens a window, as baseball always does, into the culture of America of its time—the harsh struggle, the cruel and mocking racism, the heavy drinking, and the triumphant, glorious spirit of individual achievement of the day” (xiii). Focusing primarily on two teams, the St. Louis Brown Stockings and Philadelphia Athletics, Achorn offers readers a panoramic perspective of the season while also taking time to profile select stars from both teams. Along the way, aided by illustrations drawn by Cincinnati Reds first baseman Long John Reilly, as well as anecdotes and game descriptions provided by contemporary reporters and players, the reader is transported back to “the year America went baseball mad” (xiii), a time when the competition between the established and highbrow National League and the freewheeling American Association resulted in far-reaching ramifications. While Achorn profiles Hall of Famers (Charlie Comiskey, Tim Keefe, and Cap Anson), should-be Hall of Famers (Pete Browning, Bobby Mathews, and Tony Mullane), and other period characters (including Arlie Latham, the “Freshest Man on Earth,” [63] and “The Only” Nolan), he spends significant portions of the book focusing on Brown Stockings owner—and St. Louis beer magnate—Chris Von der Ahe. Achorn praises Von der Ahe’s “vision of making a day at the ballpark a more exciting experience than ever before, [End Page 141] with cheap tickets, booming beer sales, and big crowds adorned by beautiful women” (12), as well as his scheduling Sunday games as a means to “welcome working men and fellow immigrants, those who toiled all week and could not break free from their jobs to attend a game” (13). Achorn describes how Von der Ahe displays both a Veeckian innovative spirit alongside a Steinbrenneresque combativeness—unafraid to challenge the status quo concerning Sunday baseball and ballpark beer sales. The Brown Stockings owner’s propensity to interfere with the on-field activities of his manager and players only intensified as the Association’s pennant race continued into September. In similar, albeit unequal fashion, Achorn also portrays Von der Ahe’s Philadelphia counterpart, renowned minstrel actor and former ballplayer Lew Simmons, whose dedication to his team borders on obsession. Much of the book’s on-field descriptions center on the four series the Brown Stockings and Athletics played throughout the American Association’s 1883 season. Incredibly, as Achorn notes, the penultimate series—and the last one hosted in Philadelphia—drew “a stunning 50,000 [spectators] for the series” (191), a remarkable figure given the size of the ballparks, the limited spectator base, and the relative newness of the game. Indeed, more than a few modern teams would be pleased with a similar draw over the course of a weekend series. In this series Achorn introduces readers to “Jumping Jack” Jones, the Yale pitcher whose motion involved him “leap[ing] into the air as he released the ball, flinging his arms and legs out in a manner that reminded reporters of a child’s jumping jack” (187). Jones, a character familiar to those fans who can recall Mark Fidrych, Al Hrabosky, and Turk Wendell, not only beat the Brown Stockings in a pivotal game during this series, he also clinched the pennant for the Athletics with an extra-inning win over the Baltimore Orioles. A hero to Philadephians grateful for his contribution to the Athletics pennant, Jones never pitched again in the major leagues, returning to Yale to finish medical school and then head to Harvard to study dentistry (246). But for these accounts of his Doyle Alexander-like September performance, Jumping Jack Jones would remain a footnote to nineteenth-century baseball history. And his story, like others Achorn has uncovered, points to the book’s value as a means of further preserving less-told stories...

Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball by Rebecca T. Alpert (review)

Reviewed by: Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball by Rebecca T. Alpert William M. Simons (bio) Out of Left Field: Jews and Black Baseball. By Rebecca T. Alpert. New York: Oxford University Press, 2011. ixix + 236236 pp. Coming of age, Rebecca Alpert heard from her family and Reform temple that the major league baseball debut of Jackie Robinson in 1947 represented a validation of American democracy, a victory facilitated by Judaism's commitment to social justice. She later recognized, however, that continued inequality muted black celebration of Robinson's achievement. As Jews evolved from race to white ethnic group in the national culture, they failed to fully comprehend that anti-black racism would prove far more intractable than American anti-Semitism. The common trajectory of Jewish assimilation and economic upward mobility did not prove normative for African Americans. Alpert argues that blacks, like Jews, accepted stereotypes of the other that impacted interaction between the two groups in America and its national pastime. For centuries, restrictions and prejudice had relegated European Jews to circumscribed spheres, sometimes as rent collectors, moneylenders, and traders, positioned precariously between dominant elites and resentful workers. In the United States, numbers of Jewish shopkeepers and landlords appeared to retain attributes of that uncomfortable middleman status in black neighborhoods. Unfavorable perceptions of the Jewish economic presence in their communities, according to Alpert, impacted the African-American view of Jews in black baseball. Out of Left Field chronicles the intersection between Jews and black baseball in the years before and after Robinson joined the Brooklyn Dodgers. Just as blacks and Jews gave divergent meaning to Robinson, the two groups viewed their shared baseball experience from sharply different perspectives. Documenting a substantial Jewish presence in black baseball, Alpert rejects facile generalizations that fail to capture the complexity and nuance of the phenomenon. Out of Left Field posits three distinct roles played by the Jewish outsider in black baseball: players, entrepreneurs, and reformers. Black Jewish ballplayers found their most notable representation in the Belleville Grays, a team sponsored by Temple Beth El in Belleville, Virginia. Alpert presents a seminal account of the Grays, a team that reflected the permeable boundaries between league and independent play [End Page 315] in black baseball. With roots in the Hebrew Israelite movement, Temple Beth El observed Jewish customs and rituals despite an eclecticism that also reflected African and Christian elements. Through the baseball prowess of the Grays, Temple Beth El sought respect and revenue for its black Jewish community. As booking agents, promoters, league officials, and team owners, Jewish businessmen occupied a central role in black baseball. Alpert focuses on three of those Jewish entrepreneurs, Ed Gottlieb, Syd Pollock, and Abe Saperstein. These Jewish businessmen effectively promoted black baseball, but their scheduling of barnstorming games ran counter to the establishment of stable Negro Leagues. With little commitment to ending Jim Crow baseball, Jewish businessmen recognized that integration would ultimately destroy their income from black baseball. The contrast between the lucrative profits of Jewish middlemen and the modest remuneration of Negro league owners and players created resentment. Although generous to individual players, Jewish businessmen contributed little to the creation of a strong infrastructure for black baseball. The profits garnered by Jewish businessmen, augmented by their encouragement of stereotypical minstrel clowning by players, perpetuated negative Shylock imagery in the black press. Attuned to the disparate motivations and goals of Jewish involvement in black baseball, Out of Left Field also discusses those Jews who responded to racism in baseball from the vantage point of social justice. William Benswanger, an anomaly as the Jewish owner of a major league franchise during his tenure as president of the Pittsburgh Pirates, employed a black trainer, rented Forbes Field to the Homestead Grays, and expressed rhetorical support for baseball integration. In Boston, Isadore Muchnick, a Jewish city councilman, threatened the Red Sox with denial of permits for Sunday baseball, forcing the franchise to grant an April 1945 tryout to three black ballplayers, though the exercise did not result in a signing. Hank Greenberg, baseball's first great Jewish player, finished his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1947, Jackie Robinson's first season in the major leagues. After an inadvertent...

"A Puritan Sunday"

headline -A Puritan Sunday-appeared above the fold on the front page of the Walla Walla Statesman's July 17, 1902, edition. article described a successful campaign by Protestant pastors and temperance ladies to enforce Washington State's long moribund Sunday closing laws. most disturbing line came near the end of the article: Under a strict interpretation of the law, it is doubtful whether Sunday base ball playing within the city limits is permissible.1 Although baseball had long served as the national pastime, Sunday baseball occasionally collided with an even older tradition- the puritan practice of enforcing Sunday closing laws, or blue laws-even in the early days of the new century. Accordingly, a revival of local puritanism in 1901 threatened Sunday baseball in Walla Walla, Washington. incident-which came to involve Bibles, booze, and baseball-threatened two successive baseball seasons, produced a state Supreme Court decision, and gained nationwide publicity before Walla Walla fans of Sunday baseball could finally enjoy their favorite sport in peace.Blue Laws and BaseballBlue laws-local or state laws that required Sabbath observance and prohibited labor or closed businesses on Sunday-developed early in American history. Although Episcopalian Virginia required church attendance in 1610, historian Alexis McCrossen notes, The designation 'blue laws,' which colloquially refers to those laws that regulate morality, suggests Puritan and Pilgrim influence.2 Massachusetts, for example, banned Sunday labor in 1650, while the New Haven (Rhode Island) colony provided the term itself when it printed its theocratic code on blue paper in 1665. Additional blue laws prohibited the sale of liquor, leisure time activities such as horseracing and boxing, and even hunting on Sundays.3Two circumstances-industrialism and immigration-soon undermined the Puri- tan Sabbath's ability to regulate morality. With a six-day workweek, industrial workers saw Sunday as a day of recreation rather than a day of rest. Likewise, a new wave of immigrants brought with them the Continental Sunday when they arrived at Ellis Island. Thus, according to McCrossen, were especially busy in [immigrant commu- nities], for it was then that entire families went to drink beer, visit with friends, listen to music, and dance, just as German and others did in Europe.4Baseball, as the national pastime, quickly experienced the same conflict. National League banned Sunday baseball in 1878, even expelling the Cincinnati Red Stockings after the 1880 season for violating the policy. always contrary American Association allowed Sunday games from its inception in 1882 until its collapse after the 1891 season. When the National League absorbed four AA teams in 1892, it allowed, but discouraged, the option of playing Sunday games. American League allowed Sunday baseball when it began play in 1901. National League eventually surrendered to the inevitable, allowing a full schedule of Sunday games by 1934.5Blue laws, widely established but often ignored, occasionally ensnared individual baseball players. For example, the Ohio Supreme Court upheld the arrest, trial, and con- viction of John Powell for playing Sunday baseball in May 1897. In State v. Powell (April 19, 1898), the Court rejected the argument that the law violated the state's constitutional separation of church and state. Court concluded instead, A law enacted for sufficient reasons of a secular nature, as the public health, cannot be held invalid because there is a variety of religious notion upon the subject.6Walla Walla, however, had not had any problems with Sunday baseball before 1901. professional Pacific Interstate League-Walla Walla, plus Pendleton, La Grande, and Baker City, Oregon-had played games on Sundays without criticism or opposition during its only season in 1891. Nearby Milton, Oregon, eight miles south of Walla Walla across the state line, had briefly experienced a different past when an evangelical pastor had convinced the town council to prohibit Sunday games in May 1891. …

The Saints on Sunday: Ballparks and Sabbatarianism in St. Paul

In the industrializing United States of a century ago, play and recreation became commodities--even on Sunday. This development challenged a Christian America that held the entire Sabbath sacred. Mass-market toys, like popular Noah's ark sets whose content and message promoted scriptural reflection and Christian contemplation, were considered appropriate forms of Sunday recreation for children. In other words, child's play could be acceptable on Sunday. For adults, however, the situation was more complex. Organized games, such as baseball, were less amenable to Christian messages than biblical toys. Paying to observe professionals play the game was even less likely to promote these beliefs. Therefore, Sunday baseball became a source of social tension, particularly in urban America. Since Catholic and other liturgical immigrants accustomed to the relaxed European Sabbath challenged the evangelical Protestant native stock for control of urban life, this religious dispute was overlaid with tensions of class, ethnicity, and politics. This story is about a series of such conflicts in St. Paul, Minnesota, where Sunday baseball debates not only reflected the tensions noted above--matters already discussed in the urban and sports history literature--but also had an important impact on the location and design of late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century ballparks. The Sunday baseball fight helped push the St. Paul Saints to build, renovate, and equip four principal ballparks in fifteen years. While Sabbatarians voiced objections about baseball and ball grounds in St. Paul, the reasons behind these concerns were more nuanced and complex than the arguments might indicate. That is, a popular issue of the day was successfully manipulated to serve other, nonreligious purposes. SABBATH WAS MADE FOR MAN, AND NOT FOR THE BASEBALL GAME! Speaking these words from his pulpit in May 1895, the Reverend J. C. Hull of St. Paul's Clinton Avenue Methodist Episcopal Church added his voice to the chorus that publicly objected to Sunday baseball games in St. Paul that spring. (1) The controversy in which Hull participated was only one of many that flared up in the city, repeating a scene played out across the country as Sabbatarians made their stand against the desecration of the Lord's Day. The American Sabbatarian tradition--which prohibited Sunday work, disruption of the peace, and various unseemly activities like sports, gambling, and entertainment--dates back to the country's colonial origins. These prohibitions remained strongest in the East, where they had been written into seventeenth-century legal codes and enforced for two centuries. However, maintaining control over belief and behavior became increasingly difficult in the face of the explicit challenges of the nineteenth century, among them westward expansion, industrialization, urbanization, and ethnoreligious diversity. (2) Sunday entertainments presented the greatest and eventually most successful threats to Sabbatarian restrictions, and the growing popularity of baseball made it among the most significant of these amusements. In Minnesota, laws against Sabbath-breaking were included in territorial statutes, carried over into statehood in 1858, and revised through the late nineteenth century. Nevertheless, certain things necessary for the good order, health, or comfort of the community were allowed. Various amendments to these laws suggest that definitions of what constituted good order were contested. For instance, it was legal to operate an ice factory or to use shoe horses to transport the U.S. mail. Baseball, however, was clearly prohibited. Between the drafting of the original laws in the 1840s and 1909, when Sunday baseball became legal in the state, the city of St. Paul experienced the rise of those social and economic forces that hastened the decline of strict Sunday observance. (3) THE 1895 CONTROVERSY OVER SUNDAY BASEBALL When Charles Comiskey moved with his Sioux City Western League team to St. …

Sunday Baseball: The Major Leagues' Struggle to Play Baseball on the Lord's Day, 1876–1934 (review)

Sunday Baseball: The Major Leagues' Struggle to Play Baseball on the Lord's Day, 1876–1934 (review)

Rocky Point: A Lone Outpost of Sunday Baseball in Sabbatarian New England

Rocky PointA Lone Outpost of Sunday Baseball in Sabbatarian New England Charlie Bevis (bio) Baseball games played on Sunday at Rocky Point, Rhode Island, from 1891 through 1917 illustrate the dichotomy that Sunday baseball once presented in New England society. The term Sunday baseball was once as divisive a term as abortion is today, during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries when the nation struggled with Sunday changing from a day of rest to a day of leisure and ultimately to a day of recreation. Many citizens, particularly the more prosperous and influential ones, held a deep religious conviction that baseball detracted from the sanctity of the biblically specified day of rest. Where Puritan influence was reflected in the statutes, such as the laws of most states in the eastern portion of the country, Sunday laws were used to prohibit professional baseball games. Before 1900 the Sunday laws posed a huge problem for many people who desired to view a match of the increasingly popular game of professional baseball. At the turn of the century the typical workweek for most working people was at least six days of ten-hour days, with Sunday and the infrequent holi-day the only time off. "Sunday stood in opposition to relentless work for the majority of nineteenth century Americans," Alexis McCrossen wrote in Holy Day, Holiday: The American Sunday. "The six working days blended into one unit—the workweek—in contrast to Sunday, the day of rest."1 Patrons of ballgames played on Monday through Saturday needed to have the flexibility in their work schedules to find the time to attend an afternoon contest, since baseball was then played exclusively during the daytime. Baseball owners appealed to middle-class patrons to fill seats in their ballparks, not only because the middle class had the time and money to attend games but also because they helped deem baseball as respectable recreation. Workers in the burgeoning industries of America generally were excluded from the opportunity to observe a ballgame. As one historian wrote: "The result of an onerous work load was that it was difficult for craftsmen and almost impossible [End Page 78] for unskilled personnel to attend a ball game unless they worked unusual hours like a baker, took time off from work, were unemployed, had a rare holiday, or lived in a city that permitted Sunday baseball."2 In the 1890s the unavailability of Sunday baseball within a 150-mile radius made Rocky Point, Rhode Island, a popular destination for many New England citizens seeking to watch regular games of the Providence Minor League club, as well as exhibition matches with Major League teams. For a quarter century until World War I, Rocky Point was a tiny island of illicit professional baseball on Sunday within the vast New England ocean of strict Puritan observance of a Sunday day of rest. Open Air and Sunshine "The same set of laws govern both Providence and Rocky Point and by statute Sunday baseball is illegal," the Washington Post described the situation in 1918. "But the latter happens to be under the jurisdiction of a set of county officials who do not believe that healthful recreation in the open air and sunshine will corrupt the public morals just because it is taken on the first day of the week."3 While Massachusetts law prior to 1929 prohibited the Boston Major League teams in the National and American Leagues from staging games on their home grounds on Sunday, Rhode Island officials permitted a Minor League team in Providence to conduct Sunday games at the Rocky Point resort located fifteen miles south of Providence in Warwick, Rhode Island. Providence played more than 100 Sunday games at Rocky Point in Eastern League competition (which was renamed the International League in 1912) as well as dozens of exhibition games against Major League teams. "The New England descendants of the Puritans looked down upon the little state of Rhode Island as a sort of annex to Satan's hideout, because the lax officials of that state made it possible for the baseball fans of Providence and vicinity to revel in professional games on Sundays by traveling on crowded excursion boats...

The league that lasted: 1876 and the founding of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs

In the early 1870s, baseball was chaos, mired in mismanagement and corruption. William Hulbert, the owner of Chicago's National Association team, believed that a league run efficiently with honest competition would survive and flourish. Hulbert, relying on his pragmatic philosophy of molasses now, vinegar later and working with his prize recruit Albert Spalding, founded the National League in 1876. That inaugural season of the National League is chronicled in this heavily documented work. The league fell far short of Hulbert's dreams in its first season, but he stuck to his belief that integrity would win out in the end. He not only prohibited Sunday baseball and the sale and consumption of alcohol within the league's ballparks, but ousted two teams - New York and Philadelphia - from the league because they failed to meet their obligation to finish out the season. Despite the setbacks, scandals, and considerable opposition, all of which are thoroughly covered here, the National League survived its first year.

Before They Were Cardinals: Major League Baseball in Nineteenth-Century St. Louis (review)

Reviewed by: Before They Were Cardinals: Major League Baseball in Nineteenth-Century St. Louis Richard J. Puerzer (bio) Jon David Cash. Before They Were Cardinals: Major League Baseball in Nineteenth-Century St. Louis. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 2002. 279 pp. Cloth, $29.96. Jon David Cash opens this exhaustive study of Major League baseball in nineteenth-century St. Louis with an anecdote establishing the importance of baseball in St. Louis in the late 1800s. The anecdote describes the vice president of the United States, Thomas A. Hendricks, mistaking a raucous crowd of a quarter-million citizens milling about outside his hotel as an enthusiastic gesture [End Page 146] welcoming Hendricks to St. Louis. Assuming the throng is there to see him, the vice president begins to address the crowd from his balcony. He is quickly shouted down by some of the crowd exclaiming that they had just seen Gleason. Confused, Hendricks inquires to someone in the crowd as to whom Gleason might be. He is quickly put in his place, learning that baseball is the only thing on the minds of those assembled and that Gleason is "just the best shortstop the Browns ever had." As Cash often demonstrates throughout his book, baseball often towered in importance over politics in late-nineteenth-century St. Louis. This well-written book is broken chronologically into three parts describing specific events in the early development of baseball in St. Louis. Part 1, covering the years 1875-1877, documents the first rise of Major League baseball in St. Louis. In the early 1870s an economic rivalry between St. Louis and Chicago motivated the civic leaders of St. Louis to form a professional baseball team. In 1874 several prominent St. Louis businessmen formed the St. Louis Brown Stockings, the first professional baseball team based in St. Louis. The Brown Stockings, predecessors of the Cardinals, were successful both on and off the field and established St. Louis as a baseball town. However, due to a gambling scandal in 1877, the future of baseball in St. Louis became uncertain. Part 2 of the book describes the resurrection and growth of Major League baseball in St. Louis over the years 1878-1886. This section of the book naturally centers on Chris Von der Ahe. Von der Ahe, a German immigrant to America, was an entrepreneurial saloon owner in St. Louis who first recognized the profitable relationship that could be developed between beer and baseball. Von der Ahe led a group who purchased and renovated what would become Sportsman's Park, and led the way for the resurgence of baseball in St. Louis. The Brown Stockings would soon become among the most successful baseball franchises in the United States. Part 3 describes the transition from the first generation of Major League players over the period 1887-1891. Von der Ahe played a prominent role in this period as well, rallying for Sunday baseball in St. Louis, feuding with other owners, and generally exerting influence over the still changing game. However, because of his profligate ways and expedited by a disastrous fire at Sportsman's Park, Von der Ahe was forced out of baseball due to bankruptcy. Cash's book, which originally was his doctoral dissertation, does at times read as an academic work. It not only documents the key players, owners, teams, and leagues in these early years of professional baseball but also delves into the impact of economics, civic pride, and society as they shaped professional baseball. This academic approach works in the book's favor for any reader unfamiliar with either the early years of baseball history or this transitional [End Page 147] time in the history of the United States. A great deal of game action, as drawn from the press coverage of the time, is found throughout the book. Numerous pictures, box scores, and graphics supplement the text, which is supported by fifty-six pages of endnotes that not only cite sources but also expound on points made in the text. An extensive bibliography and index are also included. Scattered throughout the book are descriptions of high-salaried players, wealthy owners, salary disputes, labor-management dysfunction, franchise moves, and a variety of scandals reminding...

Sunday baseball: the major leagues' struggle to play baseball on the lord's day, 1876-1934

Playing baseball on Sunday was a divisive issue in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. On one side of the argument were the owners, who wanted to take in more money, and working people, who labored six days a week and wanted to take in a baseball game on the seventh. On the other side were people who thought that the commandment to keep Sunday sacred ought to be obeyed. The story of how Sunday baseball went from being an illegal activity in most areas of the country in 1876 to a legal form of entertainment in all major league cities by 1934 is told in this work. It describes the numerous schemes used to play baseball on Sunday, like playing games in strange places, under odd circumstances and at the inconvenience of players and managers, many of whom were arrested and jailed for attempting to play baseball on Sunday. It covers the foothold Sunday baseball gained in cities like St. Louis, Cincinnati and Chicago in the 1880s and 1890s, its slow spread eastward as the general attitude of the populace toward Sunday baseball gradually changed, and its widespread acceptance after New York passed a law in 1919 making it legal. It was not until 1934, however, that Sunday baseball was played in all major league cities.

Sunday Sport Comes to Pennsylvania: Professional Baseball and Football Triumph over the Commonwealth's Archaic Blue Laws, 1919–1933

Abstract In the years following World War I, Pennsylvanians joined the rest of America in an unprecedented sports boom. They found Sunday a convenient and popular day for engaging in sporting activities, though their desires conflicted with the Commonwealth's 1794 blue law which prohibited sports and amusements on the Lord's Day. During the 20's and early 30's, Pennsylvanians in urban areas defied the Commonwealth's ban on Sunday sport, while Sabbatarian and religious groups insisted on rigid enforcement of the 1794 statute in order to preserve Pennsylvania's strict Sabbath. Sabbatarians successfully kept the blue law in force until 1933 when a combination of forces brought about its modification to permit Sunday baseball and football in Pennsylvania.

Injunction. Nuisance. Sunday Baseball. McMillan v. Kuehnle, 73 Atl. 1054 (N. J.)

Injunction. Nuisance. Sunday Baseball. McMillan v. Kuehnle, 73 Atl. 1054 (N. J.)

Sunday Baseball

Sunday Baseball

Sunday: Sunday Baseball Not a Misdemeanor

Sunday: Sunday Baseball Not a Misdemeanor

Sunday: Sunday Baseball May Be a Nuisance

Sunday: Sunday Baseball May Be a Nuisance

Sunday Baseball

Sunday Baseball