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The state’s 141-year-old blue laws forbade playing any games that might “interrupt the repose” of the Sabbath. But a State Supreme Court justice in Brooklyn and Charlie Ebbets had a different interpretation.

Above left: Outside Ebbets Field at the World Series games in October 1920. Background: Not every state prohibited baseball on Sundays. The last game of the 1906 World Series was played in Chicago on a Sunday.

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BY CHARLES De MOTTE

eople who look forward was the first state “Sabbath to taking in a Sunday law.” Section 2145 of the baseball game might be revised New York State Penal surprised to hear that Code of 1787 outlawed all Psuch a pastime used to public sports played on be illegal on the Sabbath. Sundays and remained in Although blue laws (which also effect for almost 150 years, banned Sunday shopping) until its repeal in 1919. varied considerably from state However, interpretations to state, New York’s Sabbath of that section of the law restrictions actually dated back gradually changed over time; to colonial times; the Statute some observers took it to for Suppressing Immorality, mean that amateur Sunday enacted in 1778 and essentially baseball might be legal if

IMAGES: LIBRARY OF CONGRESS a copy of a 1685 colonial law, played on private grounds or

Above right: Charlie Ebbets, 1915. Below right: Fans enjoy hot dogs outside Ebbets Field, 1920.

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if it did not contravene that the peace and religious Section 265 of the Penal Code, liberty of the community had which prohibited games that been disturbed. interrupted the repose of the community on the Sabbath. Legal Drift Such was the interpretation Following Judge Gaynor’s given by Judge William J. 1894 opinion, which also cur- Gaynor, who rendered an tailed the use of police power opinion to the New York City with respect to Sabbath- Police Commissioner in July breaking, the authorities dras- 1894 concerning the arrest tically cut back their efforts and incarceration of several to interfere with Sunday boys found playing baseball baseball. Even when arrests in a park on Sunday (they were made, magistrates were were let go). Ten years later, unwilling to prosecute unless LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Gaynor, by then a State there was a flagrant violation Supreme Court justice in of the law, such as rowdiness The most vocal and per- Brooklyn, handed down a or public drunkenness. In sistent opposition to Sunday Left and right: Though many were able to attend similar decision, to the effect dismissing numerous charges baseball came from Protestant games during the week at that baseball could be played against ballplayers, magistrates religious groups. America at Ebbets Field, others were within the borough on cited lack of evidence or that time was predominately unable to because of their Sundays unless there was a the reluctance of interested a white Protestant nation, work schedules. specific complaint showing parties to press charges. and many evangelicals consid- ered their values essential to the American way of life. In response to real or perceived violations of the blue laws, groups such as the Sunday Observance Association, the Lord’s Day Alliance, and various ministerial associations were formed, which had their roots in local church congregations but eventually became effective statewide lobbying organizations. However, the dramatic increase in the number of amusements and pastimes besides baseball resulted in a host of legal inconsistencies. Since hunting, golf, cycling, and fishing, though forbidden under the New York Penal LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Code, were solitary sports, they posed no threat to the peace of the community. Similar arguments were made regarding indoor activities.

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Below: The movement to legalize Sunday baseball and other recreational activities met with significant opposition. Ross “Tex” Erwin at Ebbets Field, 1913.

Yet in spite of many test the law and order crowd cases and challenges to the temporarily drove professional contrary, there was no clear baseball out of Rochester. consensus across the state as to what was—or was not— Brooklyn Gets Game permissible. Since baseball was disallowed By the first decade of the (and so enforced) in Manhattan, twentieth century, as amateur New York club owners did and semi-pro baseball received not involve themselves with a putative green light to the issue. But after Charlie NEW YORK STATE ARCHIVES operate discreetly on Sundays, Ebbets, president of the blue law proponents began cash-starved Brooklyn Dodgers, court two months later, to focus on the professional assumed ownership of the Supreme Court Justice Gaynor game. To these evangelical club in 1898, he began mull- had no trouble upholding the critics of Sunday baseball, the ing over a number of schemes charges by declaring that the commercialization of baseball designed to evade the blue mandatory sale of programs prostituted the sport and laws. On April 22, 1904, amounted to an admission catered to the lower classes. Ebbets inaugurated the first fee. But the Brooklyn district But it was economics, not professional Sunday game in attorney, John F. Clarke, while morality, which drove club Brooklyn by ingeniously agreeing with Gaynor’s deci- owners to find a way to stage requiring each spectator to sion, believed that because of Sunday games. For example, purchase a scorecard as the the important legal questions the need to raise funds led the ticket for admission. His involved and the division of directors of the Eastern League scheme was short-lived; the community sentiment on the Syracuse Stars to explore that local Sabbath observance issue, it was essential that possibility, although similar associations quickly lodged the matter should be settled efforts by the Rochester Red a protest that resulted in the by the Court of Appeals. Wings to play at Windsor arrest of three players. On Unfortunately the court only

Beach near Lake Ontario were the advice of counsel, Ebbets affirmed Gaynor’s decision LIBRARY OF CONGRESS squelched by the Law and declared that no more games and didn’t rule on the larger Order League of Irondequoit. would be played until those questions. The drift in legal The loss of Sunday revenues cases were resolved. thinking about the blue laws, and continued harassment by When the cases came to highlighted by subsequent

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To some, it seemed silly that playing baseball on Sunday was a crime. court decisions, centered on ceding decade he had built a the need to give greater new ballpark, Ebbets Field; clarity to Sunday observance. hired a competent Dodgers Stymied in the courts, manager, Wilbert Robinson, professional baseball turned who won a first-time National its attention to the lawmakers. League pennant for the Since electoral apportionment club in 1916; and survived a greatly favored the rural short-lived challenge from the upstate regions that were Brooklyn club of the recently Republican strongholds, the defunct Federal League. But Republicans, backed by the Ebbets was sparked to action Sunday observance lobbies, by a plan arising from league were able to control the meetings in Chicago in May legislature and hence the 1917 to play Sunday games legislative process, blocking in eastern cities and donate the flow of blue law reform proceeds to the U.S. Army. bills that were introduced in In the summer of 1917, Albany. When the Democrats three months after the U.S. briefly gained control of the entered World War I, Ebbets State Assembly in 1911, there decided that the time was was hope among Sunday ripe to stage Sunday baseball, baseball supporters that with all proceeds going to reform legislation would pass. a charitable organization NEW YORK STATE LIBRARY However, in the wake of the connected with war work. tragic Triangle Shirtwaist This proved to be a bad mis- Company fire, the legislature’s calculation: he and manager attention was diverted to Robinson were arrested working hours and industrial following a game against fire and safety regulations— Philadelphia and were subse- which put Sunday legislation quently convicted for violating on the back burner. the Sunday observance law— At the same time, advo- not for charging admission, cates of Sunday baseball but for disturbing the peace. received only lukewarm support from the governor’s Rest—and Recreation office. Republican governors After deciding to suspend the had no interest in changing Sunday games, Ebbets turned the law; similarly, Democratic his attention to politics. He governors like John A. Dix and started by sending a circular his successors, most of whom to candidates in the upcom- were essentially appointees of ing local and state elections in Charles F. Murphy’s Tammany Brooklyn that asked for their Hall machine, were noncom- position on the Sunday base- mittal about Sabbath reform ball issue. The returns were and therefore shy about press- overwhelmingly favorable, ing for changes in the law. and included strong letters of

ISTOCKPHOTO.COM Throughout these legisla- support from New York Mayor tive battles, Charlie Ebbets John Purroy Mitchel and the bided his time. Over the pre- president of New York City’s

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THE ARCHIVES CONNECTION

y research for this Marticle first focused on important newspaper clippings in the Giamatti Library at the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. I also consulted the papers of baseball historian Harold LIBRARY OF CONGRESS Seymour in the special collections of Olin Library at Cornell University, as well as papers related to Syracuse baseball at the Outside Ebbets Field, ca. 1920. Onondaga Historical Association in Syracuse. Material pertaining to the Board of Aldermen, Al Brooklyn introduced a bill to submitted that virtually repli- New York State Penal Smith—who, having served grant local authorities the cated the provisions of the Code was in Cornell’s Law in the State Assembly for power to regulate public Lawson bill in calling for local Library. I relied heavily on eleven years, would become sports on Sunday. A month option. On April 4, 1919, it Ithaca newspapers on the Democratic candidate for later the Lawson bill passed passed the Senate by a narrow microfilm at the Tompkins governor in 1918. the Senate by a vote of 26 to majority, with the Assembly County Public Library. Next, Ebbets directed his 20. With the legislature poised following suit. A subsequent Many New York State message to the clergy. In a to adjourn in a week, pressure flurry of local ordinances from newspapers from 1870 letter to each clergyman in was put on the Assembly to around the state sanctioned to 1924 are online at Brooklyn, he carefully explained act quickly. But the opposition Sabbath games. http://www.fultonhistory. the position of his ball club played its trump card when On Sunday, May 5, 1919, com. The Sporting News, in advocating Sunday baseball sixty-seven Republican assem- record-breaking crowds online at https://paperof and solicited their views on blymen petitioned the Rules poured into Brooklyn’s Polo record.hypernet.ca/papers. the subject. He repeated the Committee to kill the measure, Grounds and Ebbets Field to asp, proved to be an familiar arguments: the stating that it would not be in witness the first legal Sunday invaluable source. A broader importance of conducting the best interest of either the games in the history of the access to newspapers, games in a mannerly fashion state or the Republican Party state. “There were men at including the New York so as not to interfere with to legalize Sunday baseball. the game yesterday,” stated Times, is available from religious services, and the need Advocates renewed their the New York Times, “who, http://www.newspapers. to offer some form of enter- hope for repeal of the blue on account of their work com. tainment for those who could laws with the election of Al during the weekdays, have not spare time from their Smith as governor in November not been able to see a major work and had only Sundays 1918. Smith, called a “shame- league game in years.” The for recreation. less wet” by his opponents rise in attendance afforded by All this spadework was a for his stand against Prohibi- the Sunday crowds at both precursor to what opponents tion, made legalization of major and minor league of the Sunday blue laws hoped baseball on Sunday part of his games enhanced the fortunes would bring about their election campaign. With little of the owners and provided repeal. On March 5, 1918, doubt that he would approve a transition into New York’s Senator Robert R. Lawson of the measure, a new bill was “golden era” of baseball. n

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