THE EVOLUTION OF A BALLPARK SOCIETY: BASEBALL SPECTATORSHIP IN NEW YORK CITY, 1876-1890 A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Guelph by BEN ROBINSON In partial fulfilment of requirements for the degree of Master of Arts April, 2009 © Ben Robinson, 2009 Library and Archives Bibliotheque et 1*1 Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de I'edition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington OttawaONK1A0N4 OttawaONK1A0N4 Canada Canada Your Me Votre ref6rence ISBN: 978-0-494-58408-8 Our file Notre reference ISBN: 978-0-494-58408-8 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accorde une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library and permettant a la Bibliotheque et Archives Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par telecommunication ou par I'lnternet, preter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des theses partout dans le loan, distribute and sell theses monde, a des fins commerciales ou autres, sur worldwide, for commercial or non­ support microforme, papier, electronique et/ou commercial purposes, in microform, autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. 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While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires aient inclus dans in the document page count, their la pagination, il n'y aura aucun contenu removal does not represent any loss manquant. of content from the thesis. ••I Canada ABSTRACT THE EVOLUTION OF A BALLPARK SOCIETY: BASEBALL SPECTATORSHIP IN NEW YORK CITY, 1876-1890 Ben Robinson Advisor: University of Guelph, 2009 Professor Susan Nance It is the specific intention of this thesis to illustrate that, between 1876 and 1890, New York City baseball spectators underwent a maturation process diat saw them become a distinct class of consumers. Consistently New Yorkers exerted their own will when it came to baseball, rejecting the aspects of baseball that they did not find appealing, and championing those they especially enjoyed. Those New Yorkers who sat in the bleachers, the grandstand, or peered through knotholes were not passive in their devotion to baseball. On the contrary, New Yorkers went to the Polo Grounds and St. George Grounds because there they could assume the position of active participants that desired to assert varying degrees of individual and collective character. Ultimately, it was the sheer breadth of attractions professional baseball offered that seduced the public and lured diem to the ballpark time and time again. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people helped me complete this thesis. I would like to drank, first and foremost, my advisor Professor Susan Nance for her endless encouragement throughout the entire process. Her confidence in my project and ideas inspired me to give my all to this thesis. As well, I would like to thank Professor Richard Reid, Professor Alan Gordon, and Professor Alan McDougall for their willingness to be a part of this project and for offering such valuable insights. I would also like to thank my family and friends. Without the urging of my parents, Ron and Ruth Robinson, it is unlikely that I would have undertaken graduate studies. Last but not least, my Grandmother Isobel Harris and girlfriend Lindsey Lorimer never failed to offer their encouragement and belief in my abilities. Without their support, especially in the final stages, this thesis would surely have looked very different. I TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction 1 Chapter One: 'An Era of Quietness:'The Spectator in Transition, 1876-1882 19 Chapter Two: Professional Baseball Conies to New York City: The Cultivation of the Permanent Spectator 46 Chapter Three: Grandstands and Knotholes: A Portrait of the Emergent Spectator 81 Conclusion 108 Bibliography 113 Appendix., 120 n INTRODUCTION In the 1880s professional baseball finally became a financially viable form of commercial entertainment in New York City as well as in many other places, most notably Chicago, Boston, and St. Louis. Though much is known about the great teams and personalities of the decade, far less has been written about the spectators who afforded the promoters of the baseball business a permanent patronage after years of scattered, though often intense, interest. The underwhelming attention afforded to nineteenth century baseball spectators is surprising given the wealth of scholarly devotion to the sport. Perhaps in part it is due to the fact that those historians who have approached the subject have often found it difficult to clearly define the intrinsic characteristics of the baseball audience as a social group. Nonetheless, sport historian Steven A. Riess has asserted that because scholars have disputed the issue of spectatorship the topic naturally demands further exploration. This thesis explores the rise of the baseball spectator in New York City from 1876 to 1890 in order to more clearly identify and understand the people that patronized professional baseball matches and why they did so. The game in the 1880s, though certainly recognizable by modern standards, was also far different. Constant tinkering with rules and playing dimensions, an ever-expanding playing schedule, and a formidable rate of franchise turnover were part and parcel of a decade marked by trade war between the two major leagues of the period, the National League (NL) and the American Association (AA). Attendance for professional baseball in the 1880s, which had never been higher, reached a high for the decade in 1887 when over 1 Steven A. Riess, "The New Sport History," Reviews in American History 18, no. 3 (September 1990): 314. 1 four million fans visited major league ballparks.2 In New York City from 1883-1887, approximately 1,178,9453 eager fans flocked to see the NL Giants4 and AA Metropolitans play at their respective fields.5 Given the Metropolitans' capture of the 1884 AA championship and popular Giants players such as John Montgomery Ward and "Smiling" Mickey Welch, the 1880s were exciting times to be a baseball fan in New York City. Since the 1880s, baseball has proven to be an immensely popular field for historical study. Although extensive academic study of baseball's history in relation to American society and culture is a relatively recent phenomenon, the sport has generated a vast literature dating back to the earliest days of its popularity, much of it written by fans, reporters, and promoters. Sphere and Ash: History of Baseball (1888) by journalist Jacob Morse, who would start Baseball Magazine in 1907, provided a stepping stone for later historians by focusing on professional baseball's important moments and people, as well as the evolution of its rules and strategies. Morse's fact-driven work, as baseball historian and editor John Thorn has noted, had an obvious debt to the annual baseball guides published by Robert M. 2 Based on research done by Robert L. Tiemann and Pete Palmer. Bill James, The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract (Toronto: Free Press, 2001), 39. 3 David Nemec, The Great Encyclopedia of Nineteenth Century Major League Baseball, Second Edition (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2006), 254-429. 4 The NL Giants were commonly referred to in newspapers as New York City's League club or as the Gothams. For the purposes of this thesis, Giants will be used as this is the nickname the club formally adopted sometime around 1885. David Nemec, The Beer and Whiskey League: The Illustrated History of the American Association — Baseball's Renegade Major League (New York City: Lyons & Burford, 1994), 103. The San Francisco Giants, which moved from New York City in 1958, continue to use the nickname today. 5 The Polo Grounds, located in Harlem, where the Giants played exclusively for the period of years covered in this study, was divided into two different, opposing fields. The Giants played on the southeast diamond. In 1885, the Giants shared the southeast diamond with the Metropolitans. The Metropolitans played at a variety of fields. In 1883 the club split time at the Polo Grounds' southeast diamond and southwest diamond while in 1884 the club played a third of its games at the Polo Grounds and the rest at the newly constructed Metropolitan Park located in East Harlem along the East River. For the last two years of the Metropolitans' existence the club played at the St. George Grounds on Staten Island. Philip Lowry, Green Cathedrals: The Ultimate Celebration of Major League and Negro League Ballparks (New York City: Walker & Company, 2006), 147-149. 2 DeWitt, Albert G. Spalding, and A. J. Reach.6 Along with entrepreneur and author Thomas W. Lawson's The Krank: His Language and What It Means, also published in 1888, these industry guides and accounts are the only nineteenth century considerations of baseball's place in American society. Though more social commentary than history, Lawson's often witty and sarcastic examination of the "krank," or baseball fan, is the earliest and most in- depth consideration of the baseball spectator's intrinsic characteristics and emerging lexicon. Most importantly, Lawson recognizes that, by the time of writing, spectators formed a distinct social group that, compared to spectators in the 1860s and 1870s, had "reached a high state of cultivation."7 For Lawson, what characterized the baseball spectator was much more apparent in the 1880s than it had been in the decades before.