Sunday in the Park

The weather on May 4, 1919 was "perfect" for what the Brooklyn Daily Eagle called "an epoch in the history of baseball" in the City of Churches.  And the fans responded, turning out in vast numbers, a crowd estimated at 25,000, reportedly the largest in Ebbets Field's brief history.  In fact, the turnout was greater than the Dodgers two home game in the 1916 World Series.  According to the New York Times, the grandstand was "jammed to capacity," with "animated rows" of standees behind the last row of seats.  Likewise the left field bleachers "held a densely- packed throng which taxed its capacity."  It wasn't quite a sellout, but the empty seats were not due to a lack of fans willing to fill them.  According to the Eagle, the problem was the vast majority of the crowd arrived in the last half hour before game time which "complicated things not a little."  Ticket prices still included the war time tax so prices ranged from 55 cents to $1.65 requiring besieged ticket sellers to make change so frequently that some fans gave up in despair.  This was in spite of Charles Ebbets preparations for the big crowd including having on hand $5,000 in dimes and nickels, some 75,000 coins according to the Eagle.

Brooklyn pitcher Mal Eason is removed from the game, not by his manager, but by a New York City detective who arrested him for playing baseball on Sunday, New York Tribune - June 18, 1906

Unfortunately for the Dodger faithful, their team got off to a slow start.  Aided by an error, the Boston Braves scored two runs off Rube Marquard and led 2-0 going to the bottom of the fourth.  At that point, however, the Dodger offense got going thanks in large measure by a double from Marquard himself, giving the Dodgers a 3-2 lead.  Brooklyn scored three more times in the bottom of the fifth and Marquard basically coasted the rest of the way especially when "a cheer-raising catch" by Hi Myers killed off one potential Boston rally.  None of this, however, was the lead story in the Brooklyn and New York papers.  Instead, they focused on the crowd, not just its size, but perhaps more importantly, its behavior.  The Eagle claimed "no more orderly, good-natured and representative crowd ever assembled in Brooklyn," while the Brooklyn Citizen said "it was a typical Brooklyn crowd, well dressed, well behaved and while enthusiastic, not boisterously so."  William MacBeth of the Tribune probably exaggerated for effect when he said "no ungentlemanly act was evidenced, no unseemly word was uttered."

Unfortunately not enough fans heeded Charles Ebbets plea to bring exact change

Brooklyn Daily  Eagle - May 3, 1919

Why such a big crowd for an early season game that wasn't even against the arch-rival New York Giants?  And why so much focus on the crowd and it behavior?  The explanation lay in the day of the week - Sunday.  For this, as the Eagle noted in claiming "epoch" status for the game, was the first time in 36 years that fans could sit back and watch a Dodgers game on Sunday without worrying whether the police would stop it.  Over a decade earlier, beginning in 1904, Ebbets tried for three years to play Sunday home games, using various ploys to get around the legal prohibition on games where admission was charged.  Ploys ranging from free admission, followed by a mandatory scorecard purchase, to admission by donation with those who failed to donate subject to a withering look from the donation taker.  After the courts ruled these ploys just that, Ebbets gave up on Sunday ball until 1916 when he tried again this time charging admission to a pre-game concert, followed by a "free" baseball game.  This got the Brooklyn owner and his manager, Wilbert Robinson, arrested and later convicted of breaking the Sabbath law.

Brooklyn Daily Eagle - May 4, 1919

Across the East River, John McGraw tried the same approach with the same result as both McGraw and Christy Mathewson were arrested, but later acquitted of the charges.  The acquittal may have been a symbol that change was in the air and while it took until April of 1919, the New York state legislature finally gave municipalities a local option over Sunday baseball.  The New York City Board of Alderman quickly opened the door, approving Sunday games by a 64-0 vote.  Ebbets wasted no time barreling through the open door, scheduling the Boston game for the very next Sunday.  And while baseball owners may be notoriously slow to act, that wasn't the case when money was at stake.  Just nine days later, National League owners held a special meeting to revamp the schedule giving the Dodgers 13 home Sunday games.  Since Sunday baseball was still prohibited in Massachusetts (Boston) and Pennsylvania (Philadelphia and Pittsburgh) this would lead to some interesting schedule making including the one-day home stand which will be of the subject of a future post. 

Boston Globe - May 5, 1919

The media's focus on the crowd's behavior was intended to refute the claims of those who said Sunday baseball would produce "wild scenes of disorder with joy-crazed crowds howling for admission."  Equally off base though was the Citizen's comment that the gathering was "a typical Brooklyn crowd."  As William McGeehan noted in the Tribune, Sunday games literally opened the gates to fans "whose acquaintance with baseball came only through reading the box scores," especially those who "could not afford to take afternoon off in the middle of the week."   Ebbets and his fellow owners were clearly motivated by the financial rewards, but the beginning of Sunday games at Ebbets Field also meant the Brooklyn Dodgers were now accessible to anyone who had the price of admission. It took a year to see the full effect, but 1920 attendance of over 808,000 was almost double that of 1916, the prior pennant winning season. Without question, the value of Sunday baseball had been proven both "theoretically and practically."  At day's end, Ebbets had only one concern about future Sunday games, the hope that next time fans would bring exact change!