Clipping:Fitzgerald's epistle to the Athletics
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| Date | Saturday, September 1, 1866 |
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| Text | [a long letter, including:] In 1865, in opposition to the views of nine-tenths of the club, I caused the ground at Fifteenth and Columbia avenue to be rented. There was scarcely a dollar in the treasury, and the members generally predicted failure. Yet, the most gratifying success attended our every step. ... At the close of the season, the treasurer’s report showed that we had taken in over $5000, paid all our debts, and had a large balance on hand. Our membership, too, had gone up from about sixty to nearly four hundred. All this to the dismay of the croakers, who had assured one another of disaster and ruin. When play was over for 1865, I resigned for the second time–but, the resignation was again refused, and in March, at the largest meeting every held by the club, I was once more unanimously reelected. In a few weeks thereafter, I resigned for the third time, because I could not approve of the insane course of the half dozen men who are managing the club to its destruction. ... There are four playing in the nine who are paid for their services–two are regularly paid, and two are paid constructively. This is an offense wholly unnecessary, unwise and criminal, and for this outrage I arraign and denounce the officers of the club. I have tried to Nationalize and elevate the game of Base Ball; the officers of the Athletic Club have done much to bring the game into contempt by employing men to play in their nine who have been repeatedly arrested and confined in the station house within a few weeks of the charge of drunkenness and rioting. There was a time when a player would have been expelled from the club for drunkenness and rioting, but that day seem to have passed. ... If you persist in your present disreputable course, I shall be compelled to give the names of the hirelings and the amounts which have been paid to them. For the honor of our city and state let this wretched business be stopped. I am, as I have always been, the friend and well-wisher of the club, and will go all honorable lengths to serve it. Respectfully, THOMAS FITZGERALD. Philadelphia, August 27, 1866 |
| Source | Philadelphia City Item |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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