Clipping:Playing baseball for money, and a call for boycott of 25 cent games
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| Date | Sunday, October 28, 1866 |
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| Text | The excessively large crowds of people who have been attracted to witness the championship-games this fall, and the profits arising therefrom which have been realized by the parties having control of inclosed grounds, have led to evils which, if allowed to pass unnoticed, will ere long bring baseball into great disrepute, lower the high standard of our national game, and place the fraternity in the hands of the gambling-community. The National Association does not recognize championship-matches or any such title as the “champion club,” and the only legitimate object of every contest is the simple trophy of the ball. Of late, we regret to state, clubs have been allured into playing “big matches” for “gate-money”, or a share of the receipts for admission to inclosed grounds. Proprietors of inclosed grounds have never made a greater mistake for their own interests, or aimed a more severe blow at the welfare of the game, than when they were led into consenting to share their legitimate profits with the clubs occupying their grounds or desiring to play contests upon them. Every lover of the game, and ever may who does not make ball-playing a “profession” or a business, is “down upon” this playing ball for gate-money. All those who have invested capital in inclosed ballgrounds, and who thereby furnish fair fields and respectable localities for games, besides special facilities for clubs, are fully entitled to every cent of their receipts. And every club who deems it advisable for the permanence of their organization to purchase or lease land and inclose a ground for their won use, are equally entitled to any profits legitimately derived from their investments. But for clubs to go round from one party to another, soliciting alms in the way of a share of receipts, is about the smallest kind of business an independent club can be engaged in. Hitherto first-class matches have been enjoyed on the inclosed ground a Brooklyn, for the small sum of ten cents admission, an amount none object to, and on such an occasion as the match of October 8, when tens of thousands of spectators seek to occupy a position on a field that will not accommodate half who desire admission; and extra charge for the purpose of having an orderly assemblage is excusable; but this charging of 25 cents admission, because the proprietors of the grounds are forced into sharing receipts with money-making clubs, is something we hope to see the baseball public put a stop to, and that by staying away from such matches. This evil will work its own cure, however. Already its effect has been to place the Atlantic and the Athletic clubs in the position of being suspected of the dishonorable deed of “throwing” a game in order to have the opportunity of sharing the profits of a third match. The thing is about played out already. It may safely be put down that every match where more than the regular 10 cents admission is charged is a match got up for the benefit of the two clubs playing, and therefore is to be let alone and not patronized. |
| Source | New York Sunday Mercury |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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