1872.13
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Chadwick Criticizes Playing the National Pastime for Money
| Salience | Noteworthy |
|---|---|
| Tags | Business of Baseball, Famous, Newspaper CoverageBusiness of Baseball, Famous, Newspaper Coverage |
| Location | |
| City/State/Country: | New York, United States |
| Modern Address | |
| Game | |
| Immediacy of Report | |
| Age of Players | AdultAdult |
| Holiday | |
| Notables | Henry Chadwick |
| Text | "One of the most agreeable and interesting features of the present base ball season, was the organization of a grand base ball tournament by Mr Cammeyer. . . .[He] offered the very handsome sum of $4,000, to be played for by the Athletic, Boston, and Mutual clubs. . . .[Cammeyer] had some reason to doubt at first as to whether the Boston Red Stockings would take a hand in the affair, and the venerable Brooklyn organist [Henry Chadwick] of the the Boston Club had deprecated the playing of our national pastime for a purse of money . . .The $4,000 were divided . . . viz., $1,800 for the first, $1,200 for the second, and $1,000 for the third prize." |
| Sources | J.W. Brodie, "The Base Ball Tournament", New York Dispatch, October 13, 1872: |
| Warning | |
| Comment | From Richard Hershberger, 10/13/2022: "150 years ago in baseball: Reporter J. W. Brodie takes a potshot at Henry Chadwick. Recall that Chadwick was the dominant baseball reporter of the 1860s. Here in 1872 his influence is past its peak, but just barely. He is still a big deal: so much so that it is hard to get contrasting viewpoints, partly because Chadwick wrote for multiple papers, and partly because many other reporters were heavily influenced by him. Brodie is the notable exception, willing to call him out, though not quite willing to explicitly name him.
The issue here is the tournament that William Cammeyer is sponsoring, with $4,000 to be divided between the Red Stockings, Athletics, and Mutuals. Chadwick has not yet fully reconciled himself to the idea of professional baseball. It isn't clear why playing for prize money is any worse than playing for gate receipts, but Chad has been grumbling about it. Here Brodie mocks "the venerable Brooklyn organist."
Things will get worse for Chadwick before they get better. When the National League forms in 1876, he will be cut out. A lot of bad stuff you see about the early NL to this day is actually just modern writers taking Chad's complaints at face value. In the 1880s his colleagues will openly mock him as an old fogey. Then he will gradually slide into elder statesman territory. He won't have real influence, but people will usually be polite about it."
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| External Number | |
| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Submission Note | FB Posting 10/13/2022 |
| Has Supplemental Text |
1872.13 Chadwick Criticizes Playing the National Pastime for Money"
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