Clipping:A practice game swindle
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| Date | Sunday, July 11, 1869 |
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| Text | [Athletic vs. Atlantic 7/5/1869] The first meeting this season between the Athletic Club of Philadelphia and the Atlantics of Brooklyn which took play July 5, on the Capitoline grounds, Brooklyn, in the presence of over 15,000 people, the receipts on the occasion exceeding $3,000, proved to be one of the poorest displays in the field for a first-class match we have yet seen this season, and an exceedingly long and tedious game to those who had witnessed the beautiful fielding contests of the Mutual and Cincinnati clubs, the Mutual and Atlantic, Star and Atlantic, and Mutual and Eckford, etc., in contrast to which the game on Monday was almost a muffin display. The match was intended to have been the first of a home-and-home series of games for the championship, or rather a trial of skill between the clubs, in which both would put forth their utmost efforts to win. The continued inability of McBride to play in his position, however, and also of that of Radcliffe to play in his, from the fact of his not having been a regular member for the legal period, led to a postponement of the regular matches, and a substitution of a series of practice-games instead, the games of Monday being the first of the series, and that of the 12 th inst. the second. Of course, under these circumstances, both sides went into the contest, almost, indifferent as to the issue, and the result was a display in the field creditable to neither organization.... ... On Monday last, a third of the assemblage left before the game was half over, thoroughly disgusted with the play of both parties. Let us hope that both will in future find it to their advantage to cease these mutual agreements to break the rules of the game called social practice-games... New York Sunday Mercury July 11, 1869 [Athletic vs. Atlantic 7/5/1869] When the two nines finally presented themselves in attitude for play, much disappointment was felt at seeing Radcliffe in the Athletic nine, as his presence (not being entitled to play) made it evident to all that the game was to be a social one instead of a regular match game, as had been anticipated; and we were informed by a Philadelphia reporter who accompanied the Athletics that the intention all along had been to make the two first games mere contests for gate money, the regular matches to be played in the Fall. New York Dispatch July 11, 1869 [Athletic vs. Atlantic 7/5/1869] The game had been mutually arranged as one of a social series. Radcliffe and Fulmer, although not legally entitled to play, both took part. Philadelphia Sunday Mercury July 11, 1869 BASE BALL–ASSOCIATION vs. SPECULATION GAMES.–Some of our base ball clubs have taken to “jockeying,” or “hippodroming”–this is, playing games simply for the gate money. Such games may appropriately be styled speculative enterprises, wherein that great body, the public, are made to pay the fiddler for the privilege of witnessing a sham dance. The latest and greatest swindle of this kind was that of last Monday, when the Atlantics of Brooklyn and Athletics of Philadelphia exhibited themselves to an admiring public for the very small sum of twenty-five centers per capita from said public. The 5th was a holiday, and it was a certainty, weather being favorable, to fill the Capitoline enclosure with great numbers of people if a good card could be sent out; so the above clubs entered themselves for an association game, the first of the annual series, and some sixteen thousand confiding but deluded mortals paid the tariff for the privilege of witnessing the play. The tariff was, perhaps, the least of their suffering, for notwithstanding the accommodations, the throng was so vast as to make everybody in the highest degree uncomfortable. There were thousands present, too, whose occupations hold them so tightly that, save upon a general holiday, they never can witness a game, and to this latter class the sham game played was an outrage as well as a swindle. Lest there may be mitigating circumstances found in the judgment of some people in the manner of bringing the game on, they are given as near as we know of as follows: A month or so ago, the Atlantics challenged the Athletics, and the day fixed was the 5th of July, the game to be played in Brooklyn; this fact was duly announced by the press. Since that time, however, the Athletics admitted Radcliff to membership, but as he would not be eligible as a player on the day named, and the continued illness of their pitcher, the Athletics became fearful of the Atlantics, and, as they could not break off their engagement, they proposed an exhibition game. The Atlantics, in a fit of supposed magnanimity, accept the second offer and released the Athletics. So far as the clubs were concerned, this was generous of the Atlantics, and doubly so when it is stated that under similar circumstances the Athletics refused a postponement to them two years ago. Could the matter rest there, the conduct of the Atlantics would be above praise; but unfortunately it does not. Their magnanimity to the Athletics makes them the successful promoters of a swindle and an outrage, and as having committed an error, the results of which cannot but be damaging to the interests and name of the game and the professional votaries. Like a powerful magnate [sic], the Atlantic Club has drawn audiences of almost incalculable numbers, but whether that power of attraction has been due more to the merits of the club as players, than a purpose to deal honestly with the public is a question for future solution. The concealment of the fact that such a result had been arrived at by the two clubs as referred to, is the part dishonorable. It reduced the affair to a swindle, and to outrage the whole, the exhibition was mutually made scandalous by the conduct of the players, who, so far from doing their best, evidently did the worst in their power. But the disagreeableness of this matter forbids farther remarks, and the public can judge whether we have watched their interests or not, in discussing the question thus far. Philadelphia City Item July 17, 1869, quoting the New York Spirit of the Times; also reprinted in National Chronicle 7/17/1869 The two games played this season between the Athletics and the Atlantics, have been designated by some of the New York papers as “social swindles,” “put-up jobs,” “hippodrome games,” and even asserting that the “players so far from doing their best, evidently did the worst in their power.” All such statements are totally false and without any foundation in fact, as both games were fairly lost and won, although called social games; and the report of the intentional poor playing in the said games, could only have emanated from persons enviously of the reputation attained by the Atlantics and Athletics. Philadelphia Sunday Mercury July 18, 1869 |
| Source | New York Sunday Mercury |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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