Clipping:An alderman extorts season tickets from the New York Club

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Date Wednesday, January 5, 1887
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In he spring of 1885, while McQuade was alderman he went to the manager of the New York Base Ball Club, and said that the [illegible] was before the Board of Aldermen, to put a street right through the centre of the Polo Ground, at One Hundred and Tenth street and Fifth avenue, and thirteen members of the board were going to vote for its passage. However, McQuade added that he thought he could have the mater tabled if the base ball people would give him 100 books of season tickets to distribute among the aldermen. As the tickets, admitting holders to the grounds and grand stand, are valued at $30 a book, there was a mild base ball kick, but McQuade gave the directors to understand that the street would go through the grounds unless he had the pasteboard boodle to stop it with, so the manager came down with the tickets, and it was expected that that would end the matter. McQuade took 100 books, worth $3,000, and for a few days the aldermen were quiet; but a week or two later they began to “kick” and demand tickets for not cutting the street through the Polo Grounds. The manager told one of the kickers that the tickets had already been sent down to them. This was indignantly denied. A quiet investigation was made, and it was discovered that McQuade had given each alderman a book and kept the remaining seventy-six books to distribute among his political friends outside the board. In other words, used the tickets where they would do the most good, leaving the Polo people to settle the best they could with the kicking alderman who were left out in the cold. The Sporting Life January 5, 1887, quoting the New York Herald

Pittsburgh Club ownership

[from a letter from Nimick to Nick Young] Having succeeded in obtaining a clear title to our club we are organizing a new company called the “Pittsburg Athletic Association.’ It is composed of E. C. Converse, H. R. Brown, J. Palmer O’Neal and myself. We will own the Allegheny Base Ball Club, but will run it as a distinct organization. We expect to complete everything this week and will then hold a meeting. This does not alter the ownership or personnel of our club in any way, but simply gives us what we never had before–sole ownership. The Philadelphia Times January 9, 1887

Source Sporting Life
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Submitted by Richard Hershberger
Origin Initial Hershberger Clippings

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