Clipping:Fitzgerald resigned from baseball?; a later story about collecting gate receipts
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| Date | Tuesday, August 16, 1864 |
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| Text | Resigned—Mr. Fitzgerald has, we regret to hear, resigned the Presidency of and membership in the Athletic Club, Philadelphia. Brooklyn Daily Eagle August 16, 1864 Some, not posted up, would naturally ask what he [Fitzgerald] has done to merit such distinction. If we were to reply by asking the question “What has he not done,” the querist would be appropriately answered. From him, or through his influence has emanated the arrangement of nearly every series of matches played between the Philadelphia clubs and those of other cities. To achieve the objects he had in view, for popularizing the game in Philadelphia, he has spent hundreds of dollars out of his own private purse; procured ball players excellent situations, time and again, besides aiding them at all times when in need of service, advice or pecuniary means; kept open house to visiting guests of the fraternity, and always been the first to greet them on their way to the city, and the last to with them God speed as they left; and, in fact, done all that one man could do to make base ball popular, and the several clubs and the fraternity in general respected by outside parties. It is a pity for the welfare of our national game that there are so few of such men in base ball circles, for if they were more numerous the game would be far more popular even than it is now. Brooklyn Eagle August 19, 1864 The Athletics have refused to accept the resignation of Mr. Fitzgerald, and it is very likely that he will continue to act with them. New York Sunday Mercury September 25, 1864 [a reminiscence from thirteen years later] [the Atlantics are in town and the Athletics are out of money] [Atlantic vs. Athletic 8/11/1864] In this emergency, Col. Fitzgerald, president of the club, came to the rescue. It is not known even unto this day how the Colonel got his idea, but somehow the characters “Ten Cents Admission” came before his mind’s eye. Not that it was “in his eye,” by any means. For Colonel Fitzgerald by this lucky thought revolutionized our national game. At the various entrances of the old ground, at 25th and Jefferson streets, Philadelphia, the Colonel posted his doorkeepers. It may be asked (as this was a kind of historic occasion) who these doorkeepers were. But those who know the Colonel do not need to be told. The doorkeepers were the Colonel’s sons–not all of them, but those who were, at the time being, the smaller of the series. The receipts of the afternoon were $14. This was not a heavy return, considering especially that the crowd was greater than had ever up to that time attended a match in that city. But the entrance charge was considered more or less as a joke by nearly everybody. Players generally had an aversion to making the game a matter of money, and thought that the policy was a mistake. One and all disregarded the rule, and laughed a little uneasily at the attempts to speculate in the public interest in baseball. They were, however, the very first to accept the situation, and could scarcely be persuaded now that it is wrong to charge admission to a game of baseball. On the contrary, they would probably ridicule anyone who suggested so trifling an amount as ten cents as the proper figure of admission. New York Clipper November 1, 1879 |
| Source | Brooklyn Daily Eagle |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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