Clipping:The view at the Athletic ground; the 25 cent admission
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
 |
| Add a Clipping |
| Date | Monday, October 1, 1866 |
|---|---|
| Text | The Athletic grounds are so situated that outside the inclosure an immense crowd can see the play at right and left fields, and within some 10,000 can obtain a view of the play, seats being provided for over 3,000. Speculators, we learn, have offered the club $5 each for the platform seats on the ground, but the club determined to give them to those first occupying them on the day of the match. The tariff of admission was raised from 10 to 25 cents to keep the boys out, for our juveniles are so badly brought up that they are the foremost in creating disturbances at exciting ball matches. New York Tribune October 1, 1866 a failed match in Philadelphia [Atlantics vs. Athletics 10/1/1866] At this point the game ceased. The crowd that had been increasing every moment now swelled in turbulent numbers to at least thirty thousand. Great as was the interest manifested in the contest the Athletics had anticipated no such demonstration. The throng became unmanageable. To confine it to proper limits ropes stretched upon short stakes were the only checks. They were trampled under foot, and the crowd encroached twenty yards within the foul line flags and surrounded the catcher, so that Dockney's patience gave way, and he appealed to the policeman to clear him space to play. On the left of the home base the crowd rushed in over the stand and compactly filled the enclosure to within a few feet of the line between the third base and home. Dicky Pearce here refused to play until the crowd was driven back. The Ahtletics tried to exclude them from the playing limits, the but overpowering numbers were irresistible. When forced back on one point they rallied in another, and at last breaking down whole sections of the fence twenty thousand rushed upon the field, and play was suspected. At four o'clock the nines left the ground. The crowd soon followed, and then it was seen that the fence, between the fence and Mr. Wagner's Institute was prostrate; a hundred yards of the paling on Columbia avenue was thrown down, and a much longer section in the left field. The rope stakes in the western part of the ground had been pulled up and the woodwork on the field generally broken. The Athletics unanimously regretted the violation of their rules. The evil was one that could only have been anticipated by a foreshadowing of the immense throng. The largest estimate of the numbers that would attend the game was ten thousand. When three times that appeared, the limited area was insufficient to hold them, and they broke in upon the lines. With the Atlantics, for withdrawing from a contest under such circumstances, no fault could be found, and the Athletics chivalrously commended them. No game could have been played with the crowd lining the field forty deep on every side, and the game would have been thrown away if continued. New York Sun October 3, 1866, quoting the Philadelphia News October 2, 1866 [Atlantics vs. Athletics 10/1/1866] The first of the games between these rival organizations was set down for Monday, October 1st, but owing to the bad management of the officers of the Athletic Club, the whole affair broke up in a row and a number of heads had been smashed by the police, amidst the cries and screams of the ladies and children, the breaking down of fences, the throwing of stones, and the [illegible] of the coarse and brutal. We blame on the officers of the club for these disgraceful and deplorable results. Early last spring we drew up and influenced the passage of a resolution in the club that a high fence should be placed around the ground–particularly along Columbia avenue and at the southeastern corner of the lot. Had our advice been followed the fence would have been erected and the receipts would have covered the expense ten times over; but the stolidity of the officers is such that nothing can move them. The disgraceful scenes of yesterday will weigh heavily against our city, and particularly against the officers of the club. The Atlantics came here, asking only a fair field and no favor. They found the game choked up with a mob. Was this fair? Yet, the officers of the Athletics, in their greed, went on selling tickets so long as there was one person to buy, when they ought to have known that all the spare room one the ground was occupied. And, further, they intrusted some of their most important arrangements to a well known blackguard, whose acquaintance is shunned by every respectable person. Philadelphia City Item October 6, 1866 |
| Source | New York Tribune |
| Tags | |
| Warning | |
| Comment | Edit with form to add a comment |
| Query | Edit with form to add a query |
| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
Comments
<comments voting="Plus" />