Clipping:Wiman's business motivation
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| Date | Wednesday, January 6, 1886 |
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| Text | The business aspects of base ball were referred to by Mr. Eastus Wiman, in a speech at a dinner given at Baltimore Thursday evening, to Hamilton Disston and other prominent Philadelphians, by the directors of the Batlimore and Ohio Railroad. Mr. Wiman said that the fact was significant that the negotiations for the securing of a trunk line entrance to the harbor and city of New York were carried along side by side with the negotiations for the control of a first-class base ball club. The same motive inspired both negotiations, namely, to obtain for the Staten Island project a large increase of traffic. Now that the trunk line and base ball club had both been captured, he was not quite clear that the base ball business would not yield an earlier, and certainly a larger, return for the money invested than the trunk line connection, greatly as he valued the latter. Mr. Wiman quoted statistics to show that the attendance at base ball matches in certain cities throughout the season approached 350,000 persons, and if he could draw this additional number over the Staten Island ferries in the summer afternoons, and even a greater number in the summer evenings, by other attractions, the increase in the traffic would be very considerable, without much additional cost for handling it. The growth of the leisure class in New York exceeded the increase of any other class, he thought, and the extent of capacity, capital and culture now employed for their amusement in theatres, operas, concerts, etc., yearly increased, indicating a distinctive class of business, employing a large army and the free circulation of large sums of money. He did not see why the National game should not be elevated by elegant surroundings and correct business methods on a level as high as the average theatrical performance and made equal in public esteem to the Roman and Grecian games. Discipline, temperance, self-control, decision of character and a clear head were just as essential to success as brawny arms or strong muscle, and all these had a strong attraction to the average public. A glance at the newspapers showed that base ball matters occupied the attention o the public to a greater extent than the question of the balance of power in Europe, or the rise or fall of a continental dynasty. Further, this interest indicated that in the business and its attendant traffic were possibilities of profit beyond the dreams of avarice. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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