1873.1

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Hartford Writer Sees Recent Sag in Base Ball Fever, Blames the Pro Game

Salience	Peripheral
Tags	Baseball Professionalism, Business of BaseballBaseball Professionalism, Business of Baseball
Location
City/State/Country:	Hartford, CT, United States
Modern Address
Game	Base BallBase Ball
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	AdultAdult
Holiday
Notables
Text	"Wanted: a National Game"   Noting that Boston's recent championship "was not thought worth a line in the general press telegrams,"  the writer asserts that "Five years ago [1868] the event would have aroused the liveliest interest around the country." He deplores "hired bands of trained players scour the country, followed by gamblers nd pickpockets. . . .' "What do the highest base ball honors now signify? Simply that Boston was able to pay professionals more than other cities."
Sources	Hartford Courant January 7, 1873
Warning
Comment	Richard Hershberger, 150 Years Ago Today, FB posting of  1/7/2023:   "150 years ago in baseball: a report of its demise. The genre was already well established by this time. There is, however, more to be gleaned from this editorial than mere comedy. It is an interesting period piece, and even makes some valid points.   Baseball was, we are told, a much bigger deal five years earlier. This likely is not true in terms of participation, but it is true that championship games drew more attention, back in the day. These had been best-of-three series between the champion and a challenger. With the coming of the professional association in 1871, they went to a league-wide round robin format, more or less the system still used. In other words, they invented the regular season game. Wondering at the lower interest is like wondering why a regular season game today attracts less attention than a World Series game. The editorial is merely describing the implication of the new system.   That being said, baseball went through a post-war growth spurt. That has passed, at least for the moment, and the game is settling into a more steady existence. We might compare it with Wordle. Ten months ago it was a tediously constant topic. Now it is in the background. People are still playing it--not everyone who checked it out, of course, but it isn't going anywhere. So too with baseball in the 1870s. Expecting the initial rush of excitement to continue unabated was unrealistic. This simply isn't how these things work. The writer, to his credit, acknowledges that the quality of play has improved. A professional team of 1872 is vastly better than a team from five years earlier. The best players have come together in a few clubs and better strategies have been worked out. The editorialist, however, seems to think that players are only interested in competing at the top level. That was never true. There always were a small number of top clubs and many lesser clubs of variable skill. People find their level of competition and internalize it. A sandlot team will care deeply about beating that other sandlot team from a few blocks over, while having no illusions about how they would fare against professionals.   We are, however, still waiting for the Great American Novel, Philip Roth and William Carlos Williams notwithstanding." Edit with form to add a comment
Query	1868 was base ball's popularity peak?  Who knew? Edit with form to add a query
Source Image
External Number
Submitted by	Richard Hershberger
Submission Note	FB posting, 1/7/2023
Has Supplemental Text

1873.1 Hartford Writer Sees Recent Sag in Base Ball Fever, Blames the Pro Game"

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