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| |Year=1873 | | |Year=1873 |
| |Year Number=1 | | |Year Number=1 |
| |Headline=Hartford Writer Sees Recent Sag in Base Ball Fever, Blames the Pro Game | | |Headline=Atlantic Club Business Model is Vulnerable |
| |Salience=3 | | |Salience=2 |
| |Tags=Baseball Professionalism, Business of Baseball, | | |Tags=Business of Baseball, |
| |Country=United States | | |Country=United States |
| |Coordinates=41.7658043, -72.6733723 | | |Coordinates=40.6781784, -73.9441579 |
| |State=CT | | |State=NY |
| |City=Hartford | | |City=Brooklyn |
| |Game=Base Ball | | |Game=Base Ball |
| |Immediacy of Report=Contemporary
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| |Age of Players=Adult | | |Age of Players=Adult |
| |Text=<p>"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."</p>
| | |Sources=<br> |
| |Sources=<p>''Hartford Courant'' January 7, 1873</p> | | |Comment=<br> |
| |Comment=<div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xdj266r x126k92a"> | | |Source Image=Atlantic Business Model 1873.jpg |
| <div dir="auto">Richard Hershberger, <span style="text-decoration: underline;">150 Years Ago Today</span>, FB posting of 1/7/2023:</div>
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| <div dir="auto">"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.</div>
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| <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a">
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| <div dir="auto">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.</div>
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| <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a">
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| <div dir="auto">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.</div>
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| </div>
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| <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a">
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| <div dir="auto">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.</div>
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| <div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a">
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| <div dir="auto">We are, however, still waiting for the Great American Novel, Philip Roth and William Carlos Williams notwithstanding."</div>
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| </div>
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| |Query=<p>1868 was base ball's popularity peak? Who knew?</p>
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| |Source Image=Courant Kvetch 1873.jpg | |
| |Submitted by=Richard Hershberger | | |Submitted by=Richard Hershberger |
| |Submission Note=FB posting, 1/7/2023 | | |Submission Note=FB Posting 1/14/2023 |
| |Reviewed=Yes | | |Reviewed=Yes |
| |Has Supplemental Text=No | | |Has Supplemental Text=No |
| }} | | }} |
| <p>873</p>
| | 73 |
