Transcripts For CSPAN3 Lectures In History 20150926

15 minutes. Professor waugh this is for my lecture baseball becomes professional. It wasnt too long ago that , if youre controversial can can imagine. Sports and consumerism wasnt important enough. It would have raised eyebrows. Sports, Department Stores buying stuff, will not anymore. Sports and consumer culture our research and written about, made during like every other topic by historians. Now theyre even professors of sports history. Why . Because professors have found that we cannot ignore sports. Why . Because it represents money and big our, big big power, big business. Its also cultural and emotional. There is this tension between professionalism, big business, and the emotional ties that is exemplified by this letter, written by a baseball fan and published in a newspaper sports section. Let me read a quote. Care modern ballplayers about nothing but money. They dont care about their team , or their city, with their fans. In my day, things were different. That sounds familiar. At least it does to me. Quoted from a letter written in 1859. If it sounds familiar, it is. We would do well to listen to baseballs major philosopher, yogi berra, who said its deja vu all over again. That is kind of the motto for historians as well. I will say this as i begin the sports lecture, as a sports fan myself, ucla fan a dodgers fan, i could go on but i wont your life is to experience a broken heart on a regular basis. Hope,sion, english, and this is a time of hope for baseball fans. Occasionally thrilling moments that you will never forget if you are lucky. Lectureine for todays is this. Were going to talk about origins, baseballs from immature to professional, capital labor, the strikes, the fans, something were going to quote that i call heads up. That we are going to look at sports mania in the gilded age. Background byn my making the point that between the civil war and the turnofthecentury, america went sports crazy. Baseball became vague knowledge national game, boxing exploded in popularity. Football became a College Mania in basketball took firm root. He urban Athletic Club croquet, polo, tennis, golf, swimming, and bicycling swept over the middle class, including women, in successive waves of popularity. Then, i get to baseball my main topic of this lecture, i want to briefly discuss this background by selecting two previews of an example of the enthusiasm at work for sports that really in cap civilized and symbolized the gilded age that would be sports for women, and college football. Im going to show you a series of slides that shows this. If you could advance the slides. Another one. This is croquet. How many of you have played croquet . More than i thought. In my backyard when i was growing up, we had a croquet set. Here you can see that women are participating in this area. Well, fully dressed women in the victorian age, engaging in physical exercise. If you could advance to the next slide. This is a tennis game. You see the tennis togs these women are wearing, they are fully covered, not the way we are used to seeing tennis players. This is coney island beach, you read about that in your essay. Coney island is a pleasure park, so to speak. Swimming togs are not the ones we are used to, but you see that it was for men and women and children. Another one. These are bicyclists and one of my Favorite Places in the world, general grants tomb in manhattan in new york city. Men and women participated in the bicycle craze as well. Very, very popular. One more. Women Baseball Players. Team nameds to be a the vassar resolutes, a women team. You might notice their uniforms look a lot different than our excellent ucla womens softball team, which is advancing to the finals, they play at eden easton stadium, our own beloved campus here. I want to take just a minute to expand the slides. At first, women were only supposed to bring to be spectators. To bring refinement any given sport. It was found that you can keep them out. They wanted to join exercise clubs. They wanted to go boating and swim, they became very popular among young women in the 1816s 1860s, agent 70s, 1880s, 1890s. The gilded age. Baseball and other sports flourished like womens colleges, where freshmen women in this depiction, formed a Baseball Team. And they really loved it. They really loved it. However, you should note that tragedy ensued, and that is because their mothers complained to the college. They complained that baseball was too violent for young ladies. And it was disbanded, only to be reformed when those mothers saw their daughters graduate, and there was no other concern about it. From this point on, there was also ladies Baseball Clubs. These were professional Baseball Clubs, women participated in them, as you can see, ladies thisall clubs presenting lizzie arlington, the famous lady pitcher. These of the bloomer girls with appropriate costumes. Advertised and honestly conducted, very important. A highclass organization suitable for the most fast hideous, and one can hardly imagine an advertisement like that today. But then, we are studying history, our wait arent we . This is basketball, if you could advance the slides. Basketball also took root all over the country. Especially Womens Basketball teams were popular in the midwest. Where they still are very popular today. Explain this mania for sports . There were two things that we are studying in this class in the gilded age that speak to us in this. Bigt of all, the rise of business, and with it, the rise a productivity, which led to rise of the standard of living. In other words, everybody had more money in their pocket. Obviously, the working class didnt have as much money as the middle class in the middle class didnt have as much money as the extremely wealthy, but it brought an interest in a possibility of engaging in various leisure activities. There was also something else, anxiety about the kind of society, the kind of life, the kind of culture that was emerging in these decades. Live young men and women up to the standards of their parents . Would they be able to be patriotic americans . And what they develop the character that americans like to think that they had, and they would put in their children . All of these concerns and changes were part of the explanation of why sports became so popular. Lets look at my second example of the enthusiasm for sports in the gilded age before we get to baseball. I look at college football. So we can have some basis of comparison. Look at this. The rise of college football, and what at this time was a sport of the elite. This is it defection of a Football Game between yale and princeton. In the time that we are speaking about. Ucla, when ucla exist and then come about on campuses across the country, there were all kinds of sports the became popular. I already mentioned baseball, but boxing, wrestling, rolling, swimming, sailing. As the popularity of College Sports arose, intercollegiate competition group. It grew especially prominent in importance, and sporting events became serious things, especially when it came to football. Can you go to the slide . This is a game between army and navy in this period. Football originated in informal matches or games between intraclass intercollegiate colleges, and football was originally played with the rules of two games, sort of combined. Rugby and soccer. Popular thatme so it almost immediately grew into more formal contest matches. Gameirst allegedly formal between colleges was played by rutgers and princeton in 1869. Harvard and yale played in 1875. Four Ivy League Institution to form the Intercollegiate Football Association to standardize the wons, and rugby one out out. Oftball follow the rules rugby rather than soccer. The new rules might be familiar to some of us in this class. Alternating bouts, possessions, and fixed numbers of downs that made american football unique. 1890s,880s and football was a central feature of college life. And it had become a really important sport. The ivy league and western conference that was established, bringing in such Public School universities as the university of michigan, they were wellestablished, rivalries informed, and teams traveled long distances for games. As the boss popularity increased, the alumni gained more and more power over College Sports. Ball wasy saw that the a machine for making money. For example, yale football receives average 100,000 a year. Almost 1 8 of that institutions total income in the gilded age. The annual thanksgiving day championship, a game that was wellestablished during this time, featured a contest between the two best teams, usually yale and princeton. It drew as many as 40,000 spectators. The ivy league schools, the schools of the elite were the powerhouse football teams during the gilded age. College football, even though it was accepted in popular, did generate some controversy. Considered a brutal sport, causing frequent injuries. , 50 college span players died from injuries sustained on the field area in 1905 alone, 18 died on the gridiron. Can you imagine that happening today . Rate, as of casualty we call we speak of war . Lets look at one of the rules again under scrutiny. It wasnt acceptable. One of the rules that was common during this time allowed one player to hit another three beforeith closed fist being ejected from the game. You had to do it three times though. We times and you are out. Obviously, it was beginning to develop a winning at all costs mentality that invited corruption. I know youre going to be shocked, but colleges in the gilded age began to engage in shady, dishonest reporting practices. Performede, a player for 13 years at nine different schools. What a career he had. As the century came to a close, University Officials looked at this, and began to denounce football, the sport. They were led by harvard president charles elliott, who, for posterity, said this about football. No honorable sport, he said, embraces the barbarism of warfare. Is a boy killing indication prostituting editorial sport. Added the president of columbia for good measure, football is nothing more than madness and slaughter. In 1905, as i mentioned before, so many players that died that College Season that president theodore roosevelt, a huge champion of football as a manly sport called a white house conference of footballs leadership that led to the establishment of the ncaa. And now every thing is all right, no more scandals. Happily ever after. That football survive these early controversies is largely due to the effort of one man, youll football coach walter camp. Let me just tell you a little bit about walter camp. This is walter camp, appearing in his football togs at yield university, where he was a star football player. Walter camp went to medical school but dropped out of medicine to take a position with the new haven connecticut clock company. Ultimately becoming the president of this clock company. In his off time and unpaid, he coached yale football teams and builds it into a powerhouse program. Walter camp was a brilliant innovator, organizer, and tactician. He transformed rugby style football into american football. Footballitly links with business principles. This is a portrait of walter lifetowards the end of his , and it is currently hanging in the National Gallery in washington, d. C. Walter cant, from the very ,eginning of his career explicitly links football with business principles. By the way, football was the first major American Spectator sport in which the clock played a major role. In any case, he links football with business principles, and the battlefield. That is organized violence, focused on the capture of territory, with bureaucratic efficiency of training and practice. Business putsan down American College football, the opinion is asian of presentday business methods. , and maded the game its controversial style of play into a virtue, returning boys into men. Camp was the Games National spokesman for decades. He articulated the ideals of student athletes, and of football, in speeches published essays, and in over 30 books. Classic and published a on the ideals of the studentathlete, which even if you are a student athlete and you have never heard of walter camp, that is what you aspire to. Like any set of ideals that we have been talking about in this class, or throughout history, theyldom lived up to are seldom lived up to, but worthy of aspiration. By the way, football was mostly immature in the 19th century, although an early professional organization was established in 1895, the nfl was not founded until 1921. But football was not the National Sport in the gilded age. It was not americas pastime. Todays, we turn to case of study and focus, baseball. Baseball was the National Pastime by the early 1900s. It was not a natural occurrence anymore than the rise of the Steel Industry or the transcontinental railroad, or the meatpacking industry was natural. Dare i bring up human initiatives . Human ingenuity, and human energy . The three important ingredients that explain the surging economy in the late 19th century. It took all of those three things and much more to bring baseball into the lives of millions of americans, where it remains more or less today. I love this quote. Whoever wants to know the heart and mind of america had better learn baseball. I would add whoever wants to know the history of america had better learn baseball. Why . Baseball writers have often the that 19th century 19th century game and body the best and worst of american character. In claiming so, they point to the fact that baseball was much more than a game, it was more than entertainment. In best of america is found baseballs expression of 19th century rural origins, and its adjustment to a new urban scene. Found inof america is baseballs expression of a unique individualism, the batter versus the pitcher. In the expression of teamwork in baseball, each side, age team taking an equal turn. The worst is also part of baseballs story, as it is the part of americas story. And that is racism. There was jim crow, or jim crow laws and terrible discrimination in the south. But there was also jim crow baseball. It didnt start out that way. Is in theappens 1870s, a few africanamerican stars emerged such as Moses Fleetwood walker. And their presence bother the white players to such an extent that they threatened to boycott against any owner that employed africanamericans. By the 1880s, they were shut out of the white leagues. But they have their own leagues and clubs. This is the bristol Baseball Club. As far as i have been able to determine, i dont know the names or the information regarding this team, but it was on the circuit and played baseball games, they were very popular. Uclave a heritage here at that i do want to talk about. The heritage came in mid1940s, on the left, wearing the bruins uniform is Jackie Robinson. A starredon was sports and ucla in 1945. Plays in Baseball Team Jackie Robinson stadium. Teamsre womens and mens are doing very well this year, we are excited for them. We hope they continue the shining example and add to uclas recordbreaking ncaa championships that we have won. Heres a closeup of Jackie Robinson. Jackie robinson is famous for many things. But we do know, or you should know that he broke the color ine in professional baseball 1947. If you could just this is a picture of Jackie Robinson in a dodgers outfit. Bu might note that there is a on his cap. That is part of dodgers history you dont really have to know. Its a very unimportant part when they were in this place called brooklyn, new york. Their real history and achievement came when they moved to los angeles in the mid1950s. [laughter] just professor waugh so you are clear on that. The game of baseball was a symbol of an early model american pastime, innocent and fun. Get its glowing popularity brought both professionalism, and with professionalism, with the idea that it was a business, it made it a symbol for the growing tension between capital and labor, between black and white, between fun and profit. And between business and pleasure. Lets go back to the origins of america in baseball. This is a painting that was completed in 1845. Like so many portraits, in the 19th century, especially of children no real boy ever look like that, so needs. Especially when he was going to engage in sports. But thats what it is. Thats what we should know right now, that baseball started as a childrens game. And it became very popular by the 1830s and 1840s. It was known by many names. Old bat, feeder, and bat and ball, but the most , from game was rounders an english childrens game dating from the 17th century. Heres a boys Baseball Team. Whatever it was called, the game involved this. This is a slide eliminating what im going to be talking about. Four basesvolved laid out in a diamond shape, a feeder, which is the picture, who tossed the ball to a striker, meeting the batter. And out, when a striker missed the ball three times or the ball was caught in the outfield and so forth and so on. Century,e early 20th the official story of how baseball was invented was published by the National League, the most powerful organization of baseball owners at that time. Heres how the story went. Its a wonderful story. In 1839, infternoon cooperstown, new york, boys from local school were playing rounders. One bright boy named Abner Doubleday sat himself down the field, pulled out a pencil, and rulesp the name and the for game that he called baseball. The story, which is enshrined a cooperstown, baseballs hall of fame, has been demolished by baseball historians, it turns out to be a myth with no foundation in truth. The next thing they are going to tell me is there is no santa claus. Picture of Abner Doubleday, who is credited with founding baseball. Famous inleday was the 19th century. He was a decorated Union Officer , in fact, he rose to the rank of major general. A hero at gettysburg, very successful businessman after the war. And while he and his family did live in cooperstown, in 1839, he was at west point completing his military training. At no time during his life did he ever claim to invent the game. Its even possible he never attended a baseball game. But he did have a friend who likes baseball. The point of this myth, however, was to demonstrate that the origins of baseball were american, rather than english. Now,y case, historians those joy killers, have officially established that rounders, being this game was the immediate precursor of professional baseball, and its rules were used in the first organized Baseball Club for men, not boys, called the knickerbocker Baseball Club of new york played its first game on an empty lot in manhattan in 1842. This is a picture of the new york knickerbockers, who played the First Official game between cluband the founder of the is allocated cartwright, in the middle. He was one of the many who helped develop rules and customs for the game. Baseball date, 1842, extended its reach from a childrens game to a manly sport. How so . By the late 1850s, organized Baseball Clubs spread throughout the country. Especially popular in the most heavily populated part of our country, the northeast. Up oflubs were made professional men, for example, in washington, d. C. , the Treasury Department fielded an immature Baseball Club of clerks. Other clubs featured workingclass men. For example, the new York City Shipyard boasted several clubs. These Baseball Clubs were what we can call sporting fraternal organizations. Groups of men in different and varied occupations who like to play sports. There was no money paid as of yet. It was strictly a mature, as i said. Baseball,nterests in that seem to be growing in the 1850s attracted entrepreneurs. One of those entrepreneurs who want to make baseball more than it was, more than immature was a man named Henry Chadwick, and Henry Chadwick is much more deserving of the title of the inventor of baseball then Abner Doubleday ever was. Chadwick is the person who started making baseball americas game. This is before the civil war. For the late 1840s, this britishborn newspaperman, who loved to play and watch the game, convinced the new york ofes to publish accounts popular and mature Baseball Clubs. Editor ofo the another influential paper called the brooklyn eagle. And chadwick served as the countries in fact First Official baseball editor, and from that campaign to began a sing the sports praises. Sports praises. Betterght baseball was equipped for the fastpaced American Life that was emerging. Im going to quote him and dont doubt me that he said this. Dawdlens do not care to over a sleep inspiring game, here he was referring to soccer. Do, they want to do in a hurry. In baseball, all as lightning. Every action is a swift as a seabirds flight, and of quote. Chadwick, like other leaders in other sports, walter camp and so forh, headed a drive improved rules, better playing, and the keeping of statistics. He edited baseball guides and yearbooks, you are seeing one of them, his manuals right here. Example of the many publications, this one put out by the man called the father of baseball. Chadwicks efforts through the 1850s, he popularized the game to such an extent that by the election of 1860, which featured Abraham Lincoln versus stephen douglas, republican versus democrat, there were many cartoons that use baseball expressions. To make points, political points. Out, he caught a home run, that kind of thing. That is how familiar americans were becoming with the sport. And then the civil war happened. Im not going to give you a lecture on the civil war, except to say baseball was probably the most widely played sports among both union and confederate soldiers. This is a depiction of Union Soldiers laying the game, and this is a marvelous photograph of Union Soldiers who are commemorating themselves for posterity. They have their rifles, but they also have their baseball bats. It was that important to them. The point is that the civil war introduced thousands, hundreds of thousands of young men to new levels of sporting enthusiasm, and in a sense, pave the way for the nationalization and the professionalization of the game. That u. S. Grant accepted Robert E Lees surrender at appomattox 1865,ouse, on april 9, more young men had played baseball than ever before. When they went home, they were in thed to participate sport itself, but also, to be fans of the sport. The Baseball Clubs after the civil war flourished as never before. To then they began the steps professionalization. Thats when going to talk about right now. After 1865. Baseball clubs begin playing a much more rigorous schedule, especially the popular ones. In a series of games that would take the teams all over, not only the east, but the midwest as well. In doing so, clubs began to openly pay money. Some clubs under the table, but many clubs above the table. To their stars. Attracting bigger and bigger crowds. They featured better players, these games between Baseball Clubs with rules that were beginning to be accepted by all teams and recognizable today. Nine players on each side, the same set up of bases i described earlier, the pitching, the centerpiece of defense. 1860s and early 1870s, clubs were developing into commercial undertakings. Clubs established organizations that they joined, National Association of Baseball Clubs, 300 damage or teams belonged to it. Rules consistently codified and overhauled, which by the way, never ends. There are always new rules and sports. Adjusting for something or the other. All the pitching was now overhand, because that was more exciting to watch. As the games were drawing bigger crowds, the businessmen who sponsored the clubs began to think of profits and professionalization of this board. Again, much more common to openly pay players now. They began to do some thing they had never done before charge admissions to games. Baseball games were being played on a regular basis, attracting 10000 and 12,000 fans. This is something that hadnt happened before. It was exciting, it was an opportunity. In 1869, this team, the Cincinnati Red sox things red became the first team to place all of their players under contract for a whole year, for a whole season. We can, in fact, described this is the first probably all professional team in history. In 1869, the red stockings went ofthe wellpublicized tour the country in which they astonished and delighted fans by sweeping all other teams 65 do nothing. When is this going to happen to the dodgers . Not this season, maybe next. The red stockings set the stage for baseball as business by their practices. Brought a1869 success permanent breach between the clubs that wished to remain damage or, and those that wanted professionalization. Stockingse, the red were financed by a group of ohio investors. They hired a wellregarded manager, whose name was harry right. Son ofas a britishborn a professional cricket player, harry right before you. He loved baseball, he played baseball, as does his brother. Right werer, harry just players hard, but also paid them high salaries. This star shortstop earned 1400 a year, again, a lot of money in those days. Manager, he saw the games commercial appeal and worked hard to give fans their money worth. Their or so after spectacular season, the Cincinnati Club folded as so many businesses did during the gilded age, but right believed in the future of the game, and took his team to boston, where he renamed it the boston red stockings. From the Cincinnati Red stockings, stockings was big in the 19th century. Naturally, since he renamed it the boston red stockings, he took the team to boston. Drawing up to 70,000 fans to their games. This is pretty incredible. I want to just draw your attention this is harry right , this is brother george, who also played on the team. Left, rightthe there, stating to the left is our albert goodwill spalding, a good soon to be a prominent baseball on to rhetoric. Second from the right, you can see him, if somebody would never recognize, his name was james white, his nickname was deacon. Unlike almost every professional baseball player, he was a christian minister. And he was very pious, clean living. Occasionally there was one found in baseball history. Not very often. White was a catcher. He caught the ball that the pitcher through, and he devised a piece of equipment because so many catchers were being seriously injured when the ball would hit them in the chest. He devised a piece of equipment called the chest protector. Wells the first player as to wear a catchers mask, for which he was called a sissy by chanting fans. This is a picture of how a bresnahan inr 1907, obviously a yankee, who panoply ofll armaments to protect themselves against football, he also earned catcalls for his outfit before people got used to it. In the late 1860s and through the mid1870s, we see the emergence of a professional sport with tantalizing possibilities for both entertainment and profits. Its not quite there yet, but the clubs were now owned by businessmen who were excited by the possibilities of more profits, but frustrated by certain elements of the game. The lack of organization and control at the management level. The potential to baseballs future success, they knew, the owners knew, with the players. The athletes themselves, they must never forget this. The audiences were coming to see the athletes. Especially the popular clubs like the boston red stockings i just told you about, it was the athletes skills, their talents, their work that made the games exciting, competitive events. Workingclass people flocked to the stadiums to see their own, especially irish and german players. They were proud of them. Irish and german recent immigrants to the country, they did their time in the civil war, that was to their credit. It improve their status in american society, it was very antiimmigrant at this time. They were proud of them. Many of the names of the Baseball Players during this time were familiar irish and german names. They loved it. In this time that im talking about, late 1860s to the mid1870s, you had all of the elements ready to take the next step. To make baseball a real business. But there was a problem. Ownersas the baseball were concerned, and that had to do with the instability of the game, and the instability of the product, the labor, the players. The star players at this point commanded what they consider to salary, and parks, and the owners didnt like that so much. Theirer of them control working conditions, if you are a star, you could. And their salaries. And they moved easily from team to team at their own pleasure and desire. And that was a problem. Player controlled baseball was not working well. From 1871 to 1875, they continued to have problems fixing it playing schedule, attendance up and down, players jumped contract, showed for discipline. Players gambled on games. Which is a big nono. From the perspective of the owners, this made the business dangerous. They needed to do two things. Lower the salaries, the cost of doing business, most businesses, their highest cost is labor, obviously. In addition, the player productivity needed to be measured and controlled. Popular, of the most powerful, and successful Baseball Club decided they needed to join together and put baseball on a businesslike basis. In 1876, the National League of the professional Baseball Club was established. I was called the National League. This is a picture of the National League owners. The reason for the founding of the National League they told us. They left is the record of why they did it. To capitalize an extended baseballs popularity. What does this mean . They wanted to establish familiar features to us, but new recognized a national championship, control and standardize the game rules, so somebody attending a baseball game in cincinnati would also be able to attend one in boston or new york and understand the game just as well. The National League at this time was limited to eight comments number would rise. It was comprised of very wellfinanced teams from cities that were generally enjoyed populations of at least 75,000. The National League in the beginning tried to bar liquor from the stadiums. They wanted no gambling, the first didnt offer sunday games, although that would change. They were trying to make their game open to the widest variety of fans possible, including the middleclass. Including women. And they wanted to organize their business like other gilded age concerns. The sentiment was put down explicitly by Albert Goodwin spalding, there is right there. Areathe handlebar mustache when he was one of the founders of the National League, and he said this the idea was as old as the hills. Baseballpplication to had not yet been made. It was, in fact, your principal conflict between labor and capital asserting itself under a new guys, like every other form of business enterprise, spalding says, baseball depends for independent interdependent systems. System, andol the the other to engage and of executive branch the actual work of production. In other words, the very establishment of the National League for the first time formalized the division between ballplayers and clubs, so now they were workers and management. Just because you for my league, you have your picture taken, and you make these kinds of declarations, doesnt mean anything is going to happen. What was their plan . Here was their plan in a nutshell. Rolled out in three directions from 1875 by the National League. Three things simultaneously. Code,ger enforced moral the use of statistics, and the reserve clause. I will go through each one. A manager enforced moral code meant to control players with the goal of attracting more middleclass fans. The use of statistics was a goal of evaluating a players performance, and the reserve clause with the goal of clamping to sellplayers ability their labor on the free market. Lets start with the manager enforced moral code. Managervated the teams beyond training and directing the team. They were now the point man between the players and their bosses. Their authority supposed to be absolute, they were to control and enforced training, assign the positions, supervise their labor force with a goal toward obedience and discipline that was supposed to extend from Early Morning to late at night. The managers were charged with enforcing the new written down moral code, which particularly focused on the control of drinking. But also included as part of that, bed checks and hire detectives. The managers, if they thought it necessary, could suspend their players for conduct unbecoming a gentleman. An example of the morals clause that was inserted in the players during the playing season, every member of the club is required to gain from the use of intoxicating liquors in any shape, and from keeping late hours. One manager remarked that if these rules had been strictly enforced, all nine of his players would have been immediately disbanded as they were. Are managers going to enforce these kinds of rules over the players who had never experienced this kind of control before . The code was more easily accepted the new might think. Young, the players were of course they tried to evade them. But the managers came to the father figures for many of these players. There was still, however, many who resisted. And the biggest case for the new rules the biggest test case came with the biggest star of the game, a player named mike kelly. This is a picture of mike kelly. He was the most popular baseball player of his era. Which ran from the late 1870s to the 1890s. Heres another picture of him. Mike kelly was born in troy, new york. He was the son of irish enlisteds, his father in the 125th new york regiment in the war, from a very early age, he demonstrated that he was a great athlete. And he was an even greater showmen, who made watching games fun and exciting. Thats why fans go to games. He could hit harder, run faster, throw farther than anyone else during his very turbulent career. Which included stints with many different ballclubs, the Chicago White sox in, and the boston red stockings, for example. Kelly led the league in backing in batting, and in runs scored. Bases wasy to steal immortalized in a song called slide kelly slide. Underscore to play a little bit. You have to turn it on. I played a game of baseball, i belong to caseys nine, the crowd was feeling jolly, and and the weather it was fine a nobler lot of players i think were never found when the omnibuses landed that day upon the ground the game was quickly started, they sent me to the bat i made two strikes, says casey, what are you striking at . I made the third, the catcher muffed and to the ground it fell i run like a devil to first base, when the gang began to yell slide, kelly, slide, your runnings a disgrace slide, kelly, slide, stay there, hold your base if some one doesnt steal you, and your batting doesnt fail you theyll take you to australia, slide, kelly, slide professor waugh that is a wonderful song it, and dont tell me it isnt. King kelly as he came to be called, proved a headache for owners, and provided the first big test of the disciplinary regulations that i have been speaking of. Trust me, they didnt want to discipline him, we never want to discipline our most popular athletes, do we . Heres a quote from a sportswriter of the time. Mike kelly was the trickiest player who ever handle the baseball. Baseball rules were never made for kelly. Lets see some examples. Mike kelly was almost as good an actor as he was a player. Once, playing outfield and early evening game in his home ballpark, it was the top of the it was a very exciting game. It was close, there were two outs in the ninth inning, and his team, the Chicago White sox in, held a one run lead. Fly toosition had a high center field, and kelly leave up in the air to pull it from the sky. Spectacular play, it saves the day, the crowds cheered, the game was over. And when it was over, mike kelly trotted back into the dugout, the manager comes up to him, and it was a practice at that time if you caught a ball, you saved it and use it for the next game. The owner did not like to waste them. The manager says kelly, give me the ball. The ball . Kelly answered. It was a mile over my head. That was funny in the 19th century. Mike kelly sometimes skipped on his way to third, he skipped second based on his way to third when the umpire was not looking. Who dont knowu what im talking about, youve never seen a baseball game, there are three bases, first, second, third, and home. Lots of metaphors for that emerge in our culture as well. When he played catcher, because he played a variety of positions, he liked to confuse players running into home by covering the plates with his mask. Far, the greatest problem was with the drinking. If asked if he drank during the game, he said it depends on the length. Once observed downing a few by a Pinkerton Detective hired by his manager to keep tabs on the player, kelly angrily denied a report he had been seen drinking lemonade at 3 00 a. M. In chicagos nightclub district. He said this for the newspapers. It was straight whiskey. Lemonade at that hour in my life. Students, nothing good ever happens at 3 00 a. M. In a nightclub. These antics kept him in hot water, but when he was playing well, when he was a star, didnt seem to affect him too much. It certainly didnt affect the love the fans love and appreciation for him. The team that he rose to fame with, the Chicago White sox, andly got sick of them decided to sell him to the boston red stockings, keep him in the stockings family. They told him for 10,000, and amazingly high sum. Thrilled, theye gave him a fancy house in a fancy carriage with two white horses to ride to and from the ballpark in. Best andy was the richest player of his era, he received 2000 a year for playing, which was a huge fortune. He received 3000 for the use of his picture. In fact, he was the first professional player to utilize his off earning potential in the winter months. He often appeared on the vaudeville stage, reciting a very famous baseball that came they cameeball poem out called casey at the bat. Us can predict what eventually happened to kelly. The sales to boston failed to mature him more sober him up. He ended his career with the new ,ork giants in 1893 increasingly unable to play, increasingly showing up for games in an inebriated way. Teamis the captain of his in a cartoon going like this laid off without pay, this is the king. He ended his career with the giants in 1893. He died in 1894, 1 year later. At age 36. This is his commemorative plaque in cooperstown, new york, baseballs hall of fame. Thousands and thousands attended his funeral. But the point im making here is that he was the exception that showed that the rules were being enforced, or at least trying to be enforced. With thentinue professionalization of baseball, the moral code, first, and then statistics. Lets go to statistic. How does this control the labor product . Keeping records on ballplayers performances and putting them in scoring,d books, statistics, the e. R. A. , earned runs average. This gave owners a new and Scientific Method of evaluating their workers. A standard from which they could reward or punish them for their performances. We read about this and heard carnegie and his obsession with efficiency in the Steel Industry, and among his steal no workers. This was a similar effort, right here. As Baseball Players became baseball workers, employed by baseball businesses, statistics multiplied and became ever more sophisticated. It was believed that keeping records was the only way of measuring players performances overall seasons. This record could provide an overall objective assessments of a players performance. Statistics and represented the effort by the National League, the clubs that belong to the natural National League to bring standardization and regularity to a field of endeavors which seem so risky and unpredictable, and it marked baseballs adherence to one of the major hallmarks of modern , using sciencess , in this case, statistics, to control their workforce, and their product. Now, theres another side of statistics, just like theres another side to the business of sports, and that is that newspapers and their reporters helps not only popularize the sport, but also, to make statistics on players a fun and interesting way to follow the game. And its individual players. Joseph pulitzer of the new york world became the first newspaper to have a separate sports page in 1883. Much of it was devoted to baseball in the spring, summer, and fall. The Sports Reporter became a key connection and they themselves were real fans of baseball through their columns. Helping to define and develop the game, its rules and regulation, especially scoring and statistics. We look at the box scores, which is a chart showing any given game who hit what, what the pitcher how the pitcher did. And these in the stadiums that were being built all over baseball, there was always a specially designated section called a press box. And we have those of you who might once in a while turn on the behemoth of sports today, espn, or follow them wherever you follow them, if you dont watch tv, youre aware that the relationship between former athletes, Sports Reporters, and the sports they are covering is often problematical. Do we know we are getting the real story when people have so much invested in the sport that they are covering . Is relationship begins right away in baseballs infancy. Moral codes, statistics, and then the reserve clause. The most critical component of the effort to bring professionalization to baseball and control the players with the interducks of the reserve clause as the centerpiece of labor relations. The other two components were not contested so much by the players despite mike kellys example. This one was. The reserve clause from the beginning. The reserve clause was added to every single players contract beginning in 1879. What was the reserve clause . The reserve clause made the player eligible to play baseball only with his current club. Let me explain further. Say that you were a player for the boston red stockings. The reserve clause was added to your contract. That gave your club the red stockings the right to reserve your baseball services, that is reserve them from the market, for the following year. And the Baseball Clubs, the boston red stockings, for example, could extend this right forever until they were ready to sell you or trade you away when it been fitted them. Benefited them. The reserve clause bound the National League clubs together more than any other item. No club that was a party to the reserve club could make an exception. They couldnt ignore the rule on pain of expulsion from the club. Obviously this gave Baseball Organization great power over their employees life and welfare. It made Baseball Players at least as far as they are concerned, they were concerned, in the club property. The punishment for players rejecting the reserve clause was suspensions, nes, salary limitations, or demotions. Baseball players protested the reserve clause by forming a union in 1885. This union was named the National Brotherhood of professional Baseball Players. But owners refused to negotiate the reserve clause and other issues regarding working conditions with players. This sounds familiar, doesnt it . The other big businesspeople were not interested in talking with unions during the guilded age. One of the main founders of the Baseball Union and of somebody who is behind the protest over the reserve clause in particular, was a player at this point, a shortstop, although he had also been a pitcher earlier in his career, worked for the new york giants. His name was John Montgomery ard. Ward stood out from the usual ballplayer of the 1980s, 1880s and 1890s. He was a graduate of Columbia Law School and he was not afraid to challenge the club owners. He denounced the reserve clause and he said that, its too bad that things have come to this, but sadly the National League stands for dollars and cents. Players have been bought, sold in exchange as though they were sheep instead of american citizens. There is no escape for the players, said John Montgomery ward. If he attempts to elude the operation of the rule, he became at once a profession becomes at once a professional outlaw. But if he ever, ever reappears as a professional ballplayer, it must be at the disposition of his former club. Quote, very important, the reserve clause denies him a livelihood and carries him back, bound and shackled, to the club from which he attempted to escape. This is a cartoon depicting the , player wards words slave auction. By 1890, the heated rhetoric between the players and the owners led to the first strike in baseball. And much more. In that year, 1890, John Montgomery ward, persuaded the his fellow Baseball Players, to start a rival league. Forget the National League and its stupid morals clause and especially its stupid reserve clause. Lets start a Players League. And John Montgomery ward got businessmen to back him and he promised the Baseball Players who would leave the National League, and all the stars playing for the National League, he promised them fair shares of power and profit. This was revolution. Four out of every five National Leaguers taking great economic risk, it must be said, desserted the professional baseball establishment. National league, to create this rival organization, the Players League. And when they started playing, that was the strike that im talking about. The strike of 1890. And the season of 1890 featured the teams in the Players League martialed by John Montgomery ward, all the star players, they were out drawing the National League and all the big cities, and as the season wore on, that continued to be true and then suddenly it wasnt. The reason it wasnt is because it wasnt a Serious Business enterprise. And by the end of the season, team after team after team collapsed of the Players League. The strike that they had begun with such hope of regaining the independence of their labor, their determination to control their own labors condition. Oftentimes the owners that were brought in by John Montgomery ward, that were financing the alternative league, the Players League out of the union, sold their players back to the National League. In any case, thats not really funny, but you have to humor. Te the the National League at the end of the day forced the Players League to sue for peace and they graciously allowed the Players League athletes to return to their former clubs without penalties. Much bitterness followed the strike and bad publicity. It would take a couple years for baseball professional baseball to regain its footing. And John Montgomery ward, he retired shortly thereafter. He was a success both as a player and a coach. Opened a Legal Practice and at age 34 began his practice as a players agent. Another feature of sports today that is not a modern invention. The head of the National League and owner of the Chicago White stockings, Albert Spaulding, believes that organized baseball, on the other hand, had won a great vicktry. Although some might say it was a bad thing that players lost their fight to regain control of the baseball workplace, Albert Spaulding believed that their loss preserved baseballs preeminence as an of the true ideals of the contry. The gene yuns of our institution is democratic. Baseball is a democratic game. Baseball became the National Pastime during this period for many reasons. A popular sport. With popular stars. Adopting a big business stance toward the game. And adopting vertical integration. How to vertically integrate a sport, controlling the production and the profits from the bottom up as did Andrew Carnegie in the Steel Industry. Lets look at Albert Spaulding in those kind of terms and look at who he was. He was a player, the first pitcher to win over 200 games. He was a coach and he was an owner. He also created a Sporting Goods empire that sold balls and bats, both to professional teams where he paid them to advertise his products, as the official equipment. But also to still strong and growing amateur Baseball Teams among youth. And high school and college students. Creating a demand for the sport in the country that would funnel upwards. This is a picture of the official spaulding league ball. Its the official league ball, you say, you see adopted by the National League for 1889. By 1900 baseballs claim to being american sport was expanded and strengthened by the continuing construction of large fancy stadiums. This is a picture of a group of College Players in the 1890s and just to give you a sense of the vertical integration of the sport that occurred during this time and made it possible as a big business. This is an announcement of a baseball game. The stadiums that were being constructed complemented the growing development of the urban areas, which we have also looked at so closely in this class. For example, baseball stadiums were often built at the intersection of major trolley lines near a Central Business district. Making it easy and cheap for people to get there. For example, the first full name of the dodgers in brooklyn were the brooklyn trolley dodgers. Dodging the trolley, you get that . Stadiumsred the the offered cheap tickets, 25 cents for bleacher seats and 1 for box seats. Very different from the amount you have to pay for tickets at the new yankee stadium. The goal of the National League at this point was to attract everybody. Single men and families. They catered to immigrant groups. Irish and german, as i mentioned before. The stadium seating at this time welcomed everybody, including africanamericans, however in specially segregated areas. Jim crow prevailed in baseball stadiums. The businessmen behind baseball of a to build up as much middle class fan base as possible and to do so they protected customers from dangers by hiring ushers in both private and public city police to provide security from a situation that is very much on the minds of baseball stadium owners today. By 1900, the fans were into it and the future looked bright for the game. People were attending games regularly. Some loved the double headers, others enjoyed just watching the game, drinking very cheap beer, by the way, and eating hot dogs. Dodger dogs the best. Women flocked to ladies day. All found baseball united them. They followed the box scores, collected baseball cards, and had their favorite teams and players. Perhaps in this lecture you have noticed a couple things. One of the things you have noticed, hopefully, is that there were many things that were different about baseball back in the gilded age. And you would be right about that. But some things are still the game. And one thing that is still the same is when you go to Dodger Stadium or any other stadium you want to go to, and you sit down and you just feel that you need a bag of peanuts. You sit down and say youre with your two children and i often was. What you would do is the peanut vendor is running up and down like crazy, and hes you try and get his attention. And you say i want three bags of peanuts. And you pass the money down the row. Money and gets the he begins to throw you the peanuts. But before he throws you the bags of peanuts, he says, heads up. And i say to you, heads up, ucla students. Eads up [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] youre watching American History tv. 48 hours of programming on American History every weekend on cspan3. Follow us on twitter at cspan history. For information on our schedule of upcoming programs and to keep up with the latest history news. The American Legion recently hosted its National Convention in baltimore. Up next, chief of interpretation at Fort Mchenry National monument and historic shrine, vince vase, talks about baltimores role in the war of 12 at the legions historian luncheon. Also explores the origins of the the star spangled banner which was written