Mayor LaGuardia Speaks on Baseball

The following transcript is taken from a longer radio address Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia gave on WNYC on March 11, 1945. It differs somewhat from his actual address and has been edited for length and clarity. The history of baseball he offered omits the thriving African-American teams in the Negro League.

Baseball is an American game. I don’t know of anything that is more thoroughly and typically American than baseball. It was started a little over 100 years ago by Colonel Abner Doubleday. He devised the diagram of the bases and positions for players and named the game “baseball.” His first baseball diamond was laid out in 1839 in Cooperstown, in our state.

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Mayor LaGuardia throwing out the ball at game 1 of the World Series, at Yankee Stadium, October 6, 1937. The New York Yankees beat the New York Giants 8 to 1. Mayor LaGuardia Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

In 1845, the first baseball club was organized in New York City and was known as the Knickerbocker Club. This club first drafted the code of rules for baseball. The first game of record played under these rules between the Knickerbocker Club and a picked team, which called itself The New York Club, was played in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1846.

In 1854, there was a revision of the rules which provided specification for the size and the weight of the ball. In 1858, the first attempt at organization of the clubs was made as clubs were spreading to many Eastern cities. The National Association of Baseball Players embraced 16 clubs in New York City, and a well known New Yorker, W.H. Van Cott, was its first president.

In 1865 a convention was held in New York City at which 91 clubs were represented. In 1865 and 1866 professional baseball began to make its appearance and a conflict between amateurs and professionals developed. At that time, players did not derive their livelihood from baseball, but the more expert players accepted money from clubs to play on their teams. In 1866 we find the first pool selling and gambling and bribery by gamblers. This outraged the good element among the ballplayers and organizers of clubs and… it was nipped in the bud.

In 1868 the Cincinnati team was organized on what was known as semi-professional lines, but in 1869, the team was hired as an outright professional organization and made a successful tour of the United States, winning every game. Chicago next went professional and by 1870, the Amateur National Association of Baseball Players was abandoned. In 1871, the National Association of Professional Baseball Players was organized in New York City. It dissolved in 1876 when the National League came into existence on February 2, with 8 cities as member teams. Its first president was Morgan G. Bulkeley, rather colorless, but he was succeeded next year by William A. Hulbert, who started baseball history. He was admired by everyone for he was the first to expel for life four baseball players found guilty of dishonesty. From this time in 1877, confidence was established in professional baseball and Hulbert remained president until 1882.

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B.P.O. Elks #841 Clambake, Midland Park, Grant City, Staten Island. Scenes from baseball game, August 24, 1921.

In 1882 the American Association was formed in cities, not members of the National League, but by 1891 the American was merged with the National League into a 12-club organization, having a monopoly of major league baseball. It continued this way until 1900 when its membership was reduced to 8 members [Boston, New York, Brooklyn, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Chicago, St. Louis and Cincinnati].

In 1900 Charles A. Comiskey, owner of the St. Paul Club of the Western league obtained permission to put a club in Chicago. He wanted to expand to Baltimore and Washington, which had been abandoned by the National League, so gradually a new American League was formed and became a rival with a following equally as great as that of the National.

In 1903 an agreement between the two major leagues established the National Commission, a final court of resort for all organized baseball and a new system of government in the baseball world. The Commission was composed of three members, the President of the two leagues and a third, selected by the two, who became chairman. Decisions rendered by this National Commission, after a few years, provoked another controversy in baseball. After a scandal involving players who were charged with dishonest practices the Commission was abolished in November, 1920. It was replaced by a one-man authority who every American knows, Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, a federal judge who was elected Commissioner of baseball with jurisdiction over all clubs and leagues….

Mayor LaGuardia & Police Commissioner Valentine with children from the Police Athletic League at ball game, ca. 1945. Mayor LaGuardia Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

Professional ball players regard their occupation highly. Men who win honors on the “diamond” are trained and disciplined. I would say that they have as great a responsibility to the public and to the children of our country as public officials. Temperance and clean habits are expected of all ball players, and late hours, over-eating, drinking, gambling and other forms of dissipation are strictly forbidden.

For several weeks before the opening of the season, the men are put through severe courses in physical training so that they may enter upon the serious work of the year in First Class condition. The manager of a team who hopes to defeat all other clubs in his league must see to it that his team is kept in fighting condition throughout the season. It takes work, work, work, as much as being a concert pianist.

These men who acquire fame on the diamond have the confidence of the people. You all remember our Lou Gehrig. When he was stricken and could not play, you may recall I appointed him a Commissioner on the Parole Board. It is the duty of the Commissioner to get information from men who have slipped and have been sentenced to the penitentiary. Sometimes it is very hard to get the truth. Well, you know, Lou Gehrig never had any trouble at all. When there was doubt as to the truth of the statements of any of the prisoners seeking parole, they would refer the case to Lou and Lou would question the prisoner. He would say, “Are you telling the truth?” Invariably the answer would be, “Oh, I would not lie to you, Lou, I mean Mr. Gehrig, I would not lie to you.” And they would not, because he represented something clean, something decent….

It is interesting to note that before Judge Landis was appointed, the Ex-President of the United States, William Howard Taft, had been consulted and considered whether or not he would take the Commissionership – he was quite a baseball fan you know. Under Commissioner Landis, strict rules have been laid down and rigidly enforced. Numbers of instances might be cited where betting syndicates have been fined and ordered away from cities where World Series were being played.

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Yankee Stadium, Yankees on the field during game, probably the 1936 World Series. Cosmo-Sileo Co., NYC Municipal Archives Collection.

The last scandal, which resulted in the appointment of Judge Landis, was rather sensational. Here is a touching editorial from the New York Times of October 3rd, 1924 which is entitled “The Baseball Scandal,” and reads as follows:

“We should all like to believe that professional baseball is a clean sport. Patrons of the game are sensitive about its integrity. When the scandal in connection with the championship series between the Cincinnati’s and the Chicago’s came like a bolt out of a clear sky in 1919 nothing was more pathetic than the appeal of a little boy to one of the players involved. ‘Joe, you didn’t do it, say it is not true!’ Unhappily it was only too true. And now, on the eve of the annual struggle between the champions of the big leagues Commissioner Landis is obliged to announce the guilt of two members of the New York National team, against whom charges of attempted bribery has been proved, and to cast them into the outer darkness of ineligibility….”

You heard about the 10 million Americans who attended the game, I said that was but a small percentage of the real baseball fans of our country. Oh, I would say that at the twilight hour, after sundown in the summertime, and before dark, 40, 50, or maybe 60 million Americans are playing ball – that is, they are playing over again the games that were played that afternoon – yes, perhaps, the gentleman in his study and in his comfortable leather chair, or the farmer on the back porch in Iowa or Nebraska, with his suspenders hanging down, his chair tilted back; or the gentleman on the veranda of the country club; or the gentleman on the fire-escapes of an East Side tenement, or in the city drug stores or out in the forest or in the mines, are listening to the radio….

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Crowd in the bleachers (World Series 1936). WPA Federal Writers’ Project Collection, NYC Municipal Archives.

At every supper table and in the family life of our country, the game is played over again. Every family divides, each has his favorite. There is always someone in the family for one club, another boosting another club. We have a Dodger fan right in our own family. I remember when the Yanks were playing the Dodgers, I told my children, “Now listen, remember both teams are New York teams, so please behave and be natural and quiet. We must be neutral, they are both New York City teams.” “You promise?” “Yes.” “You promise?” “Yes.” So we went out to Brooklyn and sure enough something happened, when the Dodgers were up, it was a two bagger I think, and Eric [LaGuardia’s son] goes Wheeee. I said, “Eric, didn’t I tell you to be neutral?” he said, “Yes, I’m neutral for the Bums.”

…So now, let us get ready. Start to clear your throats for your favorite team, because pretty soon, the whole country will hear, “Play Ball.” Patience and Fortitude.

Thanks to Andy Lanset of WNYC Radio for the audio clip, the full broadcast is available here.