Posted
June 16, 2013
The
year was 1883.
The
team was the New York Gothams. (The team that later became the NY
Giants.)
The
idea? Let's attract more women to watch baseball games—and
hopefully they will become fans, so we can sell more tickets to
games, and fill the grandstands.
In
order to lure women to baseball, the Gothams' owner declared this
date in 1883 Ladies' Day, and all women were allowed in to the game
for free. It wasn't one of those strings-attached offers; you didn't
have to pay for one ticket to get one ticket free, for example. That
meant that women could go to the game for free either alone or in
groups of women, rather than having to be escorted by a man.
And,
guess what? It worked so well that there were Ladies' Days in many
different ball parks all over the U.S., for about 100 years! Women
really did become fans who would pay for tickets all through the
season.
I
don't know if umpire Bill Carpenter would think that Ladies' Day was
such a good idea. Apparently the Washington Senators team had a
Ladies' Day in 1897, and about 1,000 women went to the game. One of
the players, “Win” Mercer, was very popular with women fans, and
when he got into an argument with the umpire and was thrown out of a
game, many of those women stormed the field. They either chased him
all over the field, threatening him with their parasols, as one
account would have us believe, or they shoved Carpenter to the ground
and ripped his clothing, as another story said. Either way, this
extraordinary event is called the Ladies' Day Riot. |
| That parasol looks so innocent, doesn't it? |
To
celebrate the day, perhaps you can attend a baseball game—whether
you are male or female, adult or kid. Just don't forget your parasol!
Also
on this date:
Plan
ahead:
Check
out my Pinterest pages on June
holidays, historical
anniversaries in June,
and June
birthdays.
And
here are my Pinterest pages on July
holidays, historical
anniversaries in July,
and July
birthdays.
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