Crazy '08
How a Cast of Cranks, Rogues, Boneheads, and Magnates Created the Greatest Year in Baseball History

by Cait Murphy

In 1908, only boxing and horse racing rival baseball in popularity, but they carry a whiff of vice about them that can be off-putting. As for other sports, football is for college boys, basketball is in its infancy; tennis and golf are for the rich. Baseball, the all-American game, is seen as both pure and democratic. And unlike other sports, baseball provides a source of cohesion and pride for residents of fast-growing cities such as Pittsburgh and Detroit.

With the help of two of history’s best pennant races, twenty thousand to thirty thousand people pour into ballparks in 1908, routinely in New York and Chicago and occasionally elsewhere. Tens of thousands more block traffic or fill concert halls to watch electric scoreboards by the hour. The sight of fans literally dying to get into the game awakens management to baseball’s larger possibilities. In 1908, baseball comes of age.

Copyright 2007 by Cait Murphy