The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1913-10-06
Attendance at Worlds Series
Is Barometer of Interest.
First Played in 1SS4-Passed
Practically UnnOticed.
A RECORD CROWD LAST YEAR
Tabulated Records Show At
tendance and Receipts.
A thIeticS-Gian Series Predict.
ed to Eclipse All Records.

| L.
barometer of interest in the world
series games, have scared to dizzy
| heights since the Providence and the
Metropolitan clubs battled for the first
worlds championship in 1884. Staged
in New York, the premier fight aroused
little more than passing interest, was
! lightly attended and reaped Scant
harvest of receipts that tie clubs new
er even published the figures. Some
idea of what they may have been is
CLEANED from the contest the next year
! between the Chicago club of the Ma
tional league and ST. Louis of the
American association.
Seven games were played in four
cities, Chicago, ST. Louis, Pittsburg and
Cincinnati. The fight was hot. Chi
cago won three. st. Louis three and
one game was tied. Such a situation
in this years fight for the pennant
would result in tremendous box office
receipts. Yet the entire seven games
in 1885 yielded but 81 900.
Those were the days when a seat in
the bleachers cost a quarter and fifty
cents provided the best seats in the
grandstand. Even this modest admis-
sion seems to have kept many enthu-
siasts away from the games. Not only
this, widespread enthusiasm was neg
ligible in the contests. From their
humble origin admission prices have
grown to the dignity of s25 for a box
seating four down at the edge of dia-
mond in 1913. And dollar is the least
of bills that will admit one to the con-
test. This buys seat in the bleachers'
stand.
Back in the infancy Of the world S
series the man who attended a game
left his office al the usual hour for the
ball game, sauntered leisurely through
the runways to the field and picked
out the most advantageous seat he
Nv rlIa W
of picking. Nowadays he who must
go begins to worry the moment that
the day for the series is announced.
He knows that he must be early on the
spot on the morning of the game-else
someone less tardy will crowd him out.
surges into the field hours before the
time set for the game. If he is late
the game is not for him to see.
But the evolution from the days of
empty seats to the roaring bleachers
and the laundering grandstand. pack
ed to capacity. has been gradual. In
1887 when St. Louis and Detroit fought
United States-piaying in nearly a
dozen citieS-the boxoffice receipts
climbed up to $4,000. Three thousand
dollars game was considered big
money. The next year the ten games
played between.New York and ST.
Louis brought $24,362 to the boxoff1ce.
In 1894, first year of the Temple cup
series, the average had risen to $4,000
a game. Only four games were played
that year, two at Baltimore and two
at New York, and the total receipts
for the series were $4,000. In 1895 five
games were played and the receipts
fell to STAT
There was no battle for the worlds
championship pennant between 1898 and
1902. In 1903 the National League and
American League pennant winners
~ ut h.
are now played. One hundred thousand
persons-colossal figures ten years ago
saw the eight games and paid more
than $4,000 for the privilege. There
was contest in 1904 In 1905. 81, 723
persons saw the games; the price of
tickets went up and SOS, 405 was taken
in The low level came in 1908 when
Chicago and Detroit fought for the flag.
Sixty-three thousand persons saw the
five games. However, they paid $94,-
976
In 1909, 1852 persons paid s1SS,302 to
see the games; in 1910, 124,222 persons
paid s173, $50: in 1911 the contest be-
tween New York and Philadelphia was
seen by 179, S51 spectators who left $342-
164 at the box office. The banner year
was 1912. More than a quarter of a
million persons saw the New York Ma
tionals and the Boston American league
club in the eight games and nearly half
a million dollars-S490, 449-was taken in
at the box office.
With the rising cost of baseball came
a corresponding increase in prize mon
ey of the players The first game of
the worlds series, now played, in
1903 netted the losing players $1182
each and the winners 81 ,316.25 each.
Last years fight, of course, was high
water mark in players prize money.
The players on the Boston and New
York teams divided between them
$147,572, sixty per cent to the winning
team and forty per cent to the losing.
Thus the Boston players averaged 5000
each for playing the eight games; the
New Workers., s3,472.
Details of financial matters in the
games since 1903 are given in the fol-
lowing table: