Thanks for checking it out. With that Columbus Day Giants-Superbas twin bill turning out to be at the Polo Grounds, was the new scheduler trying to get back at Ebbets for making them play that late, or did someone figure he'd get more from the visitors' share of a larger crowd -- with no travel costs -- than he could at Washington Park? (Very likely true, if they did draw 10,000 to Coogan's Bluff compared to 5000 in Brooklyn in 1910.) Sort of amusing, given Murphy's lament that playing Columbus Day in Chicago was hopelessly difficult logistically, that he ended up playing on the holiday, but in Cincinnati. My recollection -- though it could be wrong; I didn't look it up -- is that Columbus Day stayed on October 12 even after the US started moving some other holidays around to create three-day weekends in the 1970s. But I thought the elaborate annual celebrations went back at least to the 400th anniversary in 1892, when Chicago held the World's Fair in its honor. (But not until 1893, according to Wikipedia.)
It's interesting to note that the doubleheader in 1911 apparently only drew 12,000 or so. That figure is per Baseball Reference; I just checked the New York Sun, which only mentioned "a good sized crowd" without giving an estimate.
I'm guessing the fact that the Giants had clinched the pennant at the end of September has something to do with the small crowd. I also suspect that the Columbus day doubleheader idea might have died out when they realized that the crowds weren't quite as good as they had hoped.
Brooklyn actually had a number of big home crowds in 1910, despite the fact that the team was awful. 5,000 would have meant the park was only about 1/3 full...
Thanks for checking it out. With that Columbus Day Giants-Superbas twin bill turning out to be at the Polo Grounds, was the new scheduler trying to get back at Ebbets for making them play that late, or did someone figure he'd get more from the visitors' share of a larger crowd -- with no travel costs -- than he could at Washington Park? (Very likely true, if they did draw 10,000 to Coogan's Bluff compared to 5000 in Brooklyn in 1910.) Sort of amusing, given Murphy's lament that playing Columbus Day in Chicago was hopelessly difficult logistically, that he ended up playing on the holiday, but in Cincinnati. My recollection -- though it could be wrong; I didn't look it up -- is that Columbus Day stayed on October 12 even after the US started moving some other holidays around to create three-day weekends in the 1970s. But I thought the elaborate annual celebrations went back at least to the 400th anniversary in 1892, when Chicago held the World's Fair in its honor. (But not until 1893, according to Wikipedia.)
It's interesting to note that the doubleheader in 1911 apparently only drew 12,000 or so. That figure is per Baseball Reference; I just checked the New York Sun, which only mentioned "a good sized crowd" without giving an estimate.
I'm guessing the fact that the Giants had clinched the pennant at the end of September has something to do with the small crowd. I also suspect that the Columbus day doubleheader idea might have died out when they realized that the crowds weren't quite as good as they had hoped.
Brooklyn actually had a number of big home crowds in 1910, despite the fact that the team was awful. 5,000 would have meant the park was only about 1/3 full...