Opening Day Snowballs
With snow either on the way or already here for most of the country, I thought it might be fun to look back at one of the more unusual snowy days in baseball history.
The New York Giants were scheduled to start the 1907 season at the Polo Grounds on April 11. However, they had to contend with consistently cold weather.
The weather forecast called for snow flurries in New York City that morning:
The forecast called for temperatures in the low 40s:
And there was talk of using trucks and wheelbarrows to cart the snow out of the Polo Grounds:
In the end, it looked like the game might not be played at all.
But they played it. Well, sort of.
15,000 people braved the weather and decided to show up. And, despite the cold and the snow, the game itself didn’t actually start until 4 PM.
With the Phillies ahead 3-0 in the bottom of the 8th inning, the crowd surged onto the field and started pelting snowballs at the umpires and players. And the handful of police officers present did practically nothing to stop them.
And so the Phillies won in a 9-0 forfeit.
Now, it seems that they weren’t only throwing snowballs. Apparently some seat cushions had also been thrown.
And apparently this all went back to a reluctance on the part of the police to offer the Giants any sort of protection.
Now, if you spend some time researching the history of the New York Giants, you’ll realize that policing problems like this were actually common in those days. The police force of New York City didn’t necessarily had enforcing the law as its first priority in those years.
Anyway, the other interesting thing is that you can’t see any snow in the grainy photos that exist:
The other interesting tidbit is that even the attendance figure for this game is in doubt. Two newspapers I’ve seen give the total at 15,000, though The New York Times claimed 17,000, and The New-York Tribune claimed 19,999. The Giants organization was the only organization to know the actual paid attendance figure, and none of that was officially reported in those days anyway.
As you can see from the photos, of course, it’s clear that there was a packed crowd at the ballpark.
It’s certainly not clear which story is correct. The official capacity of the Polo Grounds was probably something like 16,000 in those days, though it likely depended on how many people the Giants could squeeze into the bleachers. Per Green Cathedrals, it seems the capacity was 16,000 in 1891, but that the Giants drew almost 40,000 in 1904:
Of course, all of that probably requires a bit more research before I can say anything definitive.
Anyway, that’s one of the more peculiar snow related forfeits in baseball history. The Giants went on to an 82-71 record, good enough for fourth place.
I don't see any reference to snowballs in the newspaper copy. The weather report didn't call for snow, the temperature was above freezing all day, and the articles all agreed that every effort had been made to clear out the previous day's (and night's?) snow from both the playing field and the stands. Cushions were thrown (did management actually provide free seat cushions in those days, or did people have to rent them?) and one writer saw bottles, but most of the disruption was apparently simply from people storming the field. One of the articles mentions that there was an overflow crowd behind ropes in the outfield, so an attendance figure higher than 15,000 seems likely, despite the cold. (Based on the newspapers, It didn't snow, and wasn't expected to.) As for the police, it would appear that the normal procedure -- then as now -- called for rent-a-cops paid by stadium management, and that Brush and company had decided the regular police would handle things even after being told by the police commissioner that they wouldn't.