Baseball and the News

Abstract

A debate over “the overgenerous publicity given baseball by the newspapers” and the call for curtailing coverage of the sport was part of an early twentieth-century campaign against the “free publicity evil” by American newspaper publishers—culminating in the Chicago Tribune’s 1921 campaign to persuade the nation’s newspapers to run fewer and shorter baseball stories. The heart of that dispute between newspapers and the national game involved a negotiation defining “What is news?—to include a reconsideration of news values in the struggle between the adage about “giving readers what they want” and the maturing articulation about what it means for the press to serve the public interest, which culminated in early expressions about the concept of “constructive journalism.”

Notes

1 Atherton Brownell, “Publicity,” in Southern Commercial Congress, Proceedings: Third Annual Convention Southern Commercial Congress, Atlanta, Georgia, March 1911 (Congress, 1911), 914–915.

2 “Lecture for Deadheads: Long-Suffering Kansas Editor Writes a New Declaration of Independence,” Washington Post, October 8, 1912, 6.

3 H. Addington Bruce, “Baseball and the National Life,” Outlook, May 17, 1913, 104. See also Untitled Editorial, Independent 52, no. 2708 (October 25 1900): 2594. The editorialist asserted that “Baseball is our national game, because it somehow best expresses the American athletic genius. It has survived fierce competition with polo, tennis, football and golf.”

4 Josiah Strong, “Why The League for Social Service,” Social Service 6, no. 3 (September 1902): 42–43.

5 “Baseball Magnate’s Greed,” Editor & Publisher, October 18, 1913, 352; See also: Untitled Editorial, Editor & Publisher, March 24, 1913, 12; Tongue in cheek, the journal asked: “Are you doing all you can to promote the interests of the professional baseball club owners? If not, you are missing a lot of fine opportunities these days. Mind, we are talking about professional baseball, the kind that brings so much money to the men who run the clubs that they hardly know what to do with it. They might, of course, spend a tiny, weeny bit of it in the advertising columns of the newspapers, but as the editors give them several columns of space every day they do not have to do it. We are sure you will agree with them in their contention that there is no sense in paying for something they can get for nothing. Of course, your sporting or baseball editor, to whom you pay a good salary, spends the most of his time writing baseball dope, and your compositors are well paid for setting it up, and you supply the white space it occupies, but you shouldn't mind the expense when you know you are thereby increasing the large incomes of the baseball magnates.”

6 “Baseball Magnate’s Greed,” Editor & Publisher, October 18, 1913, 352.

7 “Why Baseball Magnates Get Rich!” Editor & Publisher, March 8, 1913, 10.

8 “Baseball Magnate’s Greed,” 352; “Why Baseball Magnates Get Rich!” 10.

9 “Baseball Magnate’s Greed,” 352.

10 See for example: Lewis Arms, “Publicity Has Put Baseball and Pugilism on Plane They Now Occupy,” El Paso Herald, February 16, 1912, 10. Reporter Lewis Arms made the point that the over-riding popularity of both baseball and boxing owed their very fan bases to one thing—the nation’s newspapers; See also: “Baseball in Philadelphia,” Editor & Publisher, August 1, 1914, 142; “Baseball and Newspapers,” Times-Republican (Marshalltown, Iowa), August 7, 1914, 4; “Baseball and the Newspapers,” New York Tribune, December 18, 1922, 10.

11 “The Press and Baseball,” Abbeville Press and Banner, May 29, 1912, 4.; See also: “Working for Economy in Editorial Cost,” Fourth Estate, June 1, 1912, 6.

12 “Poor Newspaper Guy Gives Aid to Baseball at Last: Sport Writer Says It Would Be Dead World Without Daily Diamond Dope,” Evening Times (Grand Forks, North Dakota), May 18, 1912, 3.

13 “Newspapers and Racing’s Death Helped Baseball,” Washington Herald, December 1, 1912, 39.

14 C.P. Stack, “The Greatest Power in Baseball: The Public Press, the Dominant Force in the World of Sports,” Baseball Magazine 8, 1911, 33.

15 Lori Amber Roessner, Inventing Baseball Heroes: Ty Cobb, Christy Mathewson, and the Sporting Press in America (Baton Rouge: LSU Press, 2014), 166.

16 Lori Amber Roessner, “Hero Crafting in Sporting Life, an Early Baseball Journal,” American Journalism 26, no. 2 (2009): 40.

17 Roessner, Inventing Baseball Heroes, 131–132.

18 Harold Seymour, Baseball: The Early Years (New York: Oxford University Press, 1960), 33.

19 Roessner, “Hero Crafting in Sporting Life,” 41.

20 David Nasaw, Going Out: The Rise and Fall of Public Amusements (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999), 4.

21 Ibid.

22 Stephen Hardy, “Sport in Urbanizing America: A Historical Review,” Journal of Urban History 23, no. 6 (September 1997): 676.

23 Janet Lever and Stanton Wheeler, “Mass Media and the Experience of Sport,” Communication Research 20, no. 1 (1993): 125–126.

24 Ibid., 127.

25 Frank Luther Mott, American Journalism (New York: Macmillan, 1950), 579.

26 Michael Oriard, Reading Football: How the Popular Press Created an American Spectacle (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993), 60.

27 See for example: “Reciprocity,” Editor & Publisher, November 1, 1913, 391; “‘Ah! Ha!’ the baseball magnate cried, / ‘They gave that game a page–that’s fine! / I think I will send them an ad.’ / And so he did–one agate line;” “Our National Game,” National Police Gazette 44, no. 353 (June 28 1884): 11; Untitled Editorial, Independent 52, no. 2708 (October 25 1900): 2594.

28 Untitled Editorial, Editor & Publisher, August 27, 1921, 28; “The Shears for Professional Baseball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 24, 1921, 8.

29 “Less Ink for Professional Baseball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 30, 1921, 6.

30 See for example: Robert W. McChesney, “Freedom of the Press for Whom? The Question to be Answered in Our Critical Juncture,” Hofstra Law Review 35, no. 3 (2007): 1434; Media scholar Robert W. McChesney describes a critical juncture as “a period in which the old institutions and mores are collapsing under long-run and powerful pressures” that helps “explain how social change works.” McChesney notes: “This notion of critical junctures is increasingly accepted in history and the social sciences, and it is has proven especially useful for communication. Most of our major institutions in media are the result of critical junctures, periods when policies could have gone in other directions, and, had they done so, put media and society on a different path.” See also: Robert McChesney, Communication Revolution: Critical Junctures and the Future of Media (New York: New Press, 2007).

31 Lula O. Andrews, “What is News?” Sewanee Review 18, no. 1 (1910): 48.

32 See for example: “Editor and Pastor Exchange,” New York Times, January 28, 1900, 1. In an editorial titled “What is News?” the Reverend Charles Sheldon observed: “A definition of what is news requires a definition of what is not. It is not news, for example, to publish in a Topeka paper the account of a murder trial in California. It is not news to print hearsay. The news of the day is facts.” Will Irwin, “What Is News?” Collier’s Weekly 46, March 18, 1911, 16; “What Is News? A Symposium from the Managing Editors of the Great American Newspapers,” Collier’s Weekly 46, March 18, 1911, 22; Collier’s Weekly 47 (April 15, 1911): 44; Collier’s Weekly 47 (May 6, 1911): 35; Collier’s Weekly 47 (May 13, 1911): 42; Collier's Weekly 47 (May 20, 1911): 26; “What Is News?” Outlook 89, May 23, 1908, 39; “What Is News?” Scribner’s 44, October 1908, 507–508; H. B. Brougham, “News—What Is It?” Harper’s Weekly 56, February 17, 1912, 21; “What is News?” Editor & Publisher, July 8, 1922, 24.

33 B.F. Vaughan, “Some Influences of the Secular Press,” Herald of Gospel Liberty, September 2, 1886, 551.

34 “Fogg Again Elected Maine Press Chief,” Editor & Publisher, January 21, 1922, 16.

35 Reprinted in “Our National Game,” National Police Gazette 44, no. 353 (June 28 1884): 11; See also Delos F. Wilcox, “The American Newspaper: A Study in Social Psychology,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 16, no. 1 (1900): 56–92. In a content analysis of newspapers in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, and Cincinnati, the study found that the percent of total space devoted to sporting news in general ranged from 5.2 percent in Pittsburgh to 6.4 percent in Cincinnati.

36 Frank B. Elser, “The Baseball Fan and the Box-Score,” Outlook, April 19, 1913, 857.

37 “The Pursuit of Gratuitous Publicity,” Magazine of Commerce and British Explorer 8, no. 6 (1905): 413.

38 Ibid.

39 See for example: “Filing Up the Horrors: How the Circus Romancers Run the Sensational News Mill Play the Guileless Editors for Suckers,” National Police Gazette, April 1, 1882, 7; See also, for an excellent summary of the workings of a travelling circus and its press agents, Charles Theodore Murray, “In Advance of the Circus,” McClure’s Magazine 3, no. 3 (August 1894): 252–260.

40 “Results of the War on Free Publicity,” Editor & Publisher, July 17, 1915, 142.

41 Susan Lucarelli, “The Newspaper Industry’s Campaign Against Spacegrabbers, 1917–1921,” Journalism Quarterly 70, no. 4 (1993): 884.

42 “Free Publicity,” Editor & Publisher, December 10, 1910, 8.

43 “Editorial Notes,” Inland Printer 45, no. 4 (1910): 537.

44 “Meeting of the A.N.P.A.” Fourth Estate, April 27, 1912, 29; See also: “Press Agents’ Menace Creates a New Sherlock Holmes,” New York Times, June 9, 1912, SM9. The Times observed that publishers wanted to prevent what should be paid advertising entering the newspaper “in the guise of news.” Not only does it cheat the publisher out of money, but it also “deceives the reader, who is entitled to know an ‘ad’ when he sees one.”

45 “Seitz on Free Publicity: Tells Canadian Press All Advertising Should Be Paid For,” New York Times, June 8, 1912, 5.

46 “The Newspaper of To-Day: Tendency is Toward Stability in Influence and Financial Soundness,” Editor & Publisher, June 10, 1911, 12.

47 “The Baseball Graft,” Editor & Publisher, May 20, 1911, 12; See also: “Free Publicity: Difficult to Distinguish Between News and Advertising—Only Point Editor Should Consider Is, ‘Is It of Interest to the Reader’—What is News?” Editor & Publisher, July 23, 1910, 4–5; “Is Baseball Worth Its Editorial Cost?” Fourth Estate, May 18, 1912, 6; “Want Baseball Owners to Advertise,” Editor & Publisher, August 16, 1913, 166; “Favor Baseball Ads,” Editor & Publisher, July 11, 1914, 79; “Why Don’t They Pay for It? Views of Publishers on Baseball and Advertising,” Editor & Publisher, June 25, 1914, 126; “Baseball Free Publicity,” Editor & Publisher, May 8, 1915, 1028; “What Newspaper Men Say About Baseball Publicity,” Editor & Publisher, September 11, 1919, 16; “The National Game,” Editor & Publisher, July 24, 1919, 50; “How Much Space for Baseball News,” Editor & Publisher, August, 1919, 7; “What is the News Value of Baseball?” Editor & Publisher, August 28, 1919, 28; “Found–A Baseball Magnate Who Believes in Paid Advertising,” Editor & Publisher, August 7, 1919, 41; “Sports Writers and Baseball Reports,” Editor & Publisher, September 10, 1921, 28; D.W. Grandon, “Baseball Space Grafters,” Editor & Publisher, September 24, 1921, 50; “The Trail of the Serpent,” Editor & Publisher, April 8, 1922, 28.

48 Untitled Editorial, Editor & Publisher, July 22, 1911, 8.

49 William B. Anderson, “Crafting the National Pastime’s Image: The History of Major League Baseball Public Relations,” Journalism & Communication Monographs 5, no. 1 (2003): 12.

50 “Baseball in Philadelphia,” Editor & Publisher, August 1, 1914, 142.

51 See for example: “Press and Baseball,” Rock Island Argus, April 19, 1910, 4; The writer argued that “No one business gets so much gratis advertisement as baseball. The news papers have done much to make the game what It is. Yet some owners and managers fail to comprehend or to appreciate this fact.” “The Baseball Graft,” Editor & Publisher, May 20, 1911, 12; “Is Baseball Worth Its Editorial Cost?” Fourth Estate, May 18, 1912, 6; Chester S. Lord, “Newspaper Tendencies,” Editor & Publisher, March 20, 1915, 817; Chester S. Lord, then former managing editor of the New York Sun, argued that “So great is the interest in baseball contests the newspapers feel compelled to print from seven to ten columns a day about them.”

52 “Trotter and Pacer,” Washington Herald, October 13, 1912, 4.

53 “From the Skinnersville Signal,” Editor & Publisher, March 16, 1915, 772.

54 “The Decay of Baseball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 15, 1899, 6; The Tribune complained that there was no longer any “civic pride” in baseball teams. In Chicago and other cities, the editorial lamented baseball was no longer a “high-class sport.” The paper blamed, for one, commercialism that had made players nothing more than pieces of property to be freely traded. “Teams are bought and sold and are transferred from city to city as if they were live stock.” The other factor contributing to fans’ fleeing the game was that “Rowdyism has come in along with commercialism.” The editorialist lamented that “Quiet, decent people can no longer go to baseball games because of the vulgarity and ruffianism displayed there. The morale of the players has deteriorated. They used to try to behave like sportsmen. They act now like foul-mouthed bullies;” “The Shears for Professional Baseball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 24, 1921, 8.

55 Quoted in “Is Professional Baseball Sport?” Literary Digest 70, September 17, 1921, 50.

56 “Is Professional Baseball Sport?” 52.

57 Frank Smith, “Boiling Down on Baseball News Begins In N.Y.,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 8, 1921, 15.

58 See for example: Frank Smith, “Baseball $Sign as Harm to Game Awakens Nation,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 1, 1921, 18; Frank Smith, “Gotham Editors Tribune’s Cut on Baseball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 9, 1921, 13; Frank Smith, “Big N. Y. Dailies Reflect Pep of Pennant Fights,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 10, 1921, 9; Frank Smith, “Play Sport as You Treat News, Says N.Y. Editor,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 11, 1921, A1; Frank Smith, “Boston Editors Favor Cutting Down Baseball,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 12, 1921, 15; Frank Smith, “Boston Editors Agree Pro Ball Is Overplayed,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 13, 1921, 14; Frank Smith, “Philly Editors Favor Cutting Pro Sport News,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 15, 1921, 12; Frank Smith, “Rocap Advocates Amateur Sports,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 16, 1921, 12; Frank Smith, “Cut Pro Sport News, Ledger Editors Say,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 17, 1921, 8; Frank Smith, “Plan Big Cut in Pro Sport News in Washington,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 19, 1921, 18; Frank Smith, “Hot Race Feeds Pittsburgh With Much Ball News,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 20, 1921, 14; Frank Smith, “Cutting Ball News Favored in Detroit,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 23, 1921, 18; Frank Smith, “Detroit News Space to Amateur Sports,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 28, 1921, 12; Frank Smith, “Indians Get Space in Cleveland Papers,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 29, 1921, 18; “New Orleans Is Aboard Tribune Amateur Wagon,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 25, 1921, A1.

59 Smith, “Boston Editors Agree Pro Ball Is Overplayed,” 14.

60 Smith, “Play Sport as You Treat News, Says N.Y. Editor,” A1.

61 “Is Professional Baseball Sport?” 50.

62 O.A. Kingsbury, “A Christian Daily Paper,” New Englander and Yale Review 47 (September 1887): 183.

63 Daniel J. Boorstin, The Image: A Guide to Pseudo-Events in America (New York: Vintage Books, 2012). 

64 Charles Ransom Miller, “A Word to the Critics of Newspapers,” Forum 15 (August 1893): 716.

65 “Publicity Evils Denounced,” Fourth Estate, June 19, 1920, 16.

66 “Favor Baseball Ads,” Editor & Publisher, July 11, 1914, 79. This anecdote was published in Printers’ Ink the following year; See “Will Baseball Clubs Advertise More Liberally This Season?” Printers’ Ink 91, no. 2 (April 8 1915): 66.

67 “Favor Baseball Ads,” 79.

68 “‘Publicity Evils’ Up to the Publishers,” Printers’ Ink, June 10, 1920, 86.

69 “Favor Baseball Ads,” Editor & Publisher, July 11, 1914, 79.

70 Will Irwin, “The Press Agent, His Rise and Decline,” Collier’s, December 2, 1911, 40.

71 Atherton Brownell, “Publicity,” in Southern Commercial Congress, Proceedings: Third Annual Convention Southern Commercial Congress, Atlanta, Georgia, March 1911 (Congress, 1911), 914.

72 “Praise for Pence,” Editor & Publisher, July 22, 1922, 22–23.

73 William H. Dowd, “The Line Between Advertising and News,” in The Thirty-Sixth Annual Report of the Proceedings of the Maine Press Association for the Year Ending March 1, 1899 (Portland, Maine: Maine Coast Cottager Office, 1899), 14. See also, “It Is Always Easy to ‘Work’ the Press,” Fourth Estate, January 26, 1901, 10. Indeed, two years later during the Pan-American Exposition held in Buffalo, New York, hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent to ensure its success, but not a penny on newspaper advertising—and managers espoused no inclination to do so. It is well to remember that “it is a wise business policy to spend money among those who help earn it,” the Fourth Estate editorialized. See also, related to complaints about the Expo and free publicity “Working a ‘Good Thing’,” Fourth Estate, March 23, 1901, 10; “One Editor’s Views on Advertising,” Fourth Estate, November 23, 1901, 10.

74 “Y.M.C.A. Hears New Ad Pointers: Prominent New York Newspaper Man Lectures in Brooklyn,” Fourth Estate, April 4, 1908, 10; See also: “Free Publicity: Difficult to Distinguish Between News and Advertising—Only Point Editor Should Consider Is, ‘Is It of Interest to the Reader’—What is News?” Editor & Publisher, July 23, 1910, 4–5. Wiley made a similar point nine years later.

75 Dowd, “The Line Between Advertising and News,” 15.

76 “The Baseball Manager as an Advertiser,” Fourth Estate, September 14, 1901, 11.

77 Ibid.

78 Smith, “Baseball $Sign as Harm to Game Awakens Nation,” Chicago Daily Tribune, September 1, 1921, 18; “A Line O’ Type or Two,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 27, 1921, 4.

79 “A Line O’ Type or Two,” 4.

80 “Voice of the People: How Baseball Improves the Mind,” Chicago Daily Tribune, November 13, 1920, 8.

81 “Voice of the People: Bad News for the Professional or the Spectator,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 27, 1921, 4.

82 “Voice of The People: Maybe It’s Not as Bad as That,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 30, 1921, 6. 

83 “Voice of The People: ‘Poor Boob’,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 30, 1921, 6. 

84 “Voice of The People: Poor Judgement,” Chicago Daily Tribune, August 31, 1921, 6. 

85 W.H. Shumaker, “Free Publicity,” The Michigan Bulletin 9, no. 2 (1916): 5.

86 “The True Appraisal of Baseball News,” Fourth Estate, September 3, 1921, 18.

87 Ibid.

88 “The National Game,” Editor & Publisher, July 24, 1919, 50.

89 Untitled Letter to Editor, Editor & Publisher, August 7, 1919, 17.

90 “What is News? A Symposium from the Managing Editors of the Great American Newspapers,” 28.

91 Ibid., 22, 28, 30, 31, 33.

92 H.L. Mencken, “Newspaper Morals,” Atlantic Monthly 113, March 1914, 291.

93 “Newsprint Outlook,” Editor & Publisher, August 7, 1919, 36.

94 “An Interesting Controversy,” Editor & Publisher, September 11, 1919, 32.

95 Roessner, Inventing Baseball Heroes, 176; Mark Dyreson, “The Emergence of Consumer Culture and the Transformation of Physical Culture: American Sport in the 1920s,” Journal of Sport History 16, no. 3 (1989): 261.

96 Ibid., 274.

97 Bruce J. Evensen, “Jazz Age Journalism’s Battle Over Professionalism, Circulation, and the Sports Page,” Journal of Sport History 20, no. 3 (1993): 230.

98 Ibid., 234.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ronald Rodgers

Ronald Rodgers is an associate professor in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. He is the author of The Struggle for the Soul of Journalism: The Pulpit versus the Press, 1833–1923 (University of Missouri Press).