Although no one seems willing to put it quite this way, I submit that their devotion has bought fans a stake and a say in the game, in the way that ordinary citizens have a sense of ownership in a landmark building or cultural institution. After all, without their pride of place, what is a museum or an opera company, or a ball club, but just another piece of private property? - John Thorn.
Several months ago, historian John Thorn asked the gang at SABR-L:
I will be grateful for any pointers to famous fans, especially those of primeval times.
I immediately thought about Tallulah Bankhead, the actress and talk show host. She loved Mel and Willie and the Giants. In her autobiography, she told of the time she hosted the team for dinner and drinks. Of her fandom, she said, “When they lose I taste wormwood. When they win I want to do a tarantella on the top of the dugout.”
Of course, that was the 40s and 50s. Thorn reached back a century and more to find not a famous person who was also a fan, but rather a fan who was famous for being a fan. His name was Frank B. Wood, who like Bankhead, spent at least a decade with the Giants when they were not so good.
Among these was “Old Well-Well,” which appeared in the July 1910 issue of Success. In it the author went to New York’s Polo Grounds in search of the man who was “famous from Boston to Baltimore as the greatest baseball fan in the East.” The author went to the ballpark on a Saturday afternoon hoping to meet up with Old Well-Well.
Excellent find by Thorn and excellent reading.
Another Thorn piece on the fans is Fame and Fandom. He writes about a trip he took to Cooperstown last fall to visit with Red Sox super fan Peter J. Nash. Nash, author of Baseball Legends of Brooklyn’s Green-Wood Cemetery and Boston’s Royal Rooters, is working on a Fan Hall of Fame. Located in Cooperstown with a projected Grand Opening this summer, the Hall would “hold annual inductions of celebrated baseball fans, rooters, enthusiasts, cranks, and bugs from Walt Whitman on up to Jerry Seinfeld.” In an interview with Don Hyslop of Red Sox Nation, Nash said, “We have formed a blue-ribbon committee for election and induction purposes.”
Possible inductees include DeWolf Hopper, who became a big-time Giants fan during their rise to glory in the latter half of the 1880s. A Giant himself at six foot two, Hopper attended many games, knew John Ward presonally and organized events for the players such as the one in October 1889. New York had just defeated Brooklyn to capture their second straight “world's championship.” (The New York Giants Baseball Club by James Hardy Jr documents the relationship between Hopper and the Giants quite well).
Those merits alone might get Hopper consideration for Nash’s Hall, but what really stands out is a performance he gave in August 1888. On August 12, the second place White Stockings (Cubs) arrived in New York for a three game set with the first place Giants. The Giants were the talk of Gotham, winning 29 of their last 35 to take a six game lead over Anson’s ball club. On the 14th, Hopper and a large, Tuesday crowd of about 10,000 at the Polo Grounds watched Tim Keefe’s 19 game winning streak come to an end as the Giants lost to the Chicagos 4-2. That night the two ball clubs were invited to see “Prince Methusalem” at Wallack’s Theater. Hopper worked in a poem that had been published in the San Francisco Examiner that summer. Ernest Thayer, Casey and Hopper were about to become famous. The New York Times said Hopper’s rendition was “uproariously received.” In the coming years, Hopper belted out the verses many times. The role the poem played in helping to make baseball more popular is well documented.
The love fans have for the game comes out in different ways. As Thorn notes, collectors sometimes get a bad rap. But read his Fanfare for a Departed Friend. It is a warm look at baseball memorabilia collector Barry Halper who passed away last December.
John Thorn is right. The fans do have a special place in baseball. Seeing some of them get their due at Nash’s Fan Hall of Fame will be a great thing. As far as the Polo Grounders go, Tallulah has a chance, Old Well Well looks promising and Hopper is a shoo-in.
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