Free Pinstripe Empire by Marty Appel Page B

largely because Queens judges had a more enlightened interpretation of the Sunday laws. (Brooklyn twice played regular-season Sunday games there: The first, in 1904 against Boston, produced noarrests, but the second, against Philadelphia, featured several arrests of players, ending the “experiment.”)
    A Sunday exception was granted for a benefit exhibition game in April of 1906, played at Hilltop Park before fifteen thousand fans and raising $5,600 for San Francisco earthquake relief. The game was played between New York and the Philadelphia Athletics—two American League opponents—and many in the stands were not sure whether it was an exhibition or a league game. It was an exhibition, and it was pitched by Louis LeRoy, New York’s first Native American Player.
    In 1908, Father Thomas McLoughlin of New Rochelle reported on a meeting he had with President Theodore Roosevelt, claiming that the president “fully approved” of Sunday baseball.
    “I told the president that I did not see how there could be any harm in persons playing baseball or attending the National game on Sunday, after their religious duties had been discharged,” he said. “The president replied, ‘That is the kind of talk I like to hear from a clergyman.’ “
    The Giants also played the Yankees in a Sunday exhibition game at the Polo Grounds in 1912, a benefit for survivors of the
Titanic
, which raised nearly $10,000 in program sales without charging admission. Farrell jumped on the PR benefits of the endeavor, hoping to win favor with politicians. “I am pleased to say that the men who devote their time and talents to the national game are always ready to give freely of both time and talents … in the case of a national disaster.”
    In 1915, state assemblyman Martin McCue told his colleagues, “I live up to my religion as well as any practical man can, and there is nothing in my religion that says I can’t go to a baseball game Sunday afternoon if I go to church in the morning. I think if I watch the Giants perform on a bright Sunday afternoon I am keeping the day holy as the Master intended it should be kept holy.”
    But shortly after his speech, a bill to allow Sunday baseball was defeated.
    “I shall try again!” he said. “It’s sunshine, outdoors and peanuts against dives, gambling and vice!”
    In April of 1919—after the war had relaxed some of the more rigid standards in society—the New York State Senate and Assembly finally passed a Sunday baseball (and movies) bill, stating that no game could begin before 2:00 P.M. The bill was led by state senator Jimmy Walker, the future mayor of New York. Governor Al Smith, a devout Catholic, signed the bill, which allowed for a local opt-out. It was done.
    On May 4, 1919, both the Giants and the Dodgers played Sunday home games against National League opponents. The Yankees followed a week later, Sunday, May 11.
    And the earth didn’t tremble.
    THE 1905 HIGHLANDER season, a sixth-place finish, saw the debut of first baseman Hal Chase, who was drafted from the Pacific Coast League. His comings and goings from California “outlaw” leagues to the American League would, over the years, test the patience of the major leagues and their willingness to put up with players spending the off-season in makeshift West Coast leagues.
    It was just one of a number of issues that made Hal a controversial figure.
    Chase, handsome and tall at six feet and 175 pounds, batting right but throwing left, almost immediately became the team’s most popular player. Although he batted just .249 in his rookie season, he would hit .323—third in the league—the following year.
Sporting Life
magazine called him “perhaps the biggest drawing card in baseball.”
    He was often seen in the company of Broadway showgirls. He lived for a time in the same apartment building as John McGraw, and then in Suffern, New York, with his fiancée, Nellie Heffernan. He drank, he played poker, and while he loved New York,