{"id":338,"date":"2017-03-03T17:39:53","date_gmt":"2017-03-03T17:39:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/?page_id=338"},"modified":"2017-03-03T17:39:53","modified_gmt":"2017-03-03T17:39:53","slug":"ethnic-characterizations-in-an-early-baseball-story-cincinnati-and-otooles-ghost-in-1885","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/essays\/ethnic-characterizations-in-an-early-baseball-story-cincinnati-and-otooles-ghost-in-1885\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethnic Characterizations in an Early Baseball Story: Cincinnati and \u201cO\u2019Toole\u2019s Ghost\u201d in 1885"},"content":{"rendered":"
Kevin Grace<\/em><\/h5>\n

There is an often-cited account in baseball histories taken from The Sporting News<\/em> that demonstrates the American Pastime\u2019s regard of ethnic differences in the first decades of the 20th<\/sup> century.\u00a0 In 1923, the self-termed \u201cBaseball Bible\u201d opined that: \u201cExcept the Ethiopian, the Mick, the Sheeney, the Wop, the Dutch and the Chink, the Cuban, the Indian, the Jap or the so-called Anglo-Saxon \u2013 his nationality is never a matter of moment if he can pitch, or hit, or field.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Such a media-initiated expression of ethnic and racial sentiment is virtually unimaginable if it occurred now at the beginning of the 21st<\/sup> century.\u00a0 But despite a long-standing cultural belief in an American sports creed that glorifies athletics as a true meritocracy, athletes have always been characterized by their heritage.\u00a0 Expression of that characterization is circumspect in this day and age \u2013 except, perhaps, in the cases of John Rocker and Marge Schott, and in the ethnic nicknames of sports teams.\u00a0 In our time, sport is supposed to reflect American society\u2019s developing acknowledgement of the sensibilities of others \u2013 at least in an open forum.\u00a0 No longer would a publication like The Sporting News<\/em> be able to print statements as it did in 1920 in response to journalist Hugh Fullerton\u2019s investigation of the 1919 World Series: Because a lot of dirty, long-nosed, thick-lipped, and strong-smelling gamblers butted into the World Series\u2026stories were peddled that there was something wrong with the games\u2026\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>The editors were referring, of course, to Jews.<\/p>\n

This racial stereotype had its origins decades earlier as Organized Baseball established its cultural foothold in America after the Civil War.\u00a0 As the game was promoted as the \u201cNational Pastime,\u201d nationality figured largely in the public perception of the sport.\u00a0 As baseball became a profession in which its employees rose from the ranks of the working classes and the bachelor subculture, or saloon fraternity, of the cities, the waves of Irish and German immigrants in the 1840s, 1850s and 1860s set the ethnic stage on which the game was played.<\/p>\n

By the 1880s, baseball as a professional sport had firmly taken root, along with every social element still attached to the game more than a century later: the umpire as reviled arbiter, the belief that love of the game breaks class boundaries, gambling, rapacious owners, sports lingo as American lexicon, community boosterism.\u00a0 And, of course, the make-up of baseball\u2019s labor and management.<\/p>\n

In Cincinnati in 1885, fully three years before the rousing Irish rise and fall of the Mighty Casey in his turn at bat, a small satirical weekly tabloid printed a small, satirical story on the rise and fall of another would-be Irish baseball hero, one Micky McGonigle.\u00a0 His story is told in \u201cO\u2019Toole\u2019s Ghost: A Base Base-Ball Narrative,\u201d <\/em>an anonymous piece published in Sam the Scaramouch.\u00a0 <\/em>Young Micky aspires to greatness on the diamond, to be a hero whose pitching skills would be second to none, and whose prowess at the plate would make fielders quake in fear, gentlemen gasp in admiration and envy, and women fairly swoon with longing for his glance.\u00a0 His tale is narrated in Sam the Scaramouch<\/em> replete with the ethnic color and political realities of urban life.<\/p>\n

Sam the Scaramouch<\/em> (the copy from which \u201cO\u2019Toole\u2019s Ghost\u201d <\/em>is taken is in the holdings of the Archives & Rare Books Department of the University of Cincinnati) was edited by three men, C.V. Van Hamm, A. H. Mattox, and Peter G. Thomson.\u00a0 Published only in 1885 and 1886, it was a weekly news journal devoted to local, national, and international politics; social issues; and the general foibles of American life.\u00a0 It was irreverent, disrespectful, sharply written \u2013 in short, everything a publication of barbed satire is meant to be.\u00a0 Van Hamm, Mattox and Thomson took the name of their periodical from a stock character in 19th<\/sup> century Italian theater.\u00a0 \u201cScaramouch\u201d originally referred to a boastful, cowardly buffoon, and by the latter part of the century had also come to mean a rascal or scamp.\u00a0 The Scaramouch<\/em> contained advertising both of a local and national nature, cartoons and jokes, doggerel, commentary, and reporting.\u00a0 Popular topics were elections, monetary policies, temperance, and the growing dichotomy between urban and rural life.<\/p>\n

The Scaramouch<\/em>\u2019s editorial cartoons tended to focus on political issues and international affairs.\u00a0 Other drawings and caricatures pinpointed the differences between urban and rural America, and the racial and ethnic groups dwelling in the cities.\u00a0 Pointedly, at a time when Cincinnati was kicked out of the National League because its German-American culture saw fit to drink beer and spirits and attend baseball games on its day of recreation, the tabloid also published a cartoon about local citizens ignoring the entreaties of preachers and the Sunday blue laws, avoiding church services to go to the ballpark.<\/p>\n

In Sam the Scaramouch<\/em>, African Americans were portrayed with the stereotypical minstrel-like characteristics: thick-lipped, wide eyes and loping gait.\u00a0 Germans were shabbily dressed, lecherous, large-nosed, and usually coming and going from saloons.\u00a0 Jews were drawn as somewhat shorter than \u201cChristian\u201d Germans, and though they wore the same loud, checkered suits, their clothes were less shabby; and, their lips and noses were just as pronounced.\u00a0 The Irish were caricatured as simian-jawed, unshaven, dim-witted drunks.\u00a0 In the copy that accompanied the drawings and literary sketches, dialogue was written with a keen editorial ear for the nuances of German, Jewish, Irish, and African American dialect, and the unrefined speech of everyday citizens.\u00a0 Sam the Scaramouch <\/em>was stereotype writ large and with a heavy hand.\u00a0 Its intent was to amuse an educated, politically informed, socially-aloof, white, male, professional class of people.\u00a0 And importantly, to lampoon everyone, including its own readers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The story of Micky McGonigle begins during the hot summer of 1885 in the city of \u201cSweinburg.\u201d\u00a0 Micky was \u201c\u2026an ambitious young man, aged twenty-one.\u00a0 It is true that Micky had already voted for three years, but this was nothing.\u00a0 In that Democratic stronghold, the bloody Fourth, they always did vote early, and need we remark, often.\u00a0 Micky McGonigle was a scholarly young man, a graduate of Sixth Street Hill, and an intense enthusiast on base-ball.\u00a0 To him the beauties of a properly curved sphere were aesthetic.\u00a0 His language was usually foul, and he generally made a home run when he saw a copy within two blocks.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

It is not the typical uplifting tale of juvenile sport that was rapidly becoming the norm at that time.\u00a0 For example, by 1885 five juvenile baseball novels had already been published, all of which played upon a theme of good boys overcoming the odds to win ballgames in dramatic fashion.\u00a0 With the opening of this story, the anonymous author places Micky as a stereotyped urban Irishman.\u00a0 He loves baseball, is part of ward politics \u2013 at least insofar as his votes were important, and he was generally a layabout who avoided the cop on the beat.\u00a0 In other words, a delinquent.<\/p>\n

Micky is an inveterate dreamer, and one night, as he tosses and turns on his straw mattress from the effects of the Cincinnati heat and too many beers, he is visited by a specter, the late, great pitcher, Barney O\u2019Toole.\u00a0 A Faustian bargain is struck whereby Micky will become the player he has fantasized himself as being.\u00a0 The condition of the deal, however, was not something so lofty as sterling behavior, nor something so dastardly as the selling of the soul.\u00a0 Rather, the caveat is that Micky must never, ever argue with the umpire or his talents will disappear.\u00a0 Is it possible that our anonymous author was an umpire?<\/p>\n

By 1885, the umpire was indeed a beleaguered figure.\u00a0 While never a vocation of popularity in any era, when the game was no longer amateur and there were real economic stakes involved, the umpire\u2019s decisions that lead to a win or a loss escalated in importance.\u00a0 Given, too, that in the civic boosterism so evident in Gilded Age America, it was important to fans that the home team be the best over those from other cities.\u00a0 They were rushing pell mell into the future, touting the superiority of their metropolis.\u00a0 Achievement in anything, especially in the very visible world of sports, was of mounting concern.<\/p>\n

As a matter of fact, in another issue of Sam the Scaramouch <\/em>there is a cartoon entitled \u201cThe Base-Ball Umpire of 1885.\u201d\u00a0 <\/em>In this drawing, a grumpy-looking umpire sits upon a stool, armored in breastplate and wearing a military helmet.\u00a0 In one hand he holds a cutlass and in the other a flintlock pistol.\u00a0 A saber is harnessed to his side.\u00a0 On his back he carries a pouch containing materials for a plaster cast.\u00a0 At his feet are a skull and bones, and a jug of arnica, which was a 19th<\/sup> century herbal concoction for treating bruises and sprains.\u00a0 In the distance behind him, angry fans are clambering over a fence to get after him.<\/p>\n

But for all his status as the detested authority figure \u2013 certainly not an unknown concept to a nation that, as a sort of cultural birthright, bucked against arbitrary authority \u2013 the umpire had it within his power to determine whether one would even have the chance to demonstrate baseball godliness, depending, one presumes, if a player \u201ckicked\u201d against him.<\/p>\n

So, it is in Micky\u2019s best interests to follow the warning of O\u2019Toole\u2019s ghost.\u00a0 But does he?\u00a0 In his turn at bat with the bases loaded, we read the answer:<\/p>\n

\u201cFoul, out!\u201d cried the umpire.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u201cLiar!\u201d screamed Micky McGonigle, hurling his bat at the grandstand.<\/em><\/p>\n

Compare those lines to the enduring stanzas a few years later in 1888 when Casey dramatically strides to the plate with men on base, and fails:<\/p>\n

\u201cFraud!\u201d cried the maddened thousands, and echo answered fraud;<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And somewhere men are laughing, and somewhere children shout.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 But there is no joy in Mudville \u2013 mighty Casey has struck out.<\/em><\/p>\n

Casey, like poor Micky a few years before him, is finished.\u00a0 There is no immortality, no adulation, no luck of the Irish.\u00a0 The author sends Micky McGonigle back to where his kind belongs.\u00a0 He drives an ash cart for the city dumps and constantly mutters to himself.<\/p>\n

Here, in this one little story, the author of \u201cO\u2019Toole\u2019s Ghost\u201d <\/em>neatly encapsulates the entire baseball universe of 1885.\u00a0 Here are the urban ethnic and racial groups, the gambling and drinking, the role of the umpire and the strife between labor and management, the chance for heroics and the dissipation of dreams, hero-worship, the yearnings of youth and bragging rights for neighborhoods and cities.\u00a0 Over a century later, it seems, the game remains the same.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

And now, the tale of Micky McGonigle.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 O\u2019TOOLE\u2019S GHOST<\/strong><\/h5>\n
A Base Base-Ball Narrative<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Micky McGonigle was an ambitious young man, aged twenty-one.\u00a0 It is true that Micky had already voted for three years; but this was nothing.\u00a0 In that Democratic stronghold, the bloody Fourth,(1) they always did vote early and, need we remark, often.\u00a0 Micky McGonigle was a scholarly young man, a graduate of Sixth Street Hill, and an intense enthusiast on base-ball.\u00a0 To him the beauties of a properly curved sphere were aesthetic.\u00a0 His language was usually foul, and he generally made a home run when he saw a cop within two blocks.\u00a0 Thus conscience and base-ball art were equally and intimately commingled.\u00a0 The ambition of Micky McGonigle\u2019s life was to be a pitcher for a League club on a five thousand dollar salary.\u00a0 Pitchers come high, but the public must have them.<\/p>\n

So, in common with a multitude of his fellow-citizens, Micky neglected his reading and writing, and exercised at pitching the classical rubber on the vacant lots in Sweinburg.(2)\u00a0 Thus he exhibited a true American pride in the manly art; not as shown in the brutal ring, but in the athletics of the base-ball square.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~~<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

One night when Micky McGonigle was wildly tossing over his straw mattress \u2013 effects of the heat, numerous beers, and the various orders of aphaniptera,(3) while his fancy painted an admiring and loudly cheering multitude, who applauded his magnificent home runs \u2013 a sudden vision appeared.\u00a0 It was the spirit of Barney O\u2019Toole, the former most famous pitcher of the League.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhist, Micky!\u201d said the shade.\u00a0 \u201cMe gossoon,(4) yez are the laddie to take me place.\u00a0 Do as I told yez, omadhaun,(5) and yez will become famous.\u201d<\/p>\n

Then Micky, although a little frightened, braced up and answered: \u201c\u2019Tis O\u2019Toole\u2019s ghost, sure enough!\u00a0 Ah, Barney, avourneen,(6) only give me yer cunning.\u00a0 If I only had yer skill as a pitcher, yer stringth as a batter, yer speed as a runner, then, then would the heart of Micky McGonigle be happy, and he would toss his old caubeen(7) as high as the Cork Cathedral!\u201d(8)<\/p>\n

The vision seemed to be smiling, as it answered: \u201cMusha,(9) yez blackguard, only hould yer tongue whin the umpire decides agin yer, and yer will become a great player.\u00a0 So long as yer no kicker agin an umpire, so long will yer prosper and make home runs.\u00a0 Don\u2019t moind the bat, me boy; let her fly, and she will make four-base hits every pop.\u00a0 But moind, yez blackguard, but make a single kick against the umpire, yer a gone coon.\u00a0 Do yez hear?\u201d<\/p>\n

Micky McGonigle bowed his head in token of acceptance.\u00a0 \u201cHowly Pater!\u201d cried he.\u00a0 \u201cBe the hair on the upper lip of a bloody dude from Tip!\u00a0 I\u2019ll be no kicker.\u00a0 Give me, shade of Barney O\u2019Toole, but one half of your former excellencies, and I\u2019ll be a regular corker.\u00a0 Don\u2019t forget that, Cully.<\/p>\n

\u201cYoubedeedeed!\u201d said the ghost; and, as it fled, Micky McGonigle felt a strange, tingling sensation permeate his body, and at the same moment fell into a deep sleep.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~~<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The next morning at early dawn Micky McGonigle hied him to an adjacent dump where, in company with a gang of kindred spirits, he spent the forenoon in tossing the eccentric sphere.\u00a0 That afternoon he sneaked in under the fence of the grounds where the famous Dirty Stockings, of Utopia, were to meet the Linen Drawer Club, of Sweinburg.(10)\u00a0 Public expectation in regard to this match was on the qui vive.\u00a0 <\/em>Editors had left their sanctums, clergymen their studies, doctors their offices, and merchants their stores, in order to witness this wonderful match.\u00a0 The entire population of a large metropolis had gathered together at fifty cents a head; for base-ball comes higher than a week\u2019s supply of bread for a workingman\u2019s family.(11)<\/p>\n

As the hour of 3 o\u2019clock p.m. drew near a faint rumor was wafted over the grounds that Dennis Gillicuddy, the celebrated pitcher for the Dirty Stockings, had cramp colic from eating watermelons, and was indisposed.(12)\u00a0 At the mere mention of this portentous information the vast audience groaned in spirit.\u00a0 The president of the Dirty Stocking Club, Israel Aaron Sweinfleish Sohelupmegrashus,(13) roved the grounds in a state of terrible excitement.\u00a0 He felt that the Dirty Stockings would cease to draw one hundred thousand people at fifty cents per capita unless this game was won.\u00a0 He had already tried to see the members of the opposition nine, the Linen Drawer Club, but as they wanted more than seventy-five cents apiece to sell out on a muff game,(14) the mighty heart of Israel Aaron Sweinfleish Sohelupmegrashus was well nigh broken.<\/p>\n

As he paced up and down in front of the grand stand, the cynosure of all eyes, his gaze suddenly fell on the manly form of Micky McGonigle who, stretched languidly on the green sward, was endeavoring to hid the hole torn in the seat of his pants while underscaling the fence.\u00a0 Israel Aaron Sweinfleish Sohelupmegrashus glared fiercely for a moment at the classical figure of Micky McGonigle.\u00a0 Then, suddenly, his highly trained and educated eye told him that the young man was a great base-ball player in embryo.(15)<\/p>\n

\u201cKoom her, my frent,\u201d remarked the grand mogul of the Dirty Stocking Club.\u00a0 \u201cYou plays pase-pall, eh?\u201d<\/p>\n

Micky McGonigle rose proudly to his feet.\u00a0 \u201cDo I play base-ball, is it?\u201d he queried.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019m the best pitcher in the States!\u00a0 Give me a trial, will yez?\u201d<\/p>\n

A smile of undying happiness passed over the face of the Dirty Stocking Club\u2019s President.\u00a0 \u201cMoly Hoses!\u201d he cried in a paroxysm of joy.\u00a0 \u201cVe are safeed.\u00a0 Our first pitcher is sick mit der colic cramp; our change pitcher have a smash thumb.\u00a0 Younk man, do de pitchin\u2019 for us to-day.\u00a0 If you vin, a fife tousand dollar salary is yours.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI will sign!\u201d cried Micky McGonigle in tones of ecstacy.<\/p>\n

\u201cVait till you vin!\u201d responded Israel Aaron Sweinfleish Sohelupmegrashus.<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes later the game was called, and the Dirty Stockings went to the bat. \u00a0Conspicuous among the players was the new and manly form of Micky McGonigle.\u00a0 Israel Aaron Sweinfleish Sohelupmegrashus had quietly gone to the grand stand, and whispered about \u201cOur new phenomenal pitcher and magnificent batter.\u00a0 Yoost vait!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~~<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Great was the excitement on this first inning, when Smith safely reached his first base on a hit to right; then Jones made a safe hit to center, and Smith got safely to second; then Robinson sent a high-flyer to left field, which was muffed by Goggles(16) of the Linen Drawer Club.\u00a0 The bases were full, and all was breathless expectation as the new player, Micky McGonigle, proudly approached the diamond, bat in hand.\u00a0 A voice seemed to whisper in the air \u2013 the voice of the ghostly Barney O\u2019Toole \u2013 \u201cHit her hard, ye spalpeen!(17)\u00a0 Let her drive!\u00a0 Now for a home run and glory!\u00a0 Now for triumph and a five thousand dollar salary!\u00a0 Worra!\u00a0 musha!\u00a0 worra!\u00a0 worra!\u201d(18)<\/p>\n

Even as this spiritual voice whispered in Micky McGonigle\u2019s ear, Fatty Pretzels,(19) the pitcher of the Linen Drawers, sent a curved ball over the plate, and Micky McGonigle struck at it for all that was out \u2013 and was out <\/em>on a foul tip.<\/p>\n

\u201cFoul, out!\u201d cried the umpire.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiar!\u201d screamed Micky McGonigle, hurling his bat at the grand stand.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

~~<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Micky McGonigle now drives an ash-cart on the city dumps; and when twitted by his failure to sign with the League, replies vaguely:\u00a0 \u201cHad I followed Barney O\u2019Toole\u2019s advice!\u00a0 Worra!\u00a0 worra!\u201d<\/p>\n

Whereat people tap their foreheads significantly and whisper, another victim of the base-ball craze.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

##<\/strong><\/h5>\n
Annotations<\/em><\/strong><\/h5>\n
    \n
  1. \u2026bloody Fourth. <\/em>In 1885, Cincinnati\u2019s fourth ward was a hotbed of immigrant political activity and boss politics.\u00a0 It was bounded on the south by Eggleston Avenue and the Ohio River, stretched west to Court Street, moved east to Gilbert Avenue, the boundary of Eden Park and Eastern Avenue, and north into the Avondale neighborhood.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
      \n
    1. \u2026Sweinburg. <\/em>A concocted nickname for Cincinnati, playing not only on its German heritage, but also on the city\u2019s heritage as a meatpacking center when it was nicknamed \u201cPorkopolis\u201d earlier in the 19th<\/sup><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
        \n
      1. \u2026aphaniptera. <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
          \n
        1. \u2026gossoon. <\/em>An Irish youth or boy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
            \n
          1. \u2026omadhaun. <\/em>Irish for a fool , or used as a term of abuse.\u00a0 This is a pointed reference to Micky, as playing the lazy, dreamy fool seems to be his station in life.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
              \n
            1. \u2026avourneen. <\/em>A term acknowledging the deeds or trickery of an individual.\u00a0 Micky recognizes that in professional baseball, a player gets by not only on natural skill, but knowledge of a fair amount of dirty tricks as well.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                \n
              1. \u2026caubeen. <\/em>An Irish hat.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                  \n
                1. \u2026Cork Cathedral. <\/em> Mary\u2019s Cathedral, Cork, Ireland, built in 1808.\u00a0 It is Micky\u2019s point of reference for height and grandeur.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                    \n
                  1. \u2026musha. <\/em>An Irish exclamation of surprise.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                      \n
                    1. \u2026Dirty Stockings and Linen Drawer Club. <\/em>A play on words, perhaps, comparing the two professional baseball teams in Cincinnati in 1884, the year previous to this story.\u00a0 The Cincinnati Red Stockings were expelled from the National League after the 1880 season for selling alcohol at the ballpark and playing games on Sunday, two customs influenced by the German-American culture of the city.\u00a0 With other cities where the alcohol industry was important and there was a sizeable ethnic population \u2013 Louisville, Pittsburgh, and Baltimore, for example, Cincinnati helped form the rival American Association.\u00a0 In 1884, a third major league was born, the Union Association, and Cincinnati boasted both A.A. and U.A. teams.\u00a0 The team names in the story may refer to the established team (the Linen Drawers) and the upstarts (Dirty Stockings) vying for fan patronage.\u00a0 The Union Association dissolved after one year.\u00a0 The American Association continued until 1890; the Reds were accepted back in the National League in 1889.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                        \n
                      1. \u2026Editors\u2026workingman\u2019s family. <\/em>By 1885, the prevailing American value system has baseball – and sports in general – in place as the great equalizer.\u00a0 No matter what one\u2019s station in life happened to be, everyone gathered to root for the home team.\u00a0 The author seems to grasp the \u201cmyth\u201d of this concept, pointing out that the cost of attendance could take the bread off the family table.\u00a0 There was the notion, then as now, that attending a ballgame was often out of reach of the working class, thus making it an activity of the monied fans.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                          \n
                        1. \u2026indisposed. <\/em>A pejorative comment by the author on the Irish and their child-like appetites for uncontrolled gluttony.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                            \n
                          1. \u2026Israel Aaron Sweinfleish Sohelupmegrashus. <\/em>A play on the German-Jewish nature of team ownership in the 1880s, and on Cincinnati\u2019s ethnic heritage.\u00a0 The nonsensical name sets up the ethnic dialect the author wishes to use.\u00a0 It also offers the stereotyped view of the Jewish entrepreneur \u2013 and baseball owners \u2013 as tight-fisted businessmen whose first thought was the amount of profit they could squeeze from a ballgame.\u00a0 In this story, the Dirty Stockings\u2019 president is assessing the gate, knowing that to stay competitive in a two-team town, he has to maximize the attendance.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                              \n
                            1. \u2026sell out on a muff game. <\/em>As part of his caricature as the avaricious owner, Sohelupmegrashus even attempts to keep his investment in the game by getting labor \u2013 the other team \u2013 to throw the contest.\u00a0 Of course, he will not pay more than seventy-five cents and the players won\u2019t do it for that measly amount.\u00a0 After all, ballplayers know their worth.\u00a0 Gambling was a fixture of the game from the time it was played just by amateurs; competition in any form breeds the human predilection for wagering or obtaining an edge.\u00a0 And, O\u2019Toole\u2019s Ghost\u201d <\/em>was not that distantly written from the first major gambling scandal in Organized Baseball, in Louisville in 1877.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                \n
                              1. \u2026a great base-ball player in embryo. <\/em>The public perceives that owners of sports teams have a high opinion of themselves.\u00a0 They do more than run the business side; in their view, they also have a keen eye for athletic talent and knowledge of the game.\u00a0 Sohelupmegrashus is not that different from, say, George Steinbrenner, Charlie Finley, Jimmy Jones or many others who own sports franchises.\u00a0 Sohelupmegrashus is also referred to, tongue in cheek, as a \u201cgrand mogul,\u201d a term 19th<\/sup> century owners rather liked.\u00a0 By cultivating such an image of themselves, they thought the public would view them in the same light as Rockefeller, Vanderbilt and other captains of industry.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                  \n
                                1. \u2026Goggles. <\/em>Perhaps a reference to Will White, albeit a pitcher rather than an outfielder, who played for Cincinnati\u2019s American Association team in 1885.\u00a0 White was the only 19th<\/sup> century ballplayer to wear eyeglasses.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                    \n
                                  1. \u2026spalpeen. <\/em>An Irish term for someone from the working class.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                      \n
                                    1. \u2026worra!. <\/em>Take heed, be alert.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                        \n
                                      1. \u2026Fatty Pretzels. <\/em>Another reference to Cincinnati\u2019s German heritage.\u00a0 <\/em><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
                                        Further Reading<\/em><\/h5>\n

                                        The following works are helpful in putting \u201cO\u2019Toole\u2019s Ghost\u201d <\/em>into context, in understanding baseball in the 19th<\/sup> century, baseball as a literary genre, and the role of the sport in American cultural history.<\/p>\n

                                        Bruce, H. Addington.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1913. \u201cBaseball and the National Life.\u201d In:\u00a0 Outlook, <\/em> 104, pp. 104-107, May.\u00a0 Reprinted in: Major Problems in American Sport History, <\/em>ed. by Steven A. Riess.\u00a0 New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1997.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Dinan, John.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1998. Sports in the Pulp Magazines. <\/em>Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Gardner, Martin.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1967. The Annotated Casey at the Bat. <\/em>New York, NY: Bramhall House.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Ginsburg, Daniel E.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1995. The Fix is In: A History of Baseball Gambling and Game Fixing Scandals. <\/em>Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Goldstein, Warren.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1989. Playing for Keeps: A History of Early Baseball. <\/em>Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Gryzymala, Kevin J.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1996. \u201cBaseball and Ethnicity: A Case Study of German Americans in Buffalo, New York During the 19th<\/sup>\u201d Presented at the 9th<\/sup> Cooperstown Symposium on Baseball and American Culture, June.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Hardy, Stephen.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1997. \u201cUrbanization and the Rise of Sport.\u201d In:\u00a0 Major Problems in American Sport History, <\/em> by Steven A. Riess.\u00a0 New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Hetrick, J. Thomas.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1998. Chris Von der Ahe and the St. Louis Browns. <\/em>Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        James, Bill.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1985. The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract. <\/em>New York, NY: Villard Books.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Kirsch, George B.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1997. \u201cBaseball Spectators, 1855-1870.\u201d In:\u00a0 Major Problems in American Sport History, <\/em> by Steven Riess.\u00a0 New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Lauricella, John A.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1998. Home Games: Essays on Baseball Fiction. <\/em>Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        McCue, Andy.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1990. Baseball by the Books: A History and Complete Bibliography of Baseball Fiction. <\/em>Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown Co.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        McGimpsey, David.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1999. Imagining Baseball: America\u2019s Pastime and Popular Culture. <\/em>Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Miller, Zane.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1968. Boss Cox\u2019s Cincinnati: Urban Politics in the Progressive Era. <\/em>New York, NY: Oxford University Press.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Morris, Timothy.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1997. Making the Team: The Cultural Work of Baseball Fiction. <\/em>Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        n.a.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1885. \u201cO\u2019Toole\u2019s Ghost: A Base Base-Ball Narrative.\u201d In:\u00a0 Sam the Scaramouch, <\/em> by C.V. Van Hamm, A.H. Mattox, and Peter G. Thomson.\u00a0 Cincinnati, OH: Sam Publishing Co., August 15, p. 387. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Nemec, David.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1994. The Beer and Whiskey League: The Illustrated History of the American Association-Baseball\u2019s Renegade Major League. <\/em>New York, NY: Lyons & Burford. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1997. The Great Encyclopedia of 19th<\/sup> Century Major League Baseball. <\/em>New York, NY: Donald I Fine Books. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        New York Sun.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1884. \u201cPortrayal of a Typical Baseball Crowd,\u201d June 16. Reprinted in:\u00a0 Major Problems in American Sport History, <\/em> by Steven A. Riess.\u00a0 New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin, 1997. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Oriard, Michael.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1982. Dreaming of Heroes: American Sports Fiction, 1868-1890. <\/em>Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall, Inc. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Rader, Benjamin G.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1991. Baseball: A History of America\u2019s Game. <\/em>Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Riess, Steven A.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1997. \u201cSport and the Redefinition of American Middle-Class Masculinity, 1840-1900.\u201d In:\u00a0 Major Problems in American Sport History, <\/em> by Steven A. Riess.\u00a0 New York, NY: Houghton Mifflin. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1989. City Games: The Evolution of American Urban Society and the Rise of Sports. <\/em>Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Ryczek, William J.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1998. When Johnny Came Sliding Home: The Post-Civil War Baseball Boom, 1865-1870. <\/em>Jefferson, NC: McFarland & Co. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Seymour, Harold.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1990. Baseball: The People\u2019s Game. <\/em>New York, NY: Oxford University Press. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        Sullivan, Dean A., ed.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1995. Early Innings: A Documentary History of Baseball, 1825-1908. <\/em>Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press. <\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        White, G. Edward.<\/strong><\/h6>\n
                                        1996. Creating the National Pastime: Baseball Transforms Itself, 1903-1953. <\/em>Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.<\/strong><\/h6>\n

                                         <\/p>\n

                                        Kevin Grace is the University Archivist and the Head of the Archives & Rare Books Library at the University of Cincinnati.\u00a0 He teaches in the University Honors Program, including a course on \u201cThe Irish in America.\u201d<\/em><\/h6>\n

                                        \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

                                        Kevin Grace There is an often-cited account in baseball histories taken from The Sporting News that demonstrates the American Pastime\u2019s regard of ethnic differences in the first decades of the 20th century.\u00a0 In 1923, the self-termed \u201cBaseball Bible\u201d opined that:… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"parent":25,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template-fullwidth.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-338","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=338"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":344,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/338\/revisions\/344"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/25"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/irish-cincinnati\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}