...And Ladies in the Stands
Never mind if a diva can love a Duke, there’s a much more immediate question in A FATAL FINALE: can a diva really love baseball? If the diva is Ella Shane, the answer is a resounding yes. But Ella’s fondness for the game is actually a lot less unusual than you might think.
Even in the early 1880s, some baseball teams were offering Ladies’ Days to encourage their distaff supporters, and by the late 1880s, First Lady Frances Cleveland was known to be a fancier, so attending the game was unimpeachably ladylike. Well, of course, as long as one obeyed all the other rules of feminine behavior. Which meant showing up properly chaperoned and dressed, and minding one’s p’s and q’s whilst cheering on the home team.
That doesn’t mean the gents were all that happy about it. Men famously groused about the ladies’ big hats…but one suspects their real complaint was the fact that they had to watch their language. Even at a baseball game, a man with even the most minimal pretentions to decency could not use profanity in the presence of a female – whatever provocation his team might give him.
By 1899, New York is well-supplied with professional baseball, and it’s not surprising that Ella and her soprano friend Marie de l’Artois are both fans, though of different teams. Marie, known at home in Brooklyn as Mrs. Winslow, gets a much better deal. Her team, the Brooklyn Superbas, is in the midst of a pennant season. Ella’s beloved Giants, though, are still far from the coming glory days at the Polo Grounds, with a wretched season in the basement, only finishing ahead of the Washington Senators and Cleveland Spiders.
And no, the Spiders aren’t just a convenient target; they really were the joke of the National League. In 1899, they won just 20 games and lost 134. When Ella snipes, as she’s been known to do, that the Spiders’ own fans have stopped going to games, she’s not kidding. They really did trail the League in attendance too.
For Ella, the trip uptown to the Polo Grounds with her cousin Tommy and his sportswriter friends is a pleasant and relaxing day out, but it’s far more for her reporter friend Hetty. One of two women on the staff of the Beacon, she’s hoping for a chance to show her sportswriting chops with a feature on lady fans. But she quickly runs into one major problem: to sit in the press box, one must be a member of the Baseball Writers…and to be a Baseball Writer, one must be a man.
That, unfortunately, is not historical fiction. Sportswriting was, and would be, a male preserve for a very long time. As much as Ella enjoys reading her beloved mentor Preston Dare’s columns – and as much as I love the works of Preston’s real-life heirs Frank Deford and Roger Kahn – it’s impossible to ignore the fact that women writers just didn’t get the same opportunities as men. Even though Hetty repeatedly proves her mettle, her editor tells her: somebody has to write about hats, and that somebody’s going to be a woman.
Still, Ella and her friends in the stands at the Polo Grounds are early signs of a very big change. It’s not lost on some of the crankier male fans that if women want to come to the ball game today, they might want to come to the polls tomorrow…and then Heaven only knows what!
Got an idea for a Throwback Thursday post? Tell me in the comments!
Even in the early 1880s, some baseball teams were offering Ladies’ Days to encourage their distaff supporters, and by the late 1880s, First Lady Frances Cleveland was known to be a fancier, so attending the game was unimpeachably ladylike. Well, of course, as long as one obeyed all the other rules of feminine behavior. Which meant showing up properly chaperoned and dressed, and minding one’s p’s and q’s whilst cheering on the home team.
That doesn’t mean the gents were all that happy about it. Men famously groused about the ladies’ big hats…but one suspects their real complaint was the fact that they had to watch their language. Even at a baseball game, a man with even the most minimal pretentions to decency could not use profanity in the presence of a female – whatever provocation his team might give him.
By 1899, New York is well-supplied with professional baseball, and it’s not surprising that Ella and her soprano friend Marie de l’Artois are both fans, though of different teams. Marie, known at home in Brooklyn as Mrs. Winslow, gets a much better deal. Her team, the Brooklyn Superbas, is in the midst of a pennant season. Ella’s beloved Giants, though, are still far from the coming glory days at the Polo Grounds, with a wretched season in the basement, only finishing ahead of the Washington Senators and Cleveland Spiders.
And no, the Spiders aren’t just a convenient target; they really were the joke of the National League. In 1899, they won just 20 games and lost 134. When Ella snipes, as she’s been known to do, that the Spiders’ own fans have stopped going to games, she’s not kidding. They really did trail the League in attendance too.
For Ella, the trip uptown to the Polo Grounds with her cousin Tommy and his sportswriter friends is a pleasant and relaxing day out, but it’s far more for her reporter friend Hetty. One of two women on the staff of the Beacon, she’s hoping for a chance to show her sportswriting chops with a feature on lady fans. But she quickly runs into one major problem: to sit in the press box, one must be a member of the Baseball Writers…and to be a Baseball Writer, one must be a man.
That, unfortunately, is not historical fiction. Sportswriting was, and would be, a male preserve for a very long time. As much as Ella enjoys reading her beloved mentor Preston Dare’s columns – and as much as I love the works of Preston’s real-life heirs Frank Deford and Roger Kahn – it’s impossible to ignore the fact that women writers just didn’t get the same opportunities as men. Even though Hetty repeatedly proves her mettle, her editor tells her: somebody has to write about hats, and that somebody’s going to be a woman.
Still, Ella and her friends in the stands at the Polo Grounds are early signs of a very big change. It’s not lost on some of the crankier male fans that if women want to come to the ball game today, they might want to come to the polls tomorrow…and then Heaven only knows what!
Got an idea for a Throwback Thursday post? Tell me in the comments!
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