April 11, 1907: Unruly fans, lack of Polo Grounds security cause Giants’ Opening Day forfeit

Fans at the Polo Grounds decided that they had seen enough after eight innings of the New York Giants’ 1907 home opener. With the Giants trailing the Philadelphia Phillies, 3-0, thousands streamed onto the field, mingling with the players. Virtually no police officers were in the ballpark to preserve order. Frustrated fans in the grandstand threw seat cushions, snowballs, and beer glasses into the mob.

After 15 minutes of chaos, umpire Bill Klem ruled the game forfeited to Philadelphia. “It was as much a disgrace to the city as it is to the national game,” observed the New York Evening Journal.1

It was unclear whether the contest would even begin. A snowstorm had blanketed the ballpark in 6 inches of snow, and the day before the game a large crew worked arduously to remove it.2 The snow was shoveled into wheelbarrows and trucks and thousands of loads were dumped into the Harlem River.3 Several “mountainous heaps of snow” were left along the edges of the field.4

Although Opening Day temperatures rose to 52 degrees Fahrenheit,5 many fans stayed away, doubting that the field would be playable.6 As it happened, the playing surface was in remarkably good shape except for the outfield grass, which was a little soggy.7 A hardy crowd of 17,000 turned out, filling the seats and leaving roughly 1,000 people standing behind ropes on the field.8

Unlike its previous two home openers, New York did not have a new National League pennant to raise. The Giants had finished 20 games behind the 116-win Chicago Cubs, and it seemed doubtful that New York would reclaim the pennant in 1907, especially since star outfielder Turkey Mike Donlin was a contract holdout.9 The Cubs began the season as the favorites to repeat as NL champions.10

Giants manager John McGraw was sick in bed with the flu, so he handed the managerial reins to first baseman Dan McGann.11

To the disappointment of many Giants fans, Christy Mathewson did not start for New York.12 That honor went to Joe McGinnity, who had posted a 2.25 ERA in 1906 and led the NL in wins (27) and appearances (45). The 36-year-old right-hander was making his third and final Opening Day start.13

The Phillies had finished fourth in 1906, 45½ games behind the Cubs. Twenty-six-year-old righty Frank Corridon was Philadelphia’s Opening Day starter, back with the Phillies after a one-year stint in the outlaw Tri-State League.14 He entered the game with a 21-22 record and a 3.08 ERA in his major-league career.

The game’s first batter, Phillies center fielder Roy Thomas, doubled off McGinnity. Second baseman Kid Gleason, beginning his 20th big-league season at age 41, sacrificed Thomas to third.15 One out later, 22-year-old sensation Sherry Magee blasted a triple to right-center field, scoring Thomas. According to the New York Sun, Magee’s hit would have likely rolled for an inside-the-park homer on a dry outfield.16

Despite having plenty of baserunners in the first three innings, the Giants were unable to push across a run. Corridon walked the bases full in the first inning, issued two more free passes in the second, and allowed another walk and a clean single by center fielder Cy Seymour in the third.17 It turned out to be New York’s only hit of the game.

McGinnity breezed through the second and third innings. He surrendered a pair of harmless singles in the fourth,18 but the Phillies began to pull away in the next two innings. Back-to-back singles by shortstop Mickey Doolin and catcher Fred Jacklitsch opened the Philadelphia fifth, putting runners on the corners. Doolin scored on Corridon’s groundout for a 2-0 lead.

In the sixth, McGinnity surrendered singles to right fielder John Titus and Magee. Kitty Bransfield’s bunt single filled the bases with no outs. After Titus scored on Ernie Courtney’s fly ball, Doolin threatened to blow the game wide open. He drove a liner deep into the right-center-field gap, only to have Seymour make a running, leaping grab.19 Seymour fired the ball into second base, doubling up Bransfield before he could get back to the bag. The Giants were fortunate to escape the inning with just a three-run deficit.

With two outs in the seventh, McGann sent in on-base machine Sammy Strang to pinch-hit for McGinnity.20 Strang made the final out of the inning and soon after, the first signs of trouble surfaced. Some fans in the bleachers headed for home, but instead of walking along a narrow promenade at the base of the stands, they took a shortcut across the field.21 The 33-year-old Klem, working the game solo and with just two years of big-league experience, was jeered by the crowd for pausing the contest until everyone left the playing surface or retreated behind the ropes.22

Righty Red Ames took over from McGinnity in the eighth. He tossed a scoreless inning, allowing a walk and a single to Magee.23 The hit capped a 4-for-4 day at the plate for Magee, who went on to hit .328 and finish second in the batting race behind Honus Wagner.24

Giants left fielder Spike Shannon led off the bottom of the eighth with a walk and was sacrificed to second. One out later, Corridon issued his eighth free pass, this one to Seymour.25 Catcher Roger Bresnahan, 0-for-2 with a walk in the game, came to the plate representing the potential tying run. Bresnahan had created a “sensation” in the first inning when the crowd saw him wearing shin guards for the first time.26 He hit a grounder to Gleason, ending the inning.27

More bleacherites decided it was time to exit and took the same shortcut across the field. Within five minutes, roughly 10,000 fans were on the playing surface. Some shook hands with the players, while others shouted insults in their direction.28

In previous seasons, dozens of police officers would have been in the ballpark to prevent such a situation.29 But this was the first game played under recent orders from Police Commissioner Theodore A. Bingham: The NYPD was no longer to provide protection inside private places of amusement. Promoters were now expected to hire special officers at their own expense.30

The only security staff inside the ballpark appeared to be the two officers stationed with a police ambulance in the outfield and they declined to intervene.31 “Yet,” according to the New York American, “there were 75 or 100 big, bulbous policemen strung along outside the gates, twirling their clubs in idleness.”32

Someone in the grandstand threw a seat cushion at the fans on the field and soon a flurry of cushions followed.33 The cushions were sent flying back into the stands.34 Approximately 50 people pelted fans on the field with snowballs, while a few others tossed beer glasses.35 A handful of officers entered the ballpark and attempted to clear the field, but they were no match for the multitudes.36

Klem gave the Giants 15 minutes to clear the field and pulled out his watch. The moment the time expired, he announced a forfeit.37 Surprisingly, the fans did not protest, and they eventually filed out of the ballpark quietly.38 Just two arrests were made for disorderly conduct.39

In response to the incident, the Giants built a six-foot-high chicken-wire fence in front of the bleachers to prevent people from getting onto the field.40 They also hired a few Pinkerton agents to help keep the peace,41 with mixed results. Similar disorderly incidents occurred at a Giants home game on May 21 and at a New York Highlanders doubleheader at Hilltop Park on July 4.42

The Giants recovered from the Opening Day debacle and won 24 of their next 26 games before a pitching slump brought them back to earth. They went 4-11 during the cold spell, culminating with a costly three-game sweep at the hands of the juggernaut Cubs in early June. McGraw’s men never recovered and they finished in fourth place with an 82-71-2 record, 25½ games behind the eventual World Series champion Cubs. The upstart Phillies ended the season four games ahead of the Giants and in third place.

Klem went on to have a distinguished 37-year career as an NL umpire. He officiated in 18 World Series and was appointed chief of NL umpires in 1941, a position he held until his death in 1951.

Two years before he died, the New York Chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America organized a testimonial luncheon, followed by Bill Klem Night at the Polo Grounds.43 Seventy-five baseball men were in attendance at the luncheon, including Brooklyn Dodgers manager Burt Shotton, Cincinnati Reds skipper Bucky Walters, and NL President Ford Frick.

Klem was deeply touched by the tribute.44 That evening, New Yorkers stood and cheered Klem, who, like many other arbiters, had not always been popular at Coogan’s Bluff.45 “This is the greatest day of my life,” he said. “This tribute tells me I made good.”46

Klem was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1953.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Kurt Blumenau and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Stathead.com, and the SABR biographies of Bill Klem, Christy Mathewson, Roger Bresnahan, and Frank Corridon. Unless otherwise noted, all play-by-play information was taken from the article “New Yorkers Are Helpless Before Corridon, While Phillies Find McGinnity and Ames Easily” on page 1 of the April 12, 1907, edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NY1/NY1190704110.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1907/B04110NY11907.htm

Photo credit

Photo of Bill Klem courtesy the Detroit Public Library.

Notes

1 Sam Crane, “Giants Face Phillies in Season’s Second Battle,” New York Evening Journal, April 12, 1907: 24.

2 “Phillies Play Giants in Opening Game,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 11, 1907: 10.

3 “Giants in First Battle for Pennant To-Day,” New York American, April 11, 1907: 10; “Phillies Play Giants in Opening Game.”

4 “No Police; Game Stopped,” New York Sun, April 12, 1907: 7.

5 Fifty-two degrees Fahrenheit is equivalent to 11 degrees Celsius. “The Weather Report,” New York Daily Tribune, April 12, 1907: 7.

6 The home opener in 1906 attracted 20,000 fans. “No Police; Game Stopped.”

7 “Giants Forfeit Game,” New York Tribune, April 12, 1907: 5.

8 “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit,” New York Times, April 12, 1907: 10. The author deduced that there were approximately 1,000 fans behind the ropes on the field. According to the Ballparks Database at Seamheads.com, the seating capacity at the Polo Grounds was 16,000 and attendance was 17,000.

9 Donlin sat out the entire 1907 season and performed on the vaudeville circuit with his wife. He returned to the Giants in 1908.

10 “Present Form of Clubs in Pennant Races,” St. Louis Globe-Democrat, April 11, 1907: 15.

11 McGraw was well enough to manage the Giants’ second game of the season on April 15. Crane, “Giants Face Phillies in Season’s Second Battle”; “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit”; Bozeman Bulger, “Special Police and Barbed Wire Hold Rooters Off the Diamond,” New York Evening World, April 15, 1907: 1.

12 Mathewson contracted diphtheria in the spring of 1906 and went on to have the worst full season up to that point in his career. He posted a 2.97 ERA (89 ERA+), a huge jump from his 1.28 ERA (233 ERA+) in 1905. “Doings in the Major Leagues,” New York Evening World, April 9, 1907: 12.

13 McGinnity won his Opening Day start in 1901 for the American League’s Baltimore Orioles and in 1905 for the Giants. He had the worst season of his career in 1907. McGinnity went 18-18 with a bloated 3.16 ERA (79 ERA+). He finished his big-league career in 1908 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1946.

14 Corridon went 22-12 for the Williamsport (Pennsylvania) Millionaires in 1906.

15 Gleason had played for the New York Giants from 1896 to 1900. He had a career year in 1897, hitting .317 and driving in 106 runs.

16 “No Police; Game Stopped.”

17 “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit.”

18 “No Police; Game Stopped.”

19 Langdon Smith, “Unruly Mob Forces Giants to Forfeit to Philadelphia,” New York American, April 12, 1907: 11.

20 Strang led the major leagues with a .423 on-base percentage in 1906. “Unruly Mob Forces Giants to Forfeit to Philadelphia.”

21 “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit”; “New York Fans Stop the Game,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 12, 1907: 8.

22 Most major-league games in 1907 were officiated by only one umpire. “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit”; David W. Anderson, “Deadball Era Umpires: What They Did for Baseball,” https://sabr.org/journal/article/deadball-era-umpires-what-they-did-for-baseball/, accessed February 19, 2026.

23 “No Police; Game Stopped.”

24 Magee hit three singles and a triple in the game. He finished the season with 46 stolen bases and a league-leading 85 RBIs. Magee won the batting crown in 1910, breaking Wagner’s streak of four consecutive titles. Magee was four home runs short of winning the Triple Crown in 1910. In his final season in the big leagues, he was with the Cincinnati Reds when they won the infamous 1919 World Series against the Chicago White Sox.

25 “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit.”

26 According to the New York Tribune, Bresnahan’s cricket-style shin guards “caused considerable amusement.” Cubs fans later mocked Bresnahan for wearing them. “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit”; “Giants Forfeit Game.”

27 “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit.”

28 “Giants Forfeit Game to Phillies,” Brooklyn Eagle, April 12, 1907: 12; “New York Fans Stop the Game.”

29 “Unruly Mob Forces Giants to Forfeit to Philadelphia.”

30 “New Yorkers are Helpless before Corridon, While Phillies Find McGinnity and Ames Easily,” Philadelphia Inquirer, April 12, 1907: 1.

31 “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit.”

32 “Unruly Mob Forces Giants to Forfeit to Philadelphia.”

33 “Giants Forfeit Game to Phillies.”

34 “Giants Forfeit Game.”

35 “Giants Forfeit Game”; “Giants Forfeit Game to Phillies.”

36 “No Police; Game Stopped.”

37 Although several newspapers reported that the final score was 9-0 because of the forfeit, the National League rule book contained no such stipulation in 1907. Since the game was official, all individual and team statistics counted. Crane, “Giants Face Phillies in Season’s Second Battle.”

38 “Baseball Crowd Causes Forfeit”; “Giants Forfeit Game to Phillies.”

39 “Giants Face Phillies in Season’s Second Battle.”

40 According to the Ballparks Database at Seamheads.com, much of the outfield wall was only three feet high in 1907. Bulger, “Special Police and Barbed Wire Hold Rooters Off the Diamond.”

41 “Crowd Mobs Umpires,” New York Tribune, May 22, 1907: 1.

42 The New York Tribune reported that “the Pinkerton men were practically useless” at the Highlanders doubleheader on July 4. Neither incident resulted in a forfeit. “Immense Crowd Sees Highlanders Split with Philadelphia,” New York Tribune, July 5, 1907: 4.

43 Gary Belleville, “September 2, 1949: Dodgers Rookie Don Newcombe Tosses Third Straight Shutout on Bill Klem Night,” SABR Games Project, accessed February 19, 2026.

44 Associated Press, “City’s Bill Klem Honored at Testimonial Luncheon,” Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, September 3, 1949: 21.

45 Dana Mozley, “Everyone Cheers Ump – Old Arbitrator Klem,” New York Daily News, September 3, 1949: 28.

46 Associated Press, “City’s Bill Klem Honored at Testimonial Luncheon.”