Stark Contrast: Ballpark Signs Before and After Ebbets Field

This article is the third and last in a series about the most famous sign in any baseball stadium and the man behind it. From 1931 until 1957, the Dodgers’ last season in Brooklyn, clothier Abe Stark’s sign, which offered a free suit to a batter who hit in on a fly, adorned the right field fence in Ebbets Field.

For a biography of Abe Stark and his life and times, click here. For a history of the sign, the batters who actually hit it, and insight into why it remains iconic decades after Ebbets Field was razed, click here. This companion article sheds light on the history of signs in other ballparks, before and after Stark erected his sign at Ebbets Field, that offered prizes to players, fans, and local charities.

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The Ebbets Field scoreboard, shown here during the 1949 World Series, displayed Abe Stark’s “hit sign, win suit” sign from 1931 to 1957. (SABR-Rucker Archive)

 

Abe Stark’s “Hit Sign/Win Suit” sign at Ebbets Field may be the most famous sign in baseball history, but it was not the first or the last to offer a prize to batters who hit the ball at or over a ballpark advertisement. Businesses have long advertised in both minor-league and major-league stadiums. Most of them have been local companies but some national firms have used their association with baseball to promote their products. Ads for beer, whiskey, clothing, cigarettes, shaving products, and chewing tobacco were among the most popular of these early 20th-century ballpark billboards.1 In addition to offering prizes at ballparks, tailors and clothing stores often offered free suits to help raise money for favorite charities or to reward top-rate students or athletes at local schools.

By the 1960s, few older major-league ballparks still had ads on field-level outfield fences. In newly built stadiums, companies erected signs behind the outfield seats. By the 1990s, a handful of new ballparks revitalized the field-level signs to accommodate the growing popularity of “retro” stadiums like Camden Yards in Baltimore.

In a column for the Washington (DC) Herald, Washington Senators coach (and former star) Nick Altrock recalled pitching for the Eastern League’s Toronto Royals in 1901.2 “The players had great fun on that team trying for straw hats and suits of clothes that were given away by a couple of firms in way of ads, saying that any one hitting this sign will get a straw hat, and if you made two hits you would get a suit of clothes. Well, I think every man on the team, except myself, got a straw hat, or more. That offer stood until the first day of September, when all bets were off.”3  

In 1909, W.T. Blackwell, the firm that owned the Bull Durham tobacco company, began putting signs in the outfields of at least 200 major and minor league clubs with an offer of $50 to any player who “Hit the Bull” sign, as well as a free supply of chewing tobacco, popular among era ballplayers.4 The tobacco company calculated that by mid-August in the 1911 season, these signs had been hit 138 times. By the end of the season, the number had risen to 238, and the company had disbursed $11,900. Cramped National League Park (later known as the Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia was the most the most popular ballpark among ballplayers because the location of its Bulls sign was the easiest to hit.5 Bull Durham placed a prominent ad on the right field fence inside the foul line when the Dodgers played their first game  at Ebbets Field in 1913.6 But getting the Bull Durham prize was complicated because the official scorer had to send the company an affidavit attesting to their having seen the ball strike the sign.7 Some Bull Durham signs survived into the 1950s.

As early as 1909, a clothing store in Wheeling, West Virginia, home of the minor-league Wheeling Stogies, offered a free suit to a batter who hit its sign. According to a news story, Dayton Veterans catcher Joe Briger (spelled “Brigger” in the story) earned a free suit of clothes after hitting a sign in a game against the Stogies, but he was illiterate and didn’t realize what he’d won until his teammates informed him.8

A cartoon published in the San Francisco Bulletin in May 1910 depicted a “Free Suit for a Home Run” sign on the outfield fence and a batter watching his hit clear the fence exclaiming, “Gee! I’m a lucky guy.” The accompanying story noted that a “Portland tailor” promised a $50 suit to the first player to hit a home run that season. According to the article, the winner was Buddy Ryan, an outfielder for the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League.9

In 1914, a clothing store in Jackson, Michigan promised a free suit to a player for the local minor-league team (the Jackson Chiefs) who hit a home run on opening day. First baseman Don Brown won the prize.10 In 1923, League Park, home of the Raleigh (N.C.) Capitals, a team in the Class C Piedmont League, had an outfield sign promising a free suit to any player who hit it.11 Beginning around 1926, a sign at the minor league Chattanooga Lookouts’ ballpark, sponsored by the local Palmer Clothing company, also offered a free suit.12 Three decades later, another Chattanooga clothier was making the same offer.13 In 1929, a clothing store in Rochester, Minnesota, offered a free suit to any player (in the local semipro league) who hit a home run.14

In the 1920s, Weiner’s clothing store in Reading, Pennsylvania, offered a free suit to any Reading player who hit a home run over the store’s sign. It also offered a free suit to “any player who slams out three home runs within seven consecutive days either when playing at home or away from home.” The free suit promotion was still in place in the 1930s. In 1935, George Weiner placed an ad in the local paper, saying “Go to it boys. You sock the homers and I’ll furnish the suits.” 15

In the 1920s, an amateur team in Toronto called the Oslers were part of a league that played its games in Hampden Park. An Osler player named Hank Sinclair hit two line drives to center field off a sign that advertised a local clothing company. The firm thought it would be good publicity to present Sinclair with a suit and a topcoat at a ceremony at home plate. But the Amateur Athletic Union vetoed the idea, prohibiting Sinclair from collecting his prize because it would jeopardize his and his team’s amateur status. Despite this ruling, “Sinclair took his clothes home via the back alleys,” according to an interview he gave to the Toronto Star in 1965.16

Professional teams in the same city had no such prohibitions. In 1926 the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League moved to a new Maple Leaf Stadium. Toronto’s largest clothing store chain, Tip Top Tailors, promised a free suit to any player who hit its sign on the outfield wall.17 Elston Howard, who played for the Yankees’ minor-league Toronto team in 1954 and was later a star catcher for the Yankees, hit the sign multiple times and joked that it “kept my father and me in suits for years.”18 The sign remained in place until the ballpark was torn down in 1968. In 1921, clothier Roth Eaton was offering two free suits to players who hit his store’s sign at Maple Leaf Stadium. He continued the promotion at least through 1937.19 By 1940, Eaton was working for Clayton’s Men’s Shop and offered a free suit to the first player to hit a homer at Maple Leafs Stadium.20

In 1934, the National League adopted new baseball manufacturing specifications (already in use by the American League) that favored hitters.21 An item in Arch Ward’s Chicago Tribune column noted that the “livelier ball has prompted a prominent Washington clothing firm to cancel its offer of a free suit to any player hitting a home run.”22

 

Just beyond Crosley Field’s left-field wall was a red brick commercial building that housed the Superior Towel and Linen Service. The building was informally known as “The Laundry.” Home runs often bounced off the building’s façade or landed on its roof. (Courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame and Museum)

 

From 1940 through 1960, Siebler clothing store in Cincinnati offered a free suit of clothes to any player who hit the ball off the company’s sign on the Superior Towel and Linen Service building (referred to as “the Laundry”) behind left field at Crosley Field. A 350-foot drive to straightaway left field could reach the laundry building. The Siebler sign (“Hit this sign and get a Siebler suit free”) was easier to hit than the Stark sign at Ebbets Field. Siebler claimed he gave away 176 suits – about eight a year – during those 20 years. The city demolished the laundry building for additional parking lots in 1960.23

In 1947, the Haggar Clothing company in Dallas began giving away a free pair of pants to each player for the minor-league Lubbock Hubbers who hit a home run.24 In the 1950s there was a similar sign at Gran Stadium in Havana from a local clothing store that offered $100 suits to players who hit a home run over the sign.25 In 1957, Nat Scholnick, who owned a Detroit clothing store, “offered a free suit to the Tiger pitcher and batter with the best records each month.”26

When The Ballpark in Arlington opened in 1994, the Texas Rangers erected a sign, “Hit It Here and Win a Free Suit,” on top of the right field roof, at least 500 feet from home plate. There was no sponsor, however, so it wasn’t clear who would provide the suits. In the end, it didn’t matter. By 1999, no batter had hit the sign, and the Rangers took it down.27

Professional baseball returned to Brooklyn in 2001 in the form of the Brooklyn Cyclones, a minor-league affiliate of the New York Mets. The team put a “Hit Sign, Win a Suit” sign on the left field fence of its new stadium, KeySpan Park in Coney Island. Louis Bisaquino, owner of Garage Clothing in Brooklyn, offered to provide the suits. “We may be Yankee fans, but I was born and grew up in Coney Island, so I knew I had to do this,” he explained.28 The sign was removed when the stadium underwent renovations in 2010, following a change in naming rights from KeySpan Park to MCU Park. Subsequently, the ballpark was renamed Maimonides Park in 2021.

Other professional teams have erected similar signs tied to a variety of promotions. In 1946, Danny Gardella – one of the major-leaguers who “jumped” to the Mexican League for higher salaries – banged the only home run ever hit through the mouth of the smiling man on a center field billboard in Delta Park in Mexico City sponsored by Chiclets. Gardella claimed that the company never paid him the $500 promised to players who achieved that feat.29

In 1964, Tosh Kaneshiro, owner of the Columbia Inn restaurant in Honolulu, erected a banner above the right field screen at Honolulu Stadium with a large hole in the middle and the name of the eatery. A player for the Islanders, the city’s minor league team, who hit a ball through the hole would get $1,000. Until 1976, when the stadium was torn down, only one player did so – Walt “No Neck” Williams in 1968. An Islander who hit a home run that did not hit the Columbia Inn sign, however, was invited for a free steak dinner.30

The sign at Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina, home of the Durham Bulls, had been taken down long before the movie “Bull Durham” was filmed there in 1987. For the movie, the filmmakers installed a new sign, and the team left it up after the film was complete. When the team moved to a newer ballpark at the American Tobacco Campus in 1995, they erected a new sign with a painting of a snorting bull, promising, “Hit Bull, Win Steak. Hit Grass, Win Salad.” Only Bulls players got to cash in on the prize at the Angus Barn, a steakhouse in Raleigh, as part of an arrangement with the tobacco company. “Players who hit the bull part of the sign get a $100 gift card to buy any steak or meal on the menu.”31

In the 1970s, a local Twin Cities bank offered $10,000 to a player who hit a sign at the top of the scoreboard at Metropolitan Stadium.32 Beginning in 2023 at the Twins’ Target Field, Treasure Island Resort & Casino donated $2,500 to the Minnesota Twins Community Fund whenever a player hit a home run hit into the Treasure Island Home Run Deck, which extends from the left field foul pole to deep left-center field.33

In 1988, the New York Mets briefly installed a sign at the top of the scoreboard at Shea Stadium, sponsored by the Pergament home improvement company that read “Hit This Sign And We’ll Paint Your House.” The sign rotated in that spot with two other advertisers.34

In 1993, the Baltimore Orioles erected a “Hit It Here” sign in right-center field in its Camden Yards ballpark. The next year, the Maryland State Lottery, which sponsored the sign, declared that it would give a randomly picked fan $10,000 (increased by $1,000 per game for every game there was no winner) if a player hit the sign. By 1995, no batter had done it, so the giveaway was discontinued.35

In 2008, Toyota erected a sign beyond the right center field fence at the Great American Ball Park, home of the Cincinnati Reds. It says: “Red Hits Sign. Fan Wins Tundra.” If a Reds player hits the Toyota sign, fans get to enter a lottery (at local Toyota dealers) and win a Toyota Tundra truck. The sign is 430 feet from home plate. As of 2024, no Reds player had ever hit the sign, although Paul Goldschmidt, then with the St. Louis Cardinals, did so in September 2021.36

When Oracle Park first opened in 2000, the San Francisco Giants offered a $1 million prize to a randomly selected fan if any player hit a giant baseball glove (behind the left-center field wall) on the fly. No player managed to do it in a game. The promotion was quietly discontinued after a few years, although the glove remains as a landmark. “Nobody ever got close,” Giants executive vice president Larry Baer said. “There wasn’t any point continuing it.”37

When the Braves’ Turner Field opened in 1997, Coca-Cola, headquartered in Atlanta, offered $1 million to a fan who caught a home run in the Sky Field pavilion 80 feet above the left field bleachers and below a huge Coca Cola sign, 435 feet from home plate.38 In fact, what was offered was not $1 million in cash but a 20-year annuity worth $50,000 a year.39 But Coca-Cola didn’t have to worry about fans cashing in. “It’s not humanly possible,” said noted slugger Mark McGwire. “No way.”40

Similarly, a sign erected in 1988 at Fenway Park that offered a free pair of Thom McAn shoes to Red Sox players who “Hit One Up Here” stirred resentment because it was so far behind the right field bleachers. “Impossible,” said Red Sox outfielder Mike Greenwell. “No one could hit a ball that far.” He added: “Six hundred feet to win a pair of shoes. If you hit a ball that far, you should get an entire shoe company.”41

If a player hit the “Hit It Here” sign above the left field bleachers at Petco Park, home of the San Diego Padres, fans would be rewarded with season tickets. There is no known instance of any players hitting that sign.

Busch Stadium in St. Louis has a variation on this theme. In 1998, when Mark McGwire was breaking home run records, the team created a section of the left field stands called Big Mac Land in big neon letters, sponsored by McDonald’s. If a Cardinals player hit a home run into the area, everyone with a ticket to that section got a free Big Mac from local McDonald’s restaurants. McGwire wasn’t fond of the promotion and said he didn’t like to eat hamburgers.42 Many batters have hit the sign, which was still there during the 2025 season.

In the 1990s, GAP, the giant clothing company headquartered in San Francisco, erected signs with the firm’s simple logo on the outfield walls in Candlestick Park in areas known as hitting gaps. But there was no prize for a batter hitting the sign.43

Funko Field in Everett, Washington, named after a local toy manufacturing company, offers an interesting twist. It is home of the Everett AquaSox, a minor league affiliate of the Seattle Mariners that plays in the Northwest League. The ballpark, which is owned by the local school board, is also home to the Everett Community College and Everett High School teams. (When it was built in 1947 it was called Memorial Stadium). After Bob Bavasi bought the team (then called the Everett Giants) in 1984, he requested that the ballpark add a “Hit the Sign, Win a Suit” sign on the scoreboard.  His father, Buzzie Bavasi, was a long-time top executive with the Brooklyn Dodgers. The sign was meant as a homage to the old Dodgers. It was not intended to provide any free suits.44

Amid This Long History, What Makes the Stark Sign So Iconic?

Why do we still remember “Hit Sign, Win Suit” seven decades after Ebbets Field was abandoned? Several factors are involved.

First, Stark was a real person whom fans could identify with. Unlike “Lifebuoy” or “Bull Durham” or even a Brooklyn bank, Stark’s store was a locally owned business, not a faceless corporation. In comparison, the Cincinnati sign was sponsored by a global corporation. Great American Ball Park is named after a huge insurance company that paid $75 million to Reds’ owner Robert Castellini (who, since 2022, has been worth $400 million) for naming rights.

Second, Stark’s name was his calling card. Even before he erected the sign at Ebbets Field, Stark was a well-known local figure in Brooklyn who was active in civic affairs. As his store prospered, Stark expanded his philanthropic endeavors. His clothing store became a gathering place for people down on their luck whom Stark would try to help. Stark was a celebrity, a benefactor, a neighbor, and active in dozens of Brooklyn organizations. He was involved in three intersecting worlds – business, politics, and philanthropy. His name recognition in each of these sectors brought attention to the Ebbets Field sign.

Third, the Stark sign adorned the Ebbets Field outfield wall for at least 25 years, much longer than other signs located in major- and minor-league ballparks. Brooklyn went through many physical and demographic changes over the years, and the Dodgers’ on-field record was highly uneven over the years, but the Stark sign was always there, a symbol of stability.

Fourth, during those 25 years – which ended a decade before the players’ union became a major force – major-league players earned more than the average worker, but their salaries were not in the stratosphere as they are today.45 In 1950, for example, the average big-leaguer earned about $13,228 ($179,000 in 2025 dollars) compared with the average annual salary of an American worker at $2,876 ($39,000). Many players lived in the same neighborhoods as their fans, and some Dodgers even took the subway to Ebbets Field. Few lasted in the majors for more than a handful of years, so their post-baseball lives were often precarious. Fans could identify with players and recognize that for most of them, a free suit of clothes was a big deal. In 1951, for example, Dodgers third baseman Billy Cox earned $11,500. By 1955, playing for the Orioles but past his prime, he retired due to injuries. He returned to his hometown, Newport, Pennsylvania, where he tended bar.

Fifth, in a borough often disparaged in the media and Hollywood films, and compared unfavorably with Manhattan, the Dodgers – and Stark’s sign – provided Brooklynites with a sense of community pride. Stark, who was raised and lived in Brooklyn, and who made his living as a Brooklyn businessman, with a store that never changed locations, was one of their own. Ebbets Field was the smallest of the three New York City major-league ballparks in use from the mid-1920s through its descent into twilight in 1958, but neither Yankee Stadium nor the Polo Grounds had a marker as well-known and quirky as Stark’s sign.46

Sixth, “Hit Sign/Win Suit” was a clever slogan. Few players actually hit the sign, but that possibility was always there, making every fly ball to right field a candidate for a prize, if not quite immortality.

Seventh, in Stark’s era, New York was the nation’s largest city and its media capital. Things that happened in New York mattered to the rest of the country. For example, Fiorello La Guardia was not only New York’s mayor from 1934 to 1946 but also a national figure. Likewise, Stark, and the novelty of his sign, were fodder for news stories, and even cartoons, that circulated around the country.

Many other signs preceded and followed Stark’s. Most of them have already been or will soon be forgotten. But Abe Stark’s “Hit Sign, Win Suit” will be part of baseball history and American culture forever.

 

Acknowledgments

Thanks to the following people for their help in identifying ballparks with signs that offered suits and other prizes: Bob Brady, Robert Elias, Steven Gietschier, Larry Hayes, Lucas Hobbs, Stephen Katz, David McDonald, Bob McGee, Edward Morton, and Brian Wood.

This article was reviewed by Rory Costello and Bill Lamb and fact-checked by Larry DeFillipo.

 

Notes

1 Roberta Newman, Here’s the Pitch: The Amazing, True, New, and Improved Story of Baseball and Advertising (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Pess, 2019, 3-4.

2 An outstanding pitcher during his playing days, Altrock became a coach for the Senators from 1912 to 1953. In that role, he often engaged in comic routines from the coach’s box and performed routines at baseball fields around the country as well as on vaudeville stages, often with Al Schact, another former player who was known as the “Clown Prince of Baseball.” “Coach or Clown?” Buffalo Times, April 11, 1920: 53.

3 Nick Altrock, “Nick Altrock’s Baseball Career, as told by George L. Moreland,” Washington (DC) Herald, February 28, 1920: 10.

4 Newman, Here’s the Pitch, 5; “Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising,” Stanford University, n.d. https://tobacco.stanford.edu/ad_tags/athlete/; “Soft for Max Carey,” Brooklyn Daily Eagle, July 23, 1918: 22; “Max Carey to Get $50 For Hitting Bull,” Brooklyn Citizen, July 23, 1918: Sports-1; “Canton Regains Position at Top; Houser Makes a Freak Record,” Mansfield (Ohio) News, August 26, 1910: 8; “Sally Bulls Not Hit,” Atlanta Constitution, August 13, 1911: 3; “Dave Callahan Will Get Fifty Dollars for Hitting the ‘Bull,’” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 1, 1917: 7; “Ben Spencer’s Target,” Hanover (Pennsylvania) Evening Sun, August 22, 1935: 8;  “Had Good Lead, But Went to Bed,” Fall River (Massachusetts) Evening News, June 2, 1909: 3, and “Newsy Gossip of All the Sports,” Altoona (Pennsylvania) Tribune, June 7, 1909: 2.

5 “Sally Bulls Not Hit,” above; “Phillies’ Home is Most Popular Among Player, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 12, 1911: 8.

6 Bob McGee, The Greatest Ballpark Ever: Ebbets Field and the Story of the Brooklyn Dodgers (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press:, 2005), 111.

7 Al Demaree, “Shoot Bull Now: Used to Hit It,” Brooklyn Daily Times, March 10, 1927: 3A.

8 “Joe Brigger’s Lack of Education Almost Made Him Lose a Free Suit of Clothes,” Dayton Herald, April 19, 1910: 10.

9 Scoop, “Baseball Sidelights,” San Francisco Bulletin, May 21, 1910: 6. Ryan’s club affiliation went unmentioned.

10 “‘Brownie’ in His New Home Run Suit,” Jackson (Michigan) Citizen Press, May 1, 1914: 13.

11 “Capitals Break Jinx; Win Their Second Straight Game, 5 to 2,” Raleigh (North Carolina) News & Observer, May 23, 1923: 10.

12 “Bigelow’s Two Hits Won Many Prizes,” Chattanooga News, April 14, 1926: 28; “Locals Divide Double-Header with Dobbmen,” Chattanooga Times, June 6, 1927: 8; “Outfielder Vick Will Get Second Palmer Free Suit,” Chattanooga Times, July 11, 1929: 9.

13 Wirt Gammon, “Roseboro Hits Grandslam Homer as Lookouts Win,” Chattanooga Times, June 3, 1958: 13.

14 “More Suits Offered,” Rochester (Minnesota) Post-Bulletin, June 6, 1929: 9; “Out After Suits,” Rochester Post-Bulletin; July 6, 1929: 9; “Wins Third Suit,” Rochester Post-Bulletin, September 2, 1929: 7.

15George Weiner, who owned the clothing store, regularly ran ads in the local paper to both advertise his shop and remind the public about his offer to players. These included “From Training Camp – Leesburg, Florida,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Times, March 18, 1925: 10, “To Mr. Shaughnessy and His Reading Club!” Reading Times, April 13, 1926: 11; and “Good Luck ‘Brooks,’” Reading Times, May 1, 1935: 16. See also, Doc Silva, “Sox Ruin Miners Flag Hopes,” Reading Times, September 10, 1934: 10. The sign at Reading’s Lauer Park apparently limited free suits to Reading players, but the qualifications were somewhat ambiguous, as reported in a 1935 article noting that despite hitting a home run over the clothing store sign, “it’s a question if [Hazleton outfielder] Eddie [Wilson) is eligible for the free frock.” “Wilson May Get Suit,” Hazelton (Pennsylvania) Standard-Sentinel, May 28, 1935: 14.

16 Red Burnett, “30,000 Watched Sandlot Ball in the Days of 3-Cent Cones,” Toronto Star, May 15, 1965: 35.

17 A report of one 1947 game noted that “Goody Rosen bagged a suit-winning double, a single, and two walks.” Gordon Walker, “Leafs Fall Upon Bears; Chill ‘Em Like Weather!” Toronto Star, May 10, 1947: 13. Toronto’s other major paper had the same story. Allan Nickleson, “Leafs Smother Bears as Brown Holds ‘Em,” Toronto Globe and Mail, May 10, 1947. A 1948 story reported that a Jersey City player, pitcher Jack Kraus, hit a double off the sign and won a suit of clothes. Gordon Campbell, “Everyone Won but Sawyer at Stadium Variety Show,” Toronto Star, June 22, 1948: 13. A 1951 story about a game in Toronto between the Maple Leafs and the Springfield (Massachusetts) Cubs reported that “Ted Sepkowski [a Cubs player] visited a Toronto tailor today and came away with a new suit of clothes. But there’s a story in back of it. In one of the last games here in 1950, Ted hit a tailoring sign in right field. The blow called for an automatic suit of clothes. Ted filled out the necessary papers, but he never got the suit. So he checked when he arrived here. Everything was in order. There had been a slip somewhere. And Ted got the suit.” The same story noted that another Cubs player, Jack Wallaesa, won a Bulova watch after hitting a sign sponsored by a Toronto jewelry store. “Cub Chatter,” Springfield (Massachusetts) Union, May 23, 1951: 28. A report of a Toronto-Ottawa game in 1952 noted that Bill “Jennings won a suit by hitting the Tip Top Tailors’ sign with a double in the fourth.” Al Nickleson, “Markell Turns Back As, 4-1,” Toronto Globe & Mail, July 8, 1952.

18 Dave Anderson, “Toronto’s Baseball Story and Its New, Wonderful Tale,” New York Times, October 19, 1992: C8.

19 “Spring Season Officially Opens Tomorrow When ‘His Umps’ Says: Play Ball!” Toronto Star, May 3, 1921: 19; Charlie Good, “Epochal Pitching by Mr. Collins of Leafs,” Toronto Daily Staff, August 30, 1928; Charles Good, “Sports Parade,” Toronto Star, May 7, 1930: 12; “Shanty Hogan Joins Leafs,” Toronto Daily Clarion, July 3, 1937: 6.

20 “Sam Jones Hat No-Hit Contest,” Toronto Globe & Mail, May 4, 1940; Charles Good, “Sports Parade,” Toronto Star, April 24, 1940: 15.

21 “Big Leagues Agree on Livelier Ball; Sphere Used in the American Last Year Is Accepted in Toto by the National,” New York Times, January 6, 1934: 21.

22 Arch Ward, “Talking It Over,” Chicago Tribune, May 12, 1934: 22.

23 Greg Rhodes, “Crosley Field: The Laundry,” in Gregory Wolfe, ed., Cincinnati’s Crosley Field, SABR https://sabr.org/journal/article/crosley-field-the-laundry/; “Redlegs’ HR Power May Drive Tailor to the Cleaners,” Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Evening News, April 18, 1955: 20; Steve Hoffman, “Louis Siebler Dies at 77,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 21, 18984: D2.

24 Joe Kelly, “Between the Lines,” Lubbock (Texas) Avalanche-Journal, August 1, 1948: 1, 11. 

25 Roberto González Echevarría, “The Boys of Winter” NINE, Vol. 32, No. 2, Spring 2024,  27. According to Echevarría: “The haberdashery Sastreria El Sol had a sign in left field at Gran Stadium in Havana announcing that any player who hit one over it would be rewarded with a tailored suit.” See also, Roberto González Echevarría, The Pride of Havana: A History of Cuban Baseball  (New York: Oxford University Press, 1999), 61.

26 “Tagging the Tigers,” Detroit Free Press, July 21, 1957: C-3.

27 Mel Antonen, “Rangers’ Stadium Opens to ‘Breathtaking’ Reviews,” USA Today, April 12, 1994: 3C; T.R. Sullivan, ‘No More Suits,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, April 4, 1999: 12C; Simon Gonzalez, “Schieffer Takes Some of  Game’s Purity With Him,” Fort Worth Star-Telegram, May 2, 1999: 2C; Jaime Aron, “All-Star Park Offers Peek at League’s Best,” Bowling Green (Kentucky)  News, July 9, 1995: 6-B.

28 Gersh Kuntzman, “‘Hit’ Sign Suits B’klyn Stadium,” New York Post, June 25, 2001. https://nypost.com/2001/06/25/hit-sign-suits-bklyn-stadium/

29 G. Richard McKelvey, Mexican Raiders in the Major Leagues (Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 2006), 93; Robert Elias, Dangerous Danny Gardella (New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2025), 113-114.

30 Ferd Borsch, “Cub Homers Nip Hawaii,” Honolulu Advertiser, June 25, 1969: B-1;  Beverly Creamer, “‘Tosh’ Kaneshiro, 1921-1981: A good man…a great sport,” Honolulu Advertiser, July 23, 1981: 1; Ferd Borsch, “‘Toshi’ Was Indeed a Man for All Seasons,” Honolulu Sunday Star-Bulletin and Advertiser, July 26, 1981: B-3; Bob Sigall, “Son Shares Stories of Columbia Inn Legend,” Honolulu Star-Advertiser, August 4, 2023: B4.

31 Ana Young, “No Bull: Six questions about Durham’s famous sign,” 9th Street Journal, July 7, 2022. https://9thstreetjournal.org/2022/07/07/no-bull-six-questions-about-durhams-famous-sign/

32 Pat Thompson, “Powell, Orioles Clip Twins 11-1,” Austin (Minnesota) Daily Herald, July 27, 1970: 31. Another story the following year reported that the reward was $20,000. “Jackson Wants to Forget Long HRs,” Duluth (Minnesota) Herald, April 15, 1971: 23.

33 “Twins and Treasure Island Resort & Casino Announce New Fan- and Community-Focused Partnership Elements,” Https://Www.Ticasino.Com/Media/Media-Releases/04-06-2023

34 Rita Ciolli and Peter Gianatti, “Sights and Sounds Lack Local Flavor,” (Hempstead, New York) Newsday, August 3, 1988: 131; Steve Jacobson, “Hopes Are Alive at Shea,” Newsday, April 13, 1988: 135; Jack Lang, “It’s the Sign of the Times,” New York Daily News, June 5, 1988: 72.

35 David Hughes, “O’s Notes,” Wilmington (Delaware)  News Journal, May 8, 1994: D4; Charles Cohen, “Manchester Man, 83, Wins $10,000 in ‘Hit It Here,’” (Westminster, Maryland) Carroll County Times, October 5, 1994: 1; John Steadman, “Yes, Oriole Park is a Classic … Disappointment, That Is,” Baltimore Evening Sun, June 24, 1992; “Mr. Baseball,” Baltimore Sun, June 29, 1995: 7C.

36 Bobby Nightengale, “Cincinnati Reds still tied for second wild-card spot despite first-game loss,” Cincinnati Enquirer, September 1, 2021 https://www.cincinnati.com/story/sports/mlb/reds/2021/09/01/cincinnati-reds-lose-cardinals-doubleheader-wade-miley-struggles/5680443001/ Although no Reds player ever hit the sign, when Jesse Winker missed by only inches in 2018, the Reds gave a Tundra away to a lucky fan. See “Reds fan wins Toyota Tundra after close Jesse Winker home run,” Cincinnati Enquirer, June 11, 2018.

37 Andrew Baggarly, “Derby sluggers target glove,” Spokane (Washington) Spokesman-Review, July 9, 2007: C1; “Judge Goes Deep for 3rd Straight Game as Yanks Sink Giants,” Modesto (California) Bee, June 3, 2024: 1B.

38 “McGwire Mania Hits Coke,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 31, 1998: D1; “Coca-Cola Sky Field-Home of the $1 Million Home Run,” Atlanta Daily World, May 8, 1997. 

39 Judd Zulgad, “A Second Chance,” Minneapolis Tribune, July 31, 1998: C2.

40 Rick Hummel, “La Russa Says Experience Is McGwire Ally,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, August 7, 1997: D1.

41 Leigh Montville, “If the Shoe’s Hit….,” Boston Globe, August 24, 1988: 47.

42 “MacLanding Point,” Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune, March 27, 1998: 1B; Rick Hummel, “Cards Give Vianney 800 Tickets to See Alum Politte,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, March 31, 1998: C4; “No Relation,” Missoula (Montana) Missoulian, April 12, 1998: C3.

43 “Morning Briefing,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, July 31, 1993: 2C.

44 Interview with Mike MacColloch, the AquaSox’s director of corporate sales and marketing, May 21, 2025. According to MacColloch, Bob Bavasi purchased the team, then as a San Francisco Giants affiliate located in Walla Walla, Washington, in 1983 and moved it to Everett for the 1984 season. He had the signed erected several years later. In 1995, under a different owner, it became a Seattle Mariners affiliate, but the sign remained. MacColloch estimated that two or three batters hit the scoreboard (not necessarily the sign), which is about 330 feet from home plate, every game. No suits are given away. “It was meant as a monument to honor the legacy of Buzzy Bavasi and the Brooklyn Dodgers,” MacColloch explained. Interestingly, they used a different wording from the Stark sign: It says, “Hit the Sign, Win a Suit,” not “Hit Sign, Win Suit.” Ben Walker, “Nutty Parks? You Can’t Beat Bushes,” (Nashville) Tennessean, July 11, 1993; 7-C; Kirby Arnold, “From preps to pros, area has evolved,” Everett (Washington) Herald, January 1, 2000: 5C; Larry Henry, “New Scoreboard Stirs Old Memories,” Everett Herald, June 11, 1987: 1C.; and “NWL Team to Move to Everett,” Salem (Oregon) Journal, December 16, 1983: 11

45In early 2025, the median weekly wage for full-time U.S. workers was $1,194, which translates to an annual income of $62,088. “Usual Weekly Earnings of Wage and Salary Workers First Quarter 2025,” Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics, April 16, 2025. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/wkyeng.pdf . The median salary for Major League Baseball players in 2025 was $1.35 million. The average salary was $5.1 million, but this is skewed by extremely high salaries among the most well-paid players. “MLB’s average salary tops $5 million for first time,” NBC Sports, April 2, 2025.
https://www.nbcsports.com/mlb/news/mlbs-average-salary-tops-5-million-for-first-time

46 Some fans might consider the monuments for Miller Huggins, Babe Ruth, and Lou Gehrig placed in deep center field of old Yankee Stadium as quirky and well-known.