Shieber: A Base Ball Flag
From SABR member Tom Shieber at Baseball Researcher on February 19, 2012:
Last October marked the 100th anniversary of a classic World Series match-up between the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Athletics. The A’s won the 1911 post-season affair in six games, all but the final contest being quite close and exciting.
Just two days after the conclusion of the Fall Classic, despite their team’s loss, over 100 Giants fans attended a gala dinner to celebrate John McGraw’s National League champion club. The event took place at New York’s Hotel Imperial (seen below), at Broadway and 32nd Street.
The guest list for the October 28th reception was impressive. Nineteen members of the Giants attended, including Larry Doyle, Art Fletcher, Buck Herzog, Rube Marquard, Fred Merkle, Chief Meyers, Red Murray, Fred Snodgrass and McGraw.
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The toasts and speeches of the evening were congratulatory and humorous, but unremarkable. Unremarkable, that is, save for the comments of one Herman A. Metz, the former New York City comptroller and a future congressman representing New York’s 10th district.
Metz thinks that base ball has become such an institution that it ought to have a flag—a distinctive symbol that will be recognized as the badge of the national game. While the idea of a base ball flag may not be original with the former Controller of New York City, he is the first man who has pursued it to a definite reality. To think with Metz is to act, and he is now having a design for the flag drawn up by one of the best architects in the city.
Read the full article here: http://baseballresearcher.blogspot.com/2012/02/base-ball-flag.html
Originally published: February 21, 2012. Last Updated: February 21, 2012.