Evening Republican, Volume 18, Number 209, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 September 1914 — DAY RUNS TURNSTILES [ARTICLE]

DAY RUNS TURNSTILES

FOUNDER OF NEW YORK GIANTS NOW HUMBLE EMPLOYE.

Fortune Made When Team Won Two World’s Championships From St Louis Browns and Brooklyn* Lost in Fighting Revolt

Once the richest and most powerful magnate in the National league, John B. Day, founder of the New York baseball club, which has controlled the Giants since 1885, now draws a small salary for, supervising the turnstiles at the polo grounds. Mr. Day’s fortune, made in 1888 and 1889, when the Giants won two world’s championships from the St. Louis Browns and the Brooklyns, respectively, was swept away in vainly fighting the Brotherhood revolt of 1890. He sacrificed all to remain loyal to the National league, which without his allegiance would have been crushed in midseason. In fact, Mr. Day refused a half- interest in the New York Brotherhood club, together with a $25,000 salary to serve as president. The story of Mr. Day’s ruin is an old one, but his wonderful faith in the ball players who threw him down never has been told. * At the suggestion of James Mutrie Mr. Day organized the old Metropolitans, who won the American association championship in 1884. He leased the polo grounds; then Ideated at Fifth avenue and One Hundred and Tenth street. As the National league was the parent body, Day and Mutrie soon applied for a franchise to operate a New York club. The team was nicknamed the Giants in 1887, because the players included big men —Buck Ewing, Roger Connor, Tim Keefe, Jim O’Rourke, Mike Slattery and others.

During that season the New York club made SIOO,OOO, while in 1888 Mr. Day’s profits were said to have been double that amount John M. Ward, George Gore, Mike Tiernan, Mickey Welsh, Ed Crane, Danny Richardson, Bill Brown, Arthur Whitney, Gil Haffield, Pat Murphy and Titcomb were added to the club’s roster from time to time, so that when the pennant was captured in 1889 Mr. Day was literally rolling in wealth. He allowed the players to pocket the New York club’s entire share of the receipts. It was during the following winter that the Giants, with the exception of Tiernan, Welsh and Murphy, agreed to desert Mr. Day. They had joined the Brotherhood, which had formed a secret agreement with various financial backers to organize a rival circuit called the Players’ league. When Mutrie Informed Mr. Day, there, that all but three of the Giants had decided to jump, the New York magnate replied: "I do not believe a word of it! I have treated my boys liberally and fairly. You cannot make me believe that they are not real men.”

It proved to be true, however, and Mr. Day lost his fortune. •