Monday, December 27, 2010

The 1887 World Series: The Eagle Comments On The Attendance

The first week's play of the world's championship series between the American champion team of St. Louis and the league champions of Detroit ended yesterday, the sixth contest being that then played at the Polo Grounds before about 6,000 people. The weather was far more favorable for a large attendance than it was the day before. Brooklyn has turned out the largest and the best crowd the rival teams have played before during the week except at St. Louis. There were not over 6,000 at Detroit, and not half that number at Pittsburg.
-Brooklyn Daily Eagle, October 16, 1887

The Eagle's attendance numbers are the lowest that I've seen for the series. Most of the reporting placed the attendance for the games at around 8000 but the Eagle has all of the games, except the ones in St. Louis, at 6000 or less. The usual caveats about 19th century attendance figures apply but these numbers more or less reflect the vibe that I've been getting while going through the newspapers. There just wasn't as much excitement about the 1887 series as there was the year before. And I think that's reflected in both the newspaper coverage and the attendance. Of course, they would have gotten better attendance, I would imagine, if they had just split the games between St. Louis and Detroit rather than taking the show on the road. The Arlie Latham Rolling Thunder Revue Tour was not, in retrospect, a great idea.

And with the mention of the Rolling Thunder Revue, cue Bob:


No comments: