The Schenectady Frog Alleys had to post bail for playing ball.
The Frog Alleys, a Class D team in the New York State League, hosted Albany on a bright Sunday afternoon in 1903 at Island Park. The problem was, it was illegal to play baseball on Sundays in Schenectady, N.Y.
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“May 25, 1903, the entire Schenectady, N.Y. team was arrested, charged with playing Sunday ball,” the 1904 Reach Official American League Base Ball Guide’s chronology section noted.
County officials detained the players for violating blue laws, which prohibited entertainment and events on Sundays. The Rochester Democrat & Chronicle covered the next day’s arraignment.
“The Schenectady players were tried on a charge of playing baseball on Sunday. A test case was made of Captain Ellis, the other cases to rest upon the decision in his. The jury acquitted Ellis and the entire team was discharged,” the newspaper reported.
Clearly buoyed by their acquittal, the Frog Alleys came back in the ninth inning to beat Albany on the day of the court case.
Other municipalities had similar baseball bans back then. Minneapolis and St. Paul moved an 1898 game to a nearby town’s public park because it was illegal to play on Sundays in those cities. The Jersey City Skeeters quietly distributed cards to fans before a 1910 Sunday exhibition game asking the crowd to be silent so the team wouldn’t get busted for baseball. Rev. J.W. Larkin controversially spoke out in favor of Sunday baseball in a 1911 sermon, according to the 1912 Reach Guide.
Scranton shifted early 1900s Sunday games to an artillery depot five miles out of town to circumvent that city’s blue laws. Another religious relocation helped one Texas Leaguer hit eight home runs in one game.
More than 140 professional baseball teams are scheduled to play this Sunday. Let’s hope none of them end up in jail.
Tim Hagerty is the broadcaster for the Triple-A El Paso Chihuahuas, and is on Twitter at @MinorsTeamNames. He is also the author of "Root for the Home Team: Minor League Baseball's Most Off-the-Wall Team Names."