Sunday Baseball in Fargo? Maybe...

Playing baseball once occupied a place alongside showing movies, shopping, and hunting as activities prohibited on Sunday. In Fargo, a law was on the books banning baseball on Sunday, but the statute was generally not strictly enforced. In the 1897 Red River Valley League, Sunday baseball was a non-issue, for reasons you can discover in my upcoming book. In the summer of 1901, however, a Sunday game between Fargo and Larimore was deemed illegal and arrests were made. 

The Minneapolis Tribune, July 29, 1901

Random Fact of the Day (4)

Billy Sunday, the baseball evangelist who spoke in Fargo in the summer of 1897, returned to the Red River Valley in 1898. He was picked up by the Carrington, ND club to play a game against Fargo's team. Neither team was a part of an organized league that summer.

Baptism by Curveball?

When the state of Iowa banned Sunday baseball in April 1897, special consideration was given to the members of the Seventh Day Adventist church. The new law provided that the members of the church, because of their celebration of the Sabbath on Saturday, were exempt from the Sunday ban. With the exemption, the Des Moines baseball club saw opportunity. The St. Paul Globe reported on May 1 that the team's members planned to be baptized as Seventh Day Adventists. Quite the act of dedication.

St. Paul Globe May 1, 1897 p.5 "Must Join a Church to Play Ball"

Glad They Weren't In Cleveland!

Baseball and other forms of recreation on Sundays were by no means universally accepted norms in 1897. The Fargo team played on six different Sundays during the 1897 season, and there really wasn't much of a backlash. One notable mention of the subject occurred on June 15 in the Forum. A Wahpeton Baptist pastor, L. V. Schermerhorn, had spoken on the Sunday question to a "very large and appreciative audience" in Wahpeton on June 14. Baseball, racing, and gaming were cited by Schermerhorn as contrary to both civil and religious statutes. Certainly, a fairly sizable segment of the population still frowned upon Sunday baseball, and other diversions that were deemed frivolous, unnecessary, or disrespectful on the Sabbath.

Sunday baseball would remain popular in large cities in particular, due to the fact that many workers were unable to attend weekday games. Working late hours, it was difficult to attend since games began in the afternoon, and night baseball was still a few decades away. A fair amount of working men also worked on Saturdays. This left Sunday as the best day for baseball in the minds of many.

Though the Red River Valley did not feature significant opposition to Sunday baseball in 1897, the same could not be said of Cleveland. After the first inning of a Sunday, May 17th game between the Cleveland Spiders and Washington Senators of the National League, players on both teams along with the umpire were arrested by Cleveland policemen for violating the city's ban on Sunday baseball. Cleveland's owner had to post bail to get the men released. The city did allow the Spiders to host Sunday games later in the 1897 season.

Billy Sunday visits Fargo

An outfielder with a .248 career batting average, William Ashley "Billy" Sunday was known for his speed and base running, playing most of his career for the Chicago White Stockings of the National League. In 1891, Sunday, an eight year major league veteran, turned down a $3,000 contract to begin work for the YMCA. His motivation was his desire to devote his life to spreading the message of Christianity. A convert to the faith, Sunday became a prolific Christian evangelist, traveling throughout the United States and speaking to crowds about the faith and the value of clean living for over 20 years. Ironically, Sunday's teammates with the White Stockings were quite notorious for their drinking, gambling, and generally reckless behavior. Sunday, however, even before his conversion, was not among the rowdy of the group.

In August 1897, Billy Sunday visited Fargo on one of his speaking tours. On a Sunday afternoon, the 22nd, Sunday spoke at the YMCA, and that evening, addressed a crowd at the Fargo opera house. In the days leading up to Sunday's visit, Fargo player A. J. Hessler urged residents to go see the fiery evangelist speak. With the RRVL's break up two weeks earlier, Hessler was spending some time playing for a team from Foster County in North Dakota. Hessler made a special trip from Grand Forks to Fargo to see Sunday, whom he touted as "one of the finest fellows I have met" (Sunday Argus Aug 22).