![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Crable appeared in one more game, in what appears to be a mop up relief effort and like most players probably left Brooklyn for his off season home. Louis manager, Roger Bresnahan, who although he was a Hall of Fame catcher began and ended his playing career as a pitcher. The game itself was noteworthy as the last pitching performance of St. managed to come away with a 5-3 win in front of less than 1000 fans. Louis Cardinals and in spite of the fact that he hit two and walked four in 5 2/3's innings. On August 3, 1910, the left hander, formerly of the Texas League, started against the St. A case in point is George Crable who although not "Moonlight Graham," could boast of a major league career of only two games as a pitcher with the woebegone 1910 Brooklyn Superbas who finished a mere 40 games out of first place. Status as baseball players also opened the vaudeville stage door to a smaller group who, because they could not fall back on their base ball achievements, had to provide real entertainment. This was enough, however, for baseball was the country's most popular sport and a large number of paying customers were more than willing to part with their money just to be in the same space, especially one more intimate than a ball park, with one of their heroes. Snyder further points out that since it was "a hybrid form of theater," vaudeville drew on audiences from a large range of subcultures for whom "going to vaudeville meant being part of the show." This to a large degree explains why vaudeville was such a great financial opportunity for baseball players, some of whom offered precious little to the audience beyond their presence on the stage. As Robert Snyder wrote in the introduction to his book, The Voice of the City: Vaudeville and Popular Culture in New York, the whole industry was based on a simple idea "stage shows with something for everyone" which in practice meant a series of unrelated acts in theaters that sometimes operated around the clock. To that end many vaudeville producers banned sales of alcohol and forbid any kind of "vulgar" material, with entertainers dreading the receipt of a "blue" envelope directing them to literally clean up their act. ![]() Vaudeville, which was very popular from the late 1880's until the early 1930's, tried to offer entertainment that would appeal to the broadest possible audience including women and children. In fact, the first chapter of Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, Charles Leerhsen's interesting look at the controversial baseball immortal begins with Cobb applying makeup for a vaudeville performance. Eventually a number of well known baseball names entered vaudeville in one way or another including some seemingly unlikely candidates like John McGraw, "Cap" Anson and Ty Cobb. According to Messers Zoss and Bowman in Diamonds in the Rough: The Untold History of Baseball, the first baseball/vaudeville act featured "Turkey" Mike Donlin in a skit with singing comedienne Mary Hite (the two would later marry) called "Stealing Home." Another baseball/vaudeville marriage was that of Rube Marquard and Blossom Seeley. One way which became very popular during the Deadball Era was going into vaudeville. Although Rogers Hornsby claimed he spent his time looking out the window, lesser paid players needed some source of income and others were interested in using the off season to make money especially if they could put their baseball notoriety to advantage. As professional baseball developed, however, the decisions players made about how to spend the winter had greater financial implications. Although little is known about the team, it's certain the Warren Club members didn't earn their livelihood on the base ball field so devoting time to a literary society was simply substituting one spare time activity for another. When the Warren Club of Roxbury, Massachusetts decided to form a literary society for the 1860-61 off season, the members were making a decision about time, not money. ![]()
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