by jacquelyn horkan, editor
But down the entire
street there was whiskey and beer, and nothing else... This was Last Chance Street - last
chance for a drink or a girl before Cuba.
Charles Johnson Post, The Little War of Private
Post
If any form of recreation shaped this young democracy, it was
baseball. In the latter part of the last century, any town worth its salt had its own
semi-pro baseball team. Sporting such nicknames as the Longfellows, Quicksteps, Muffers,
Mystics, and Mutuals, they were the focus of civic pride and the center of Independence
Day celebrations.
In Florida the most renowned of these were the Oak Hall Nine, the
pride of Gainesville. The Oak Halls frequently played to crowds of 500 fans. Those who
couldn’t find seats in the overflowing grandstands simply pulled their buggies onto
the field and watched from there. For home games, every store in town would close. Devoted
fans would hire special trains to take them to away games. Their enthusiasm was rewarded
as the team won the state championship in 1891, 1894, and 1903.
Even then, however, the game was not universally admired.
According to one critic of ball games played on the Sabbath, "There is nothing more
corrupt this side of hell than baseball." In 1903, a Gainesville alderman threatened
to fire the city’s street cleaners if they didn’t quit playing baseball and get
back to work.
George Will, columnist for the Washington Post, has remarked,
"Baseball is an appropriate pastime for this democratic nation because it both
requires and teaches what Americans often lack: patience."
And, it teaches another lesson, as the Gainesville street
cleaners learned: There’s a right time and wrong time for everything. Even baseball.
March/April 1999 -- Florida Business Insight, PO
Box 784, Tallahassee, Fla. 32302
(850)224-7173, insight@aif.com |
