Historical Geography of Cities investigates the relationship between humans and their environment in particular socio-cultural contexts. Space is not a neutral entity. It has an ability to form and shape its citizens. The city of Boston is no different. Boston is a city with a major affiliation to sports including baseball, basketball and hockey. The development of sport during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century reflected and transformed modernity.
Figure 1. The Boston Baseball Club. May 24 1888. Print shows the Boston Beaneaters team playing at South End Grounds as spectators watch from the grandstand. George Hastings active 1885-1896
Invented in 1839 in New York by Abner Doubleday, the game of baseball was created. 1869 was an iconic year for the city when the Boston Red Stockings were formed. When the American Baseball Association was established in 1882, baseball became a recreational activity which was beginning to attract the attention of many. “Right from the start in the 19th century,… sport was supposed to promote and reinforce social values.” (Breivik 1998) Not alone did these sporting events provide a social outlet to the population of the city but they provided immense relief from the torments of their daily lives.
Figure 2. Boston Ball Grounds 1912. Middle of a panorama image taken of Fenway Park, home to the iconic Boston Red Sox baseball team. Published by Bain News Service. Photographer unknown.
Pictured above is Boston’s iconic Fenway Park, home to Boston’s Red Sox. On this site in 1903, the first World Series game of baseball was played between the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Red Sox. The Sox were victorious in 1903 and have gone on to win seven world series since then.
Figure 3. Hick Cady of Boston Red Sox wins foot race with Jack O’Brien (Boston Red Sox trainer, pin shorts, partially obscured) and teammate Buck O’Brien (looking to his right) at Fenway Park, Boston (baseball)] Taken on September 25th 1912. Photographer unknown. Published by Bain News Service.
During a time of racial segregation in America, baseball was a social outlet which ostracised African Americans. Many teams refused to employ African-American players. According to Essington, the Red Sox’s “team’s leadership fostered a culture of institutional racism.” The stigma of racism lingered well into the mid twentieth century where not one member of the African-American community was employed in the Red Sox organisation, which was inclusive of janitors or even ticket collectors.
Figure 4. Portraits of baseball players for the Boston Beaneaters baseball team in 1897 and 1899 . Created by Elmer Chickering. Portrait photographs of Boston Beaneaters baseball players on cabinet card mounts submitted for copyright deposit. Cabinet cards depict players in head-and-shoulders portraits and with companion full-length studio portraits, wearing team uniform and hat. Portrait above is of baseball player Bob Allen.
Figure 5. Group photograph taken of the Boston Red Sox Baseball team on October 4th 1915. Photographer unknown. Published under the Bain News Service.
The above picture photographed in 1915 of the Boston Red Sox baseball team portrays an era of modernity. The modern baseball game was an exibitionary event which provided an outlet for thousands of people in the city. The establishment of baseball parks created a new kind of public space which facilitated spatial relationship previously unseen.
References.
Betts, Rickards John., 1953. The Technological Revolution and Rise of Sport 1850-1900. The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, 40(2).
Breivik, G., 1998. Sport in High Modernity: Sport as a Carrier of Social Values. Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 25(1).
Essington, A., September 2004. Shut Out: A Story of Race and Baseball in Boston by Howard Bryant. The New England Quarterly, Volume 77, pp. 503-505.
Figure 1. The Boston Base Ball Club. May 24th 1888. George Hastings. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Figure 2. Boston Ball Grounds. 1912.George Grantham Bain Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/p.print
Figure 3 Hick Cady of Boston Red Sox wins foot race with Jack O’Brien and teammate Buck O’Brien at Fenway Park.. September 25th 1912. George Grantham Bain Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington http://hdl.oc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Figure 4. Potraits of baseball players for the Boston Beaneaters Team.1897.Elmer Chickering. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Figure 5. Boston Red Sox team photo. October 4th 1915.Bain Collection. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pp.print
Historical Geography of the Formation of Cities 