Table Of Content

The Irish and the Making of American Sport, 1835–1920 The Irish and the Making of American Sport, 1835–1920 P R. R ATRICK EDMOND McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Jefferson, North Carolina LIBRARYOFCONGRESSCATALOGUING-IN-PUBLICATIONDATA Redmond, Patrick R., 1965– The Irish and the making of American sport, 1835–1920 / Patrick R. Redmond. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. (cid:1) ISBN 978-0-7864-7553-7 (softcover : acid free paper) ISBN 978-1-4766-0584-5 (ebook) 1. Irish Americans—Sports. 2. Irish Americans—History. 3. Irish Americans—Social conditions. 4. Sports—United States—History. 5. United States—Social life and customs. I. Title. E184.I6R436 2014 305.8916'2073—dc23 2013048085 BRITISHLIBRARYCATALOGUINGDATAAREAVAILABLE © 2014 Patrick R. Redmond. All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. On the cover: Currier & Ives lithograph of John L. Sullivan, 1883 (Library of Congress) Manufactured in the United States of America McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640 www.mcfarlandpub.com To the memory of my father, John Joseph Redmond (1930–2007) Contents Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 1. The Millers—The Irish Sportsman’s Road to America . . . . . . . . . . . 5 2. The Shanty—The Irish-Born Sportsman in America . . . . . . . . . . . 13 3. The Clamor—The Irish Sportsman in the Big City and Small Town . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 4. The Joint—The Irish Sportsman and Alcohol . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 5. Racketeers and Suckers—The Irish Sportsman and Gambling . . . 84 6. The Heeler—The Irish Sportsman and Politics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104 7. The Crank—The Irish and Fan Culture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 8. Buccaneers—The Irish Sportsman and Fighting the Law . . . . . . 157 9. Big Shots—The Irish and Sporting Management . . . . . . . . . . . . 176 10. Sluggers—The Irish Sportsman and Violence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204 11. Swells—The Irish Sportsman and Respectability . . . . . . . . . . . . . 237 12. Cronies—The Irish Sportsman and Irish Identity . . . . . . . . . . . . 260 13. Ballyhoo—Irish Sports and Games in the United States . . . . . . . 288 14. Skedaddle—The Irish Sportsman and International Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 316 15. Squares—The Irish Sportsman and Amateurism . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347 16. So long—Epilogue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 381 Notes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 393 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 437 Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 451 vii Acknowledgments There are a number of people I would like to thank in connection to this book. Ulti- mately, one of my biggest aids was the Internet. The ease with which I can access newspaper archives, articles and online libraries from the comfort of my own desk has been priceless. Without the ability to type in a subject and get back a list of articles at, say, the New York Times, the effort would have been costly and time consuming, and would have entailed missing out a number of gems that make this book what it is. So the first person I should thank is Timothy Berners-Lee, the inventor of the Internet. In this respect I would also like to thank the excellent sources of information out there on the Internet that have enabled me to research and create this book: The New York Times on-line news archive; the ProQuest Archiver stable of newspaper archives (Atlanta Journal- Constitution,Baltimore Sun,Boston Globe,Chicago Times,Cincinnati Enquirer,Detroit Free Press, Hartford Courant, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post); LA84foundation.org, which hosts most of the editions of TheSporting Lifeand Outing; the British Newspaper Archive; Paper of Record (Sporting News); the Library of Congress’s Chronicling America and its online photographic archive, the Genealogy Bank; the Sports Illustrated vault; and Google News. Other indispensable Web sites include Baseball-Reference.com (as well as its offshoots Pro-football-Reference.com, Hockey-Reference.com and Basketball-Reference.com) in find- ing information on baseball players, especially those born in Ireland. With regards to the prize ring, Cyberboxingzone.com and Boxrec.com provide the best source in researching the early prize ring. Undoubtedly the best resource in investigating the Irish-American Athletic Club is wingedfist.org run by Ian McGowan. Other invaluable Web sites include the SABR Baseball Biography Project (www.bioproj.sabr.org); hickok- sports.com; baseballlibrary.com; www.findagrave.com; imdb.com; Google Books; Amazon. com, and of course the much-maligned Wikipedia. Without these Web sites and organi- zations it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to write a book of this complexity. Sometimes the Internet won’t do, and one needs to get out to the library. In this respect I would like to thank the British Newspaper Library of Colindale, London, which will soon be no longer with us. I have been visiting the BNL for two decades now and I am eternally grateful to the excellent staff there. Things won’t be the same when the BNL finally moves to the St. Pancras-based British Library. I would also like to thank the National Library of Ireland and the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts for their assistance. I would also like to pay homage to my alma mater, the Metropolitan University of London, ix