Minor league baseball teams have created numerous promotions to attract a larger audience to their ballparks recently. However, one promotion that took place well over a century ago has been lost in time. It was a radical idea that would be an advertising stunt and attract visitors to the town. That idea was free baseball for the Decatur Commodores in 1915.
It was an ideal conceived by team management of the Three-Eye League that gained enough attention that other teams thought about themselves, and a few others contemplated that it might just be what the minor leagues were looking for. Newspapers from Salt Lake City to Boston claimed that the “millennium had arrived in Decatur, Illinois.”
The Commodores, or Commies, as they were called by the local populace had been in town since 1900 but had been operating at a loss since a second version of the club arrived in town in 1910. Attendance peaked at 52,104 in 1907 before dropping to 38,597 in 1909.
The ball club’s treasurer Mont Peniwell proposed a plan that would have local businesses, fans, and residents donate enough money before the season to allow for all fans to watch games for free at the ballpark for the 1915 season. A goal of $12,000 was established and Peniwell began looking for subscribers.
Subscriptions would be sent to the local newspaper by fans
It would be a boost to the community and the thought process was that larger attendance numbers would spill to the local merchants of Decatur. Archie Davis, a local druggist, was the first fan who sent $10 in with his coupon from the newspaper and said the following.
“A good crowd will be at every game, and my only trouble will be in securing a box seat so that I can get as close to the players as possible.”
The idea was not original and suggested by the Wichita Wolves of the Western League in February. Team president A. M. Ebright set a goal of selling $75,000 worth of tickets at 50 cents apiece to local businesses and residents to open the gates to Island Park for free. He envisioned free advertising from across the nation, increased trade with local merchants, and fans of all income levels being able to attend a game. However, it does not appear that the ball club met the goal and abandoned the free baseball concept.
A receipt from a fan who donate $2 towards a subscription for free baseball for Decatur
A subscription ballot was printed in the Decatur Daily Herald where fans or businesses would fill in how much they would like to donate. Subscriptions came in from the Decatur Hotel, Decatur Railway & Light Company, and the Decatur National Bank. Sydney Bacharach, owner of Cheap Charley Clothing Store, was more than willing to back the campaign.
“Free baseball looks like a great thing for businessmen. We want to get the people here, and then when they see what Decatur is offering them, they will do their business here.”
The news caught the attention of many outside of Decatur. New York Giants scout, Dick Kinsella said that the city got more advertisement out of free baseball than any other town this size ever had. Folks in Montana referred to Decatur as where they have free baseball.
Three-Eye president Al Tearny stated that he wouldn’t be surprised that several years, the majority of minor leagues operated with free baseball within several years. League members in Peoria, Bloomington, Quincy, and Dubuque contemplated adopting the practice in 1916.
A comic from Toledo, Ohio, with a satirical look at the free baseball promo
However, Peniwell soon discovered that the club couldn't meet the $12,000 objective. It was downsized to $8,000 but announced that the club had met its goal and played the season with free baseball. The free seats were only for the bleacher sections, and fans wanting to sit in the grandstand would have to pay 15 cents. Buttons were created for fans to wear to the game to show their pledge.
On April 30, the Commodores opened at home at the local racetrack that was fitted with a new grandstand roof, wire fencing in front of the grandstand, and a steel outfield wall. The bleachers were packed with fans, and many sat behind the wired fencing in front of the grandstand. Others watched the game from their automobiles in right field. However, attendance was 770, with only 178 people paying for seats in the grandstand.
The second game drew a larger crowd of over 2,000 people. There were 300 people in the grandstand, 15 rows of people stood beyond the bleachers and down right field, and the bleachers were packed. The third game on Sunday was expected to attract 4,000, but wet weather doomed the game, and only 500 were in attendance.
The headline says it all about the Commies promotion
One caveat about the promotion was the number of school children who attended games. It became so concerning that the local truant officer showed up to see who was playing hooky at school. The team then established that all school children would not be allowed to play games until after 3:30 pm after class let out.
Crowds of around 1,000 would be at hand for select games, but it was soon evident that Commies were nowhere near the $8,000 mark for their goal. By May 16, the club only collected $3,469. Donation boxes were set up at the entrance of the stadium, and the club began charging 15 cents a person who watched the game from their automobiles.
Penniwell announced that the club received $6,200 in subscriptions at the beginning of the season, with two sources pitching in an additional $1,500 to push the total to close to $8,000, but when it came time to collection, most did not pay up. The club collected only $3,469 of actual money (43 percent short of the goal).
Imagine putting yourself down for 4-boxes of Girl Scout Cookies from your next-door neighbor's kid and then a month later refusing to pay when your order of Peanut Butter Patties, Thanks-A-Lot, and Thin Mints arrived. You might wake up with a slashed tire, but that's what took place with the subscriptions in Decatur. Many said they would pay anywhere from $2 to $150, but never did.
Since most fans sat in the bleachers, sales from seating in the grandstand were down. It also led to fewer fans patronizing the area during games. I am not sure if this meant that fans did not purchase food or beverages at the game, since that did not appear to be mentioned in any of the newspaper articles of the time, but the team underestimated its goal of reaching $8,000 goal.
The team also had to make additional payments towards police, laundry services, coal for the clubhouse, new uniforms, and player salaries. The team was in the red for $3,231 when it was all said and done. Then adding insult to injury, Mother Nature had the final word on the Commodores campaign on July 15 when a tornado ripped apart the grandstand’s roof before a ballgame. Insurance officials then razed and condemned the grandstand.
Photos of the racetrack grandstand after the tornado struck it before a game.
The Commies would continue to play with fans now being charged 15 cents to sit in the bleachers, but the team was close to folding or relocating to Galesburg, Illinois, to close out the season. On August 11, the team played its final game and a few days later a benefit game was set up with a semi-pro team that attracted only 350 fans.
The failure of the free baseball campaign wiped out baseball in Decatur until a new version was created for the 1922 Three-Eye season. The team would play at Staley Field, which had recently been vacated by the Decatur Staleys football team that relocated to Chicago and is now known as the Bears. The Commies attracted a record 64,024 fans on the year that signaled a triumph return of baseball to town. In 1927, Fans Field would be built and serve as home to the Commies for the next 50 years.
As quickly as it was announced, the free baseball campaign fizzled. The concept was noble and made sense on paper if all of the money was accounted for. It did put Decatur on the map across the nation providing pride for citizens and businesses. However, when it came time to collect dues that is when the trouble started. What could have been a new era of baseball pricing in the minor leagues, quickly became lost in time.
At that year’s winter meetings in Chicago, the Three-Eye League made it clear that there would be no such talk of free baseball with any of its club members, setting a price of 25 cents a ticket for games. Rock Island would take Decatur’s place in the loop’s schedule for 1916.
There was a lot of promise at the start of the season for the Commies and Decatur.
Today, one would have to look 110 miles north to Peru, Illinois. The Illinois Valley Pistol Shrimp of the summer collegiate Prospect League does charge admission to Schweickert Stadium. The team has built the stadium from the ground up and does not have plans to charge a dime for games anytime soon. Other small-town summer collegiate teams in the Cape Cod League, Florida Collegiate Summer League, and the New York Summer Collegiate League also admit fans in for free.
Fortunately, we would never see a promotion like this ever again for a minor league team. The loss of revenue from a $10-$12 bleacher seat would be ludicrous, regardless of the publicity it would receive nationally. An interesting tidbit is that the Commies franchise continues today as the Kane County Cougars in the Midwest League. They offer $5 lawn seats for games that have to be purchased within a week of the game. It is not free, but pretty darn close.
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Follow all of Marc’s stadium journeys on Twitter @ballparkhunter and his YouTube channel. Email at Marc.Viquez@stadiumjourney.com
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