Throughout previous posts on this website, we’ve discussed several of the all farces in the history of sports promotions. We’ve visited Disco Demolition Night, and Ten Cent Beer Night, emerging from our experiences slightly buzzed and smelling of burning vinyl. But on both of these occasions, it has been rowdy fellows of the rougher gender who seem to have started the fricassee.

Ladies, this one’s for you.

Around the turn of the 20th Century, organized baseball was still in its infancy. Games were played on a somewhat haphazard basis, and with rigid organization still a ways in the future. There were stars, such as Cap Anson, King Kelly, and Charlse Radbourn. The stadiums themselves were nothing close to what we see in this day and age, most of them cobbled together in a few weeks with wood and other impermanent materials. The players themselves were rough, coarse, and generally not the kind of person you’d want your daughter dating.

But, in the midst of an attendance drought, the Washinton Senators announced an innovation promotion – Ladies Day. In an attempt to educate the fairer sex in the ways of America’s pastime, all women who attended the game would receive free admittance. Adding to the allure was the hometown pitcher, a young man named Winnie Mercer. The attractive young man was the “hearthrob” of the city, and many of the women who packed National Park had their attention focused squarely on the righthander.

Winnie, for his part, reveled in the attention. His two loves in life, it is said, were women and a festering disdain for umpires. And so, to the delight of his adoring public, the 23-year-old did all that he could to bait Bill Carpenter, the man calling the balls and strikes. Though pitching well, Winnie’s mouth began to run away with him. By the fifth inning, the umpire had had enough.

The pitcher was tossed, and the women in the stands were livid. They howled their discontent all the way through the rest of the game, until the final out was recorded. Once that was in the books, they vaulted from the stands and onto the field, surrounding Carpenter and tackling him to the ground. The ump was beaten, bruised, before some of the players dragged his war-torn form away from the vengeful harpies. He was smuggled out of the stadium in disguise, which angered the ladies even more.

Seething, they turned their fury on the venue itself. Seats and railings were torn from their places, windows shattered, and other general havoc wreaked across the Senators’ home park. Finally, the police were called in to disperse the mob.

Winnie Mercer would die only five years later, at the age of 28. It’s an unfortunate story, which I’d rather not share here. We’d rather remember him as the Adonis, the handsome face that caused an army of women to storm the baseball field.

- Taylor Maxwell

Popularity: 1% [?]

Tags | Adonis, Baseball, Disco Demolition Night, ladies night, NLB, Ten Cent Beer Night, Washington Senators, Winnie Mercer