Philadelphia, PA
April 10th, 1905
Boeslager Stadium became the center of a complicated controversy this week as both the Mayors Office and the Brewers General Management, in conjunction with LBL Commissioner Jacob Parker, announced an official date for the re-scheduling of the first-ever inter-racial baseball game between the Legacy Baseball League and the Legacy Negro Baseball League champions from the 1904 season.
Representatives of the the Klu Klux Klan from across Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Virginia have vowed to gather at Boeslager Stadium on the 17th of April and prevent the scheduled Interleague Championship from taking place.
Originally conceived and announced by the Madigan administration before his death, the Inter-League Series allows for a stage for the racially segregated baseball leagues to face one another on the highest stage of competition. However, a recent senatorial order from the Congressional Ways and Means Committee delayed the match, which was originally scheduled for the Spring.
In defiance of the senatorial order, the Philadelphia Brewer management welcomed the Chattanooga Nickajacks to take batting practice in lieu of the scheduled official match. This event was well-attended by the public, both white and colored, with none of the violence or disruption utilized by Senator Samuel Watson as justification to desist in the scheduled match. (The Times would like to note that the order came on the heels of a surprising defeat dealt to his son, Henry Watson, in the LBL Commissioner vote). Claiming threats of violence from local leaders of the Klu Klux Klan, who officially condemned the exhibition match, Senator Watson of the Ways and Means committee likely intended the disruption as a signal to the newly-promoted, progressive LBL Commissioner, Jacob Parker, that his radically progressive agenda would have no safe harbor under the eyes of a Watson-led Ways and Means Committee.
In a statement to the press this week, Commissioner Parker told reporters that “ancient prejudices built from the iron chains of modern robber-barons shall have no voice in the purveyance of America’s game,” and that if the Ways and Means Committee wishes to limit LBL subsidies then they “may do so through the democratic process.” Commissioner Watson announced the Inter-League Championship game would be held at Boeslager Stadium on the 17th of April “with or without the approval of Senator Watson.”
While the office of Philadelphia Mayor John Weaver told the press that threats of mobs and violence are “largely exaggerated,” increased patrols and checkpoints have been established in the vicinity of Boeslager Stadium.
A local representative of the Pennsylvania and Ohio Klu Klux Klan distributed pamphlets this week condemning the game as a capitulation to the “anti-white and anti-worker” agenda of the Republican party. The pamphlet warned that “the dissolution of our ancient, Christian way of life shall not be tolerated.”
When asked if threats of violence from the Klan should be met with compromise, Richmond-born Senator Watson declined to comment.