The Camden A's and the Sunday Curse

**Brownieand45sfan** · 08-03-2010, 04:30 PM

From Twilight Teams:

"Philadelphia Presbyterian pastor Samuel A. Jeanes was quoted in the August sixteenth edition of the New York Times:

Your Philadelphia baseball organization is looking for somebody to buy them out of their difficult
financial problems because of their declining attendance. It wasn’t so many years ago that this
organization played no small part in breaking down the sanctity of the Lord’s day by having this city of Philadelphia legalize Sunday baseball.

In 1926 the Athletics did challenge the Philadelphia blue laws, obtaining a court injunction. The court allowed them to play a game on Sunday, August twenty-second, 1926, but the game was never played. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court eventually upheld the ban on Sunday games. However, when Mack made tentative plans to move the team to nearby Camden, New Jersey, the State Legislative interceded, allowing Sunday games with the approval of municipal officials. "

Looks like the minister is implying a curse. And the 20-years of subsequent baseball shows that they never finished higher than 4th place. But the advocates of Sunday baseball argue that the lack of Sunday baseball was such a financial burden on the A's that they couldnt afford to keep good players. Don't know about that. They had 20 years to correct the situation. Thoughts?

**bluesky5** · 06-28-2011, 07:04 AM

They won two WS in 1929, 1930 and won the pennant in 31'.

**Brownieand45sfan** · 06-28-2011, 08:01 AM

Originally Posted by bluesky5

They won two WS in 1929, 1930 and won the pennant in 31'.

Here's the exact timing of it:

God placed a curse on the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1934, Connie Mack finally won a long campaign against the city's Quaker-led establishment to repeal the blue laws that barred the team from playing lucrative Sunday doubleheaders.

The city's more prosperous American League ballclub had just been in the World Series from 1929 to 1931, winning the first two. But after Sabbath baseball, it never went to the World Series again. Instead, it finished last 10 of the next 15 years.

With the A's on their last legs in 1954, Presbyterian minister Samuel Jeanes railed from his Philly pulpit that "this organization played no small part in breaking down the sanctity of the Lord's day by having this city of Philadelphia legalize Sunday baseball."

So, 20 years in which their attendance did not improve ... at least not enough to save the team.