Sports History On This Day: July 12

July 12, 1931 – Crowd control or crowd in control? It was an odd occurrence indeed caused by the fan placement. When the hated Chicago Cubs came to St Louis to play the Cardinals 45,715 fans paid and entered into the 35,000 seating capacity stadium of Sportsman Park.

The throng of onlookers started arriving at 5 AM. It is reported for the gates did not open until 9 AM. The stadium venue was over capacity, and standing-room-only crowds of onlookers ended up finding anywhere they could to get a good view of the field including the field of play.

The St Louis Dispatch on July 13 reported that the ropes designed to restrain such overflow crowds were stretched some 30 feet from the bleacher and pavilion walls from foul line to foul line. The crowd was entering the gates before there were police, ushers, and any others in attendance to help control where they took up vantage points.

This severe invasion of playing field space helped cause many ground-rule doubles, 11 in 1st game & 21 in 2nd game for a grand total of 32 in all on the double header day.