Sports History On This Day: July 20

July 20, 1858 – The very first charged admission to see a baseball game occurred for a New York All-Star team against a Star-studded lineup of Brooklyn ball players. The National Association of Base Ball Players was organized earlier in this year in recognition of the potential profits that baseball could provide.

The first admission fee of half of a dollar was charged that year for the All-Star game between the Brooklyn and New York clubs. You see until that point in time baseball players joined a dues-paying club in order to rent the fields to play their games on.

Typically these were amateur teams in name, but almost always featured a few players who were covertly paid. That $0.50 admission was not a small fee. Many unskilled workers at that time would only make $2-3 per week in earnings.

To find more great daily sports history make sure to check out the Sports Jersey Dispatch and Pigskin Dispatch.

Fans lining up around Briggs Stadium (later known as Tigers Stadium) for entrance into the 1951 MLB All-Star Game.
The photo is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons of Public Domain Photo of Fans lining up around Briggs Stadium (later known as Tigers Stadium) for entrance into the 1951 MLB All-Star Game. Special thanks to the resources of SABR.org, EH.net, Newspapers.com and OnThisDay.com for the information obtained.

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