The Impact of Irish Immigration on “America’s Favourite Pastime”
By Sports Editor Jack Kelly
Having spent a number of weeks travelling down through America’s east coast at the beginning of the summer, it soon became clear to myself and my fellow explorers that our accent and, thus, our nationality carried weight in that neck of the woods. Once our Irishness was sniffed out the fandom we attracted was akin to Beatlemania. Granted, that is a slight exaggeration, but it did break the ice for countless conversations in pubs, museums, and more pubs; it opened doors at tourist hotspots (namely the Rockefeller Center when we had failed to book in advance); it acted as a badge to Americans that said “we are most definitely lost but we are pretty sound,” - an excellent means of getting directions, I must say.
Naturally, a number of our interactions with these helpful Americans brought up the age-old conversation about Irish American heritage. Some had relatives who had emigrated at various stages since the nineteenth century, while many discussed the widely acknowledged Irish influence on the politics, culture, and construction of major cities across America. All of which is of course true and rightfully well documented. Yet very few ever speak about the indelible mark left by Irish immigrants on the early American sporting landscape. However, now seems a rather pertinent time to explore this history following the news that Dan Whelan, from Enniskerry Co. Wicklow, became the first Irish-born player to play in the NFL since Niall O’Donoghue lined out for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1985. Dan Whelan is hopefully the next Irish sporting superstar in America, but it is in another U.S sport where the children of Irish immigrants proved to be a dominant force.
Beginning in the late 19th century, “America’s pastime”, baseball, experienced what is referred to as an “Emerald Era”, where more than 40 per cent of players in the NBL (National Baseball League) had Irish heritage. This point was illustrated by The Sporting News in St Louis when it noted: “The Irish surnames in the baseball profession represent one-third of all the players engaged by the 12 clubs in the league.” Similarly, The New York Herald, analysing a game card between Cleveland and New York, declared: “It all goes to show that as a nationality the Irish have a peculiar talent for ball playing and have since baseball became professional monopolised the best positions on the diamond and carried away the bulk of money paid out for salaries.” To fully comprehend this seemingly dominant period for Irish baseball players, it is imperative to investigate the social, economic, and political conditions that led to this so-called “Emerald-era”.
A primary reason for this was that the popularisation of baseball in America following the U.S Civil War (1861-1865) overlapped with the mass emigration of Irish people across the Atlantic due to the impact of the Great Famine of the 1840’s. Up to 2 million Irish immigrants escaped the horrors of the famine and made major U.S cities such as New York, Boston, and Philadelphia their new homes and it was in these cities where the children of this wave of immigrants played and learned the sport.
Crucially, at around this time, baseball emerged from the flames of the Civil War and had become a unifying national pastime. This i s outlined by Zachary Brown in his study titled “Baseball and the Civil War,”. Brown points out “The game that only New Yorkers fancied the ‘national pastime’ before the Civil War was now truly that. Soldiers on both sides of the Civil War brought baseball home with them, resulting in a boom of the game’s popularity.” To put it bluntly, baseball had become widely popular and accessible just as scores of Irish immigrant children were growing up in American cities thus providing a hotbed for young, Irish baseball players to thrive. Ultimately, it can be asserted that the eventual result of this was that Irish-born and second-generation Irish Americans were the game’s dominant ethnic group towards the end of the nineteenth century.
A further explanation for the popularity of baseball amongst second-generation Irish immigrants was posited by Nathan Mannion in The Irish Times “Typically the children of famine-era emigrants, they viewed sports as a means to gain acceptance and assimilate into US society while earning enough money to provide for themselves and their families. Yet they also enjoyed the excitement of the game, and some relished in their new-found celebrity status.” Based on this, it is fair to assume that the opportunity for social mobility and financial security along with a pure grá for the game were major draws for this generation of Irish American baseball players. Similarly, the chance for fame and recognition was welcomed by the ambitious immigrants. But, more specifically, when considering the influence of the Irish on American sport, it can be put forward that the first major impact was that the first superstar of sport in America was the son of an Irish immigrant: Mike ‘King’ Kelly.
Although one could explore the fascinating lives and careers of various Irish American baseball players from this era such as Ed Delahunty or Andrew Jackson Leonard, Kelly’s life and career demonstrate effectively the reasons for the rise of Irish-Americans in baseball while also displaying a major impact on the game and its culture as he became a star in his own right.
The son of Irish immigrants, Michael Kelly was born in 1857 in Troy, New York and grew up during the American Civil War, in which his father served with the Union Army. Growing up in the post-Civil War period, Kelly showed promise on the ball field while also being adept at amateur dramatics and had a knack for being a crowd pleaser-something, that would prove useful as his career progressed. Kelly signed for the Cincinnati Reds in 1878 before joining the Chicago White Stockings in 1880. This is really where Kelly’s career blossomed as his seven years in the Windy City resulted in five pennants while he became a fan favourite and the best catcher in the league.
But Kelly was also a magnet for attention off the field, through his lavish social life that somewhat mirrors that of legendary Northern Irish footballer George Best nearly a hundred years later: young, good-looking, and talented with issues with alcohol proving to be his Achilles heel. Kelly embedded himself in Chicago’s social scene and moved into the decadent Palmer Hotel, which was known to host the likes of Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Ulysses S. Grant, Eleanora Duse and many more. Unfortunately for Kelly, maintaining this lifestyle was expensive, and his regular demands for a pay rise led to the team's manager, Albert Spalding, deciding to sell him to the Boston Beaneaters in 1886.
Once in Boston, Kelly’s level of fame intensified. The local fans quickly embraced him and his somewhat unorthodox style of play. Instead of running all four bases, Kelly would often skip the third base while the umpire’s attention was diverted and slide to the home plate - much to the chagrin of the opposing team. This delighted the fans who would chant “Slide, Kelly, Slide!” from the sidelines. The chant would become the title of America’s first pop song and was soon sung all over America. This can be considered one of the earliest instances of sport intersecting with pop culture in U.S History; perhaps a possible precursor to Michael Jordan and the cultural impact of his iconic Air Jordan sneakers.
As his career came to an end, Kelly reportedly fell ill in Boston after contracting “Irish pneumonia”, a euphemism for alcohol poisoning. Sadly, Kelly was only 36 when he died, having played for six different clubs, and managed two. He finished as the national league’s batting champion in 1884 and 1888 and as its runs scored leader for three seasons.
Similar to many stories of supreme talent, Kelly’s life ended too early but that is not to say his impact was not significant. Widely considered to be one of the greatest players in the early days of organised baseball, Kelly is a representation of one of the first in a long lineage of Irish American immigrants “making it” in America. Certainly, Kelly is a key figure in the early history of “America’s pastime” but that is not to say he was alone on this front as more than two dozen sons of Irish immigrants, who played between 1880-1920, are immortalised in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
