We saw this on a webpage that listed the different things that are celebrated today. It had Ladies' Initiated in Baseball Day but the link didn't explain what it is.
I thought this would be interesting because I play softball. I'm really sad that my softball got cancelled this summer.
Anyway, we looked around an finally found a page that explained it. It says, "Ladies' Initiated in Baseball Day marks the day when ladies were given free tickets to watch a baseball game for the first time."
Using that info, we found this on the Baseball Almanac website: "On June 16, 1883, the New York Gothams held the first Major League "Ladies Day" at their ballpark. Women, with or without a male companion, were admitted for free and the Gothams did not disappoint defeating the Spiders 5-2."
The Major League Baseball site had an article about Ladies Day. This one talked about Ladies Day in St. Louis. The article said that the baseball league stopped Ladies Day in 1909 because it became too popular. Since ladies now wanted to come, the league thought they would now be willing to pay for a ticket. But in 1912, St. Louis Cardinals owner Helene Britton, who was the first female owner of a professional baseball team decided to bring Ladies Day back.
The article had a video that showed these nice hats that they gave out to the ladies at one game.
The National Baseball Hall of Fame website also had an article. It talked about how popular Ladies Day was in Chicago. It said, "In one instance, a Ladies Day promotion at Wrigley Field saw a crowd of 33,000, as opposed to 12,000 the day before."
The article said that Ladies Day continued to be popular but stopped in the 1980s because it was considered "reverse discrimination." That means they thought it was unfair to men.
Fascinating history (and herstory)! I love history so much because it's really just a bunch of stuff that makes you feel strong feelings... curiosity, outrage, concern, joy, euphoria, fear, etc.