Shieber: Dear Santa Claus ... baseball and Christmas in 1887

From SABR member Tom Shieber at Baseball Researcher on December 7, 2017:

On December 13, 1887, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch lamented that ...

an Eastern magazine is making some very ugly flings at that dear old saint of Christmastide, Santa Claus. ... The magazine in question says it is not good to bring children up in a belief in Santa Claus [and] therefore dear old Santa Claus must be banished. ... The Post-Dispatch thinks not. The Post-Dispatch has written to Santa Claus about the matter and he has written back.

The paper urged all “the little folk” to write to Santa Claus care of the Post-Dispatch, and for many days afterwards they published those letters.

<snip>

There’s little doubt that the Hogg brothers, seven-year-old Andy and six-year-old Willie, were fans of the American Association St. Louis Browns. Just months earlier, the club had captured its third straight American Association pennant and the boys lived just three miles south of Sportsman’s Park.

But Willie Hogg was much more than just a fan. He was quite an accomplished baseball player.

Read the full article here: http://baseballresearcher.blogspot.com/2017/12/dear-santa-claus.html