"The game has kept faith with the public, maintaining its old admission price for nearly thirty years while other forms of entertainment have doubled and tripled in price. And it will probably never change"
About this Quote
A businessman praising a bargain is never just being sentimental; he is making a claim about legitimacy. Connie Mack frames baseball as the rare institution that "kept faith with the public", a phrase that borrows the moral weight of religion and contracts. It recasts admission price as a civic promise: pay this, and you belong. In the early 20th century, when vaudeville, theater, and later the movies were professionalizing and pricing up, Mack positions the ballpark as the holdout against modern entertainment's inflationary creep. The intent is promotional, but it works because it flatters the fan as partner rather than customer.
The subtext is also strategic self-defense. By tying affordability to virtue, Mack implies that raising prices would be a kind of betrayal, not a business decision. That helps explain the confidence in "probably never change" - a line that reads less like prediction than pressure. Say it out loud enough, and you make it costly to contradict later. It's branding as moral language: baseball isn't merely cheaper; it's fairer.
Context matters: Mack wasn't just an observer but an operator, a long-tenured owner-manager navigating labor unrest, the Great Depression, and a sport repeatedly rattled by questions of integrity. "Kept faith" quietly gestures at those crises too. The price becomes a proxy for trust: baseball as the people's stable ritual, even when the country - and the industry behind the romance - is anything but stable.
The subtext is also strategic self-defense. By tying affordability to virtue, Mack implies that raising prices would be a kind of betrayal, not a business decision. That helps explain the confidence in "probably never change" - a line that reads less like prediction than pressure. Say it out loud enough, and you make it costly to contradict later. It's branding as moral language: baseball isn't merely cheaper; it's fairer.
Context matters: Mack wasn't just an observer but an operator, a long-tenured owner-manager navigating labor unrest, the Great Depression, and a sport repeatedly rattled by questions of integrity. "Kept faith" quietly gestures at those crises too. The price becomes a proxy for trust: baseball as the people's stable ritual, even when the country - and the industry behind the romance - is anything but stable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Sports |
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