John Bailey Day (September 23, 1847 – January 25, 1925) was an American tobacco merchant who became an owner and

manager Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business. Management includes the activities ...

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Modern professional ...

of the late 19th century. He was the first owner of the franchise now known as the

San Francisco Giants The San Francisco Giants are an American professional baseball team based in San Francisco, California. The Giants compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1883 as the New Y ...

Biography

Day was born in

Colchester, Connecticut Colchester is a town in New London County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 15,555 at the 2020 census. In 2010 Colchester became the first town in Connecticut, and the 36th in the country, to be certified with the National Wildli ...

, in 1847. He became wealthy first in the cigar manufacturing business, and then by opening a tobacco processing plant in

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

's Lower East Side. Day was founding owner of the independent

New York Metropolitans The Metropolitan Club (New York Metropolitans or the Mets) was a 19th-century professional baseball team that played in New York City from 1880 to 1887. (The ''New York Metropolitan Baseball Club'' was the name chosen in 1961 for the New York ...

in 1880 and leased the Polo Grounds for them to play in, which was the first baseball large-scale venue in Manhattan. In 1883, his New York Gothams/Giants of the

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team ...

began play at the same site. By 1885, Day concentrated his attentions on the Giants team. Encountering financial difficulties, mainly as a result of the 1890 Players' League revolt, in January 1893 he sold the Giants franchise to Cornelius Van Cott. Day was the first of two

s for the 1899 New York Giants, leading the team to a 29–35 record in 66 games played (two contests were ties); he was succeeded by

Fred Hoey Fred James Hoey (May 12, 1884 – November 17, 1949) was an American radio sports announcer of Major League Baseball. Hoey called games for the Boston Braves during 1925–1938 and Boston Red Sox during 1927–1938. Biography Hoey was born in ...

. In 1900, Day served as the National League's chief of

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

s. Later in life, Day suffered the first of several strokes in 1910. He died at age 77 in 1925, having lost his fortune, in Cliffside, New Jersey. Married twice but without children, Day was interred at

Portland, Connecticut Portland is a town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, United States. The population was 9,384 at the 2020 census. The town center is listed as a census-designated place (CDP). It is situated across the Connecticut River from Middletown. Brown ...

References

External links

Manager page at Baseball Reference
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Day, John B 1847 births 1925 deaths People from Colchester, Connecticut American tobacco industry executives New York Giants (NL) owners New York Giants (NL) managers Major League Baseball executives

Biography

References

Further reading

External links