The Philadelphia Phillies were, in the 1920s, '30s and '40s, the dregs of the National League. They played for much of that period in a dump known as "Baker Bowl", which was not merely cramped and uncomfortable but downright dangerous (seating sections twice collapsed during games, in 1903 and 1927).
The combination of bad baseball and lousy accommodations did little to encourage attendance.
The story goes that during one boring midsummer game the writers in the dilapidated press box at Baker Bowl started throwing water at each other. The water fell through the cracks in the wood floor into the seating area below.
The Phillies owner burst into the press box to castigate the scribes. "Knock it off!" he ordered. "Don't you know there are paying customers sitting down there?"
One of the writers lunged for his typewriter. "My god!" he bellowed. "What a story!"
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