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ALLEGHANY EXPANDS VENUE, JOINS LARGEST CLUBS
CLUB ADDS 10,000 SEATS TO PITTSBURGH’S RECREATION PARK AHEAD OF 1867 SEASON

PITTSBURGH (Mar. 11, 1867) – After a pair of disastrous seasons in 1863 & ’64 in which the team finished 27-43 & 24-46 and sunk to last place for the first time in club history, Alleghany president Richard Shaughnessy declared “Never again!” He led an overhaul of the roster for the 1865 season that saw the team finish with the biggest one-season turnaround in N.B.B.O. history: a 23-win improve-ment, a 47-23 record, and a place in the Tucker-Wheaton Cup. Alleghany repeated their 47-23 record last year, won the In-land Championship by five games, and reasserted their dominance over the Inland region.

To hopefully secure Alleghany’s place as Inland’s supreme club, Shaughnessy has set aside the last two years of the club’s profits, taken a loan from a local bank, and used the funds to add room for an extra 10,000 spectators to Pittsburgh Recre-ation Park, bringing its capacity from 7,639 to 17,639. This does not only make Alleghany’s venue the largest in the North-eastern League by more than 5,000 seats – American’s Glenwood Field holds 12,422 – but it will be the single largest venue in the sport of base ball for the 1867 season, larger than even the combination of Kings County’s Washington Park (13,353) and the mighty Elysian Fields (15,292), home to Knickerbocker.

(In real life, Pittsburgh’s Recreation Park, known for most of its existence as Union Park, was a multi-use ice skating park, municipal park, and baseball park before it was converted into a baseball stadium with a capacity of 17,000 in 1867 via new wooden grandstands. It would later host football, cycling, circuses, and track meets, among other events.)

The sparkling new wooden grandstand in Recreation Park is a definite statement of intent by Alleghany to become more than just cup fodder. They want to be where clubs like Knickerbocker, Shamrock, and St. John’s have been: at the very top of the sport.

Is there enough appetite for base ball in Pittsburgh to warrant such a large venue for important games? President Shaugh-nessy seems to think so and, even if there currently is not, the upward trajectory of his stewardship of the club may soon warrant it.