Chicago Tribune from Chicago, Illinois • Page 1-6

6 Chicago Tribune Section 1 Monday, July 22, 2013 FOCUS BASEBALL CHICAGO'S CUBS, NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAIKPIONS. 1929 i I Hi tt I Woman who created season tickets and other innovations from 1919-58 will be honored for Wrigley's 100th Female Cubs exec changed the ballgame MARGARET MANNING PHOTO This photo of the 1929 Chicago Cubs features Margaret "Midge" Donahue posing in the center of the National League champions. The team pioneered season tickets that year. MARGARET MANNING PHOTO Chicago Cubs President William Veeck, right, hired Margaret "Midge" Donahue as a stenographer in 1919, and named her corporate secretary in 1926, around the time this photo was taken. By the 1950s, she was a vice president in the organization and had helped shape the fan experience.

By John Owens Tribune reporter When people visit her home in far northwest suburban Huntley, Margaret Manning sometimes will break out the family's most prized possession: the "golden pass." The pass, signed by the long-ago heads of Major League Baseball, offers free lifetime access to any game in any stadium in the National or American leagues. It was issued more than 50 years ago to her aunt, Margaret "Midge" Donahue, for her "long and meritorious service" with the Chicago Cubs. "We were always in awe of it growing up," said Andrea Manning, Margaret Manning's daughter. But Margaret Donahue is more than just a point of pride for her relatives, who knew her as "Aunt Midge." She is recognized by historians as a groundbreaking baseball executive, and her fame is likely to grow next year when the Cubs include her story in festivities marking the 100th anniversary of Wrigley Field. Donahue, who worked for the team from 1919 to 1958, was the first female front-office executive in Major League Baseball who was not also an owner.

She was an innovator who changed professional baseball by introducing the concept of season tickets in 1929. And she came up with other novel ideas that are now commonplace, from selling tickets at off-site locations to offering a reduced ticket price for children under 12. Contemporaries were impressed by how Donahue changed the way the game was presented to the public. "(Donahue is) as astute a baseball operator as ever came down the pike," wrote legendary baseball owner and executive Bill Veeck in 1954. "She has forgotten more baseball in her 40 years with the Cubs than most of the so-called magnates will ever know." Now, almost 35 years after her death, her accomplishments are being rediscovered.

Among her admirers: Cubs co-owner Laura Ricketts. "We're working with (Donahue's family) to obtain some of the memorabilia that we can put on display," Ricketts said. "Her story is an inspiration. And the fact that she accomplished what she did almost 100 years ago makes it truly remarkable and impressive." In addition to the Cubs' recognition, the Baseball Reliquary is considering Donahue for honors. The not-for-profit organization, based in California, recognizes players and executives from years past as sort of an alternative to the National Baseball Hall of Fame.

Donahue will be up for consideration as the Reliquary narrows its ballot to 50 candidates for its "Shrine of the Eternals" honors next year. This newfound recognition is especially rewarding for Donahue's three nieces, who were born and still live in Huntley, where their Aunt Midge was born in 1892, when it was still a farming community. The three nieces Margaret Manning, Mary Beth Manning and Barbara Ernesti knew about Donahue's illustrious career with the Cubs. But they became enlightened about her innovations only after Mary Beth's daughter, Regina, checked out a copy of Paul Dickson's 2012 biography, "Bill Veeck: Baseball's Greatest Maverick," from the Barrington library. That biography mentioned Donahue and her pioneering work with the Cubs and also her impact on Veeck himself.

Dickson believes her aunt was a major influence on the future innovative owner of the White Sox, St. Louis Browns and Cleveland Indians. "They worked side by side in the Cubs front office (in the 1930s)," Dickson said. "She fed him this idea that baseball wasn't just about the men in the ballpark, that a ballpark should also have a family atmosphere." Veeck's father, William, hired Donahue not long after he became JOHN OWENSTRIBUNE PHOTO JOHN OWENSTRIBUNE PHOTO Barbara Ernesti, left, and Margaret Manning examine some of the memorabilia related to their aunt's long career with the Chicago Cubs. tives said her job was too demanding to allow for personal relationships.

She lived with two sisters and a brother in the Rogers Park neighborhood during much of her career with the Cubs. "She was land and gentle and easy to get along with she wasn't a demanding person at all," said Barbara Ernesti. "But she was a great organizer. She was the one to organize the menu for the week at home. She was the one in charge." By the time she announced her retirement in 1958, the Cubs had long been fielding losing teams and had been averaging as few as 500,000 fans annually to Wrigley Field.

The crosstown White Sox, meanwhile, were always competitive and routinely beating the Cubs in attendance. Some historians blame poor management from owner Wrigley and general managers Jim Gallagher and Wid Matthews as the main reason for the decline of the team. "They should have made (Donahue) the club president in the 1930s," said Chicago Baseball Museum executive director David Fletcher. "They probably would have avoided their downfall." When she retired, Donahue talked about poor strategy in player development. "I believe we fell behind the parade because we didn't go into the farm business soon enough," she told Munzel.

"Late in the '30s, when others were developing their players, we were still trying to buy them. And we also refused to pay bonuses until recently." After she retired, Donahue moved to Evanston and remained a doting aunt to her nieces. "She loved our ldds and I can remember her going outside and playing ball with them," Barbara Ernesti said. "She was a great, warmhearted person who loved life until the end of her life." She died in an Evanston nursing home in 1978. The nieces, along with other family members, contacted the Cubs in April to tell them about the memorabilia they have concerning Donahue.

They will meet soon with Cubs counsel Lydia Wahlke to go over the items and to talk about potential tribute ideas for next year. "Someone like Midge is an inspiration," Ricketts said. "It's a thrill to learn more about her history." jowenstribune.com Margaret Manning displays the "golden pass," a favorite family heirloom from "Aunt Midge." she did." "Teams like the Dodgers are worth $2 billion because people like Midge and the Veecks determined that the ballpark is for families," Dickson said. "Before them, baseball parks were filled with men in white shirts. That's not the case now." Donahue also was in on the beginnings of professional football in Chicago.

She worked in the Bears ticket office when George Halas moved his team from Decatur to Wrigley Field in 1921, and continued working with Halas during Sunday afternoon games into the 1930s. "I'd check the gate receipts," Donahue recalled in 1958 to the Chicago Daily News' Howard Roberts, adding that Halas would then pay the players in cash in the locker room. "I would then grab a cab and take the rest of the receipts in a valise downtown and put them in the Palmer House safe overnight," Donahue said. By the 1950s, Donahue was a vice president in the Cubs organization, where she also contributed on the player personnel side, becoming an authority on waivers. Owner P.K.

Wrigley credited Donahue in a 1954 Tribune interview with saving the Cubs embarrassment by mforming them that diminutive center fielder Franlde Baumholtz could not be traded to the White Sox as planned, because he didn't clear waivers in the National League. "Miss Donahue (is there) to check on all of us," Wrigley said. Her nieces recall using her box seats at Wrigley Field when Donahue was stuck in her office working on game days. "We had big rules not to cause any commotion," said Mary Manning. "She didn't want to hear about any mischief going on in her box." Donahue never married rela- Cubs games at Wrigley Field before the 1929 season.

Contemporary accounts and current historians say Donahue was definitely the first person in Major League Baseball and most probably any professional sport to come up with the idea of season tickets, which since have become a key revenue stream for sports organizations worldwide. "She said that they would often save seats for people on game day, and sometimes they didn't come," said her niece Margaret Manning. "And they were saving some of their best seats, and people weren't coming. So she thought they would probably be forced to come if they bought the tickets in advance." The idea was an immediate hit, with thousands of tickets being sold before the season began. "It's the greatest pre-season rush in Cubs history," said Veeck, whose team proceeded to lead the league in attendance, drawing more than 1.4 million fans.

Donahue followed up that idea with the novel concept of selling tickets at the city's Western Union oudets, then commonplace in Chicago and in urban areas nationwide. "She thought it would be convenient to give people the option of buying tickets at other locations than the park," Margaret Manning said. Dickson also said Donahue's idea in the early 1930s to sell discounted tickets to children under 12 was revolutionary. "No one thought of kids as being future customers," Dickson said. "But president of the Cubs in 1919.

She was given a job as Veeck's stenographer after he responded to a "job wanted" ad that Donahue had placed in the Sunday Tribune. "I wanted a job somewhere in the Loop, but I forgot to mention it in the ad," Donahue told the Sun-Times' Edgar Munzel in 1958. "I declined the job (but William Veeck) offered me far more than what I was making (at a laundry supply company) and persuaded me to take it. At the end of the season, I tried to quit again but he countered by making my hours 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and I stayed." Donahue was soon impressing the elder Veeck with her intelligence, and he began giving her more responsibilities, especially in the ticket office.

Veeck dropped a bombshell at the 1926 winter league meetings when he announced that Donahue was taking over as corporate secretary, a position filled by a vote of the club's board of directors. "I haven't signed any players recently," Veeck said then. "(But) we feel that in Miss Donahue we have added a real asset to our club organization." Her promotion made national news. The Sporting News ran a story about her, and her new job was featured on the front page of the Tribune's Dec. 14, 1926, sports section, where a picture of her sitting at a desk was accompanied by the headline "She's a Baseball Boss." Donahue backed up this confidence in her by coming up with several revolutionary ideas, beginning with selling season tickets to.