Nuf Ced! The Story of Michael McGreevy, Baseball’s First Superfan

The Boston Public Library has a treasure trove of photographs that once belonged to McGreevy, a Boston saloon owner who donated these images as a reflection of his generosity for the city and his passion for baseball. The Michael T. “Nuf Ced” McGreevy Collection comprises an invaluable chronicle of the game’s early years, including photos of Cy Young, Ty Cobb, Kid Nichols, and Huntington Avenue Grounds.

The presentation will not only showcase some photos from the collection but also discuss McGreevy’s impact. He named his bar Third Base as a pun—the last stop before home. His nickname was a shortened version of “Enough Said,” a phrase he used to emphatically declare an end to fights or arguments in his saloon. McGreevy’s achievements included leading the Royal Rooters, an informal group that used musical instruments and cheers to show their appreciation for Boston’s baseball players at games taking place at home and on the road. He created the passion that exists today among Boston’s baseball fans.

McGreevy died in 1943 at age 77, prompting Boston Daily Record sports writer Dave Egan to eulogize, “It was he, most of all, who by his enthusiasm popularized baseball and helped make it the national sport, so I think that old Nuf Ced deserves a special niche for himself in the Hall of Fame with [Christy Mathewson] and [John] McGraw and Cy Young and Nap Lajoie and so many of his old friends.”

This presentation will bring attention to a man who ought to have a statue at Fenway Park for his highly significant contribution in shaping the devotion of Bostonians to the national pastime.

David Krell is an author, speaker, and former producer at MSNBC. He is the author of The Fenway Effect : a cultural history of the Boston Red Sox; 1962: Baseball and America in the Time of JFK (Nebraska, 2021) and “Our Bums”: The Brooklyn Dodgers in History, Memory, and Popular Culture.

Host or Publisher Boston Public Library Research Services Department