In the late 19th and early 20th centuries , baseball games between Harvard and Yale attracted much attention . At the end of each season , the teams played two games , one each in Cambridge and New Haven ; if the teams split these games , a third was scheduled to decide that year 's champion . In 1913 , for example , when Yale won 2 – 0 in New Haven and Harvard won 4 – 3 in Cambridge , a third game was scheduled at Ebbets Field , the home field of Major League Baseball 's Brooklyn Dodgers ; Harvard won , 6 – 5 . The games regularly drew crowds of over 10,000 . The 1913 championship game at Ebbets saw an attendance mark of 15,000 ; a June 23 , 1908 , game ( which Harvard lost 3 – 0 ) was attended by 14,000 spectators , including Secretary of War William Howard Taft , a Yale alumnus who had unofficially been named the Republican nominee for president only days earlier
Republican nominee
1908 Republican National Convention
Harvard Crimson baseball