Crook v. Commonwealth

Burks and Chichester, JJ.,

dissenting:

We cannot concur in the conclusion reached by the majority of the court in this case.

We do not doubt but that section 4570 of the Code makes the playing of professional baseball on Sunday in Virginia, a misdemeanor, but we do not think the defendants in this case were playing professional baseball and were thus laboring at their calling, as contemplated by the statute. Baseball becomes a trade or calling only when it is played for a consideration. The parties found guilty in this proceeding were professional baseball players and baseball was their calling…