Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Baseball's Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957: SABR Digital Library, #43
    Baseball's Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957: SABR Digital Library, #43
    Baseball's Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957: SABR Digital Library, #43
    Ebook1,016 pages14 hours

    Baseball's Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957: SABR Digital Library, #43

    By Society for American Baseball Research

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    "I treasured going to the Winter Meetings. You don't see people for a whole year and then here you are, face to face, and trying to make a deal."  — Roland Hemond (Winter Meetings attendee since 1952)

    This new SABR book about the history of the Winter Meetings contains stories and hidden treasures that may help resolve moments of wonder that have periodically crossed your mind as a baseball fan or as a scholar. 

    So much of baseball history happened at the Winter Meetings. This book provides you with a historical answer to the business of baseball over many of the early years of the minor leagues, the National League, and the American League, and even features a chapter on the Eastern Colored League Winter Meetings. Important philosophies regarding chosen identity, reactions to societal trends, agreements on how to operate, approval of new members, and player transactions emerged from the discussions and decisions made at the winter meetings. 

    This book represents the first of two volumes to cover the history of Baseball's Winter Meetings. Volume One covers the years 1901 through 1957, and Volume Two (to be published in 2017) covers the years 1958 through 2016. The first volume covers the years of twentieth century baseball from the first year there were two "major leagues" — the American League having begun as a major league in 1901 — and running through the final year before expansion to the West Coast. The second volume brings coverage of the Winter Meetings through the 2016 gathering in Washington, D.C.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSociety for American Baseball Research
    Release dateDec 31, 2016
    ISBN9781943816361
    Baseball's Business: The Winter Meetings: 1901-1957: SABR Digital Library, #43

    Related to Baseball's Business

    Titles in the series (56)

    View More
    View More

    Related ebooks

    Baseball For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      The Life Of A Rascal

      Dec 18, 2019

      The Life Of A Rascal
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Cobra

      Jan 21, 2022

      The Cobra
      4 min read

    • Article

      Updated Talent Rankings

      Sep 6, 2022

      Updated Talent Rankings
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Q&A with Mike Schmidt:

      Jan 17, 2020

      Fan: Mike, even though you’re one of the Top 10 players in baseball history, I think you were underappreciated in Philadelphia, probably because you made it look so easy. I know it wasn’t easy and that you worked hard. Is that how you see it? Schmidt

      4 min read

    • Article

      Season Of Change

      Apr 6, 2022

      Season Of Change
      4 min read

    • Article

      1 Royce Lewis Ss

      Dec 7, 2022

      Hit: 50 Power: 60 Run: 65 Field: 55 Arm: 55 BA Grade: 60 Risk: High Born: June 5, 1999. B-T: R-R. HT: 6-2. WT: 200. Drafted: HS—San Juan Capistrano, CA, 2017 (1st round). Signed by: John Leavitt. TRACK RECORD: The No. 1 pick in the 2017 draft, Lewis

      14 min read

    • Article

      Minor League All-star Team

      Oct 13, 2021

      Minor League All-star Team
      4 min read

    • Article

      Super Scout

      Dec 2, 2021

      Super Scout
      6 min read

    • Article

      Top International Prospects For 2022

      Jan 7, 2022

      For the second year in a row, Major League Baseball postponed the start date of the international signing period by six months. Prior to the coronavirus pandemic, the signing period opened each year on July 2. The 2021-22 signing period opens on Jan.

      17 min read

    • Article

      Take Nothing For Granted

      Feb 2, 2022

      Take Nothing For Granted
      2 min read

    • Article

      Last UPS

      Feb 13, 2024

      The Pacific-12 Conference, the self-proclaimed Conference of Champions, has produced 29 College World Series winners—14 more than the Southeastern Conference. The conference is well-represented in Cooperstown with Hall of Famers Tom Seaver and Randy

      6 min read

    • Article

      Graduation Grades

      Dec 7, 2022

      Graduation Grades
      3 min read

    • Article

      Four Real?

      Apr 6, 2022

      Four Real?
      13 min read

    • Article

      Martin O’neill

      Dec 8, 2022

      Martin O’neill
      16 min read

    • Article

      One Perfect Day

      May 11, 2022

      One Perfect Day
      2 min read

    • Article

      The Making Of A President

      Mar 1, 2024

      The Making Of A President
      13 min read

    • Article

      Best of 2019 BASEBALL BOOKS

      Nov 22, 2019

      Best of 2019 BASEBALL BOOKS
      10 min read

    • Article

      Bullock In Boyhood

      Dec 21, 2021

      Bullock In Boyhood
      1 min read

    • Article

      In Memoriam

      Feb 13, 2023

      In Memoriam
      3 min read

    • Article

      Coming Full Circle

      Feb 2, 2022

      Coming Full Circle
      5 min read

    • Article

      Preseason All-america Team

      Feb 13, 2024

      Moore was a standout pure hitter coming out of high school in the 2022 class and had a freshman All-America season with a .311/.386/.564 slash line, which included15 home runs and 20 doubles. His swing is unorthodox with an extremely open stance, but

      4 min read

    • Article

      Organization Reports

      Nov 3, 2021

      Organization Reports
      17 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Baseball's Business

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Baseball's Business - Society for American Baseball Research

      Introduction

      This book — about meetings — should never have been written. Meetings tend to be boring. Yet the eventual development of this book was inevitable. Whether it was the 14 meetings of the National Association of Base Ball Players — with the final meeting in November of 1870 at the Grand Central Hotel in New York — or the 1871 formation of the National Association of Professional Base-ball Players at Collier’s Rooms on Broadway, or the February 1876 meeting (back at the Grand Central Hotel), baseball has always liked its meetings. Most businesses do, and once an organization grows to a certain level, meetings are an outcome of formal infrastructure. The meetings are where and how important decisions get made.

      Indeed, the first chapter of this book — Jeremy Green’s winter meetings installment — begins with, Professional baseball was mired in conflict in 1901. He goes on to share stories about violations of agreements, external threats, internal disunity, and defense of self-interests. Nearly every year of winter meetings has similar stories and hidden treasures that help resolve moments of wonder that have periodically crossed your mind as a baseball fan, and possibly as a scholar. So much of baseball history happened at the winter meetings. This book provides you with a historical answer to the business of baseball over many of the early years of the minor leagues, the American League, and the youthful National League. Important philosophies regarding chosen identity, reactions to societal trends, agreements on how to operate, approval of new members, and player transactions emerged from the discussions and decisions made at the winter meetings. Not so boring.

      Thus, there is a book — an exciting book — about meetings. When I transitioned to co-chair of the SABR Business of Baseball Committee, my generous predecessor Gary Gillette and equally generous co-chair John Ruoff spent much time answering my many questions, before I agreed to take on the co-chair responsibility. What emerged most from those discussions was that the committee would greatly benefit from a project that rallied its members together. I took Gary’s and John’s experiences with the committee to heart, and reflected on what might be a good fit for this particular committee. On November 20, 2010, the following note — edited for this publication — went out to SABR Business of Baseball committee members.

      Hello Business of Baseball committee member.

      As we have entered the Hot Stove time of the year, there are opportunities to share with you.

      We seek your interest and willingness to write a book about the History of the Winter Meetings. The concept is to write a three-to-five-page summary of each particular winter meeting — which would be deemed a book chapter. We plan to match authors to the city where each Winter Meeting was held, and so for a number of different cities, we will be looking for authors who live in, have lived in, or have an interest in a particular city. The Winter Meetings (including, MLB, MiLB, and Negro Leagues) have been held for more than 100 years. There will be plenty of opportunities, and we can find a role for anyone who wishes to be involved as an author, editor/reader, researcher, etc. Can we count on your interest in getting involved with this project as a potential author, editor/reader, researcher, or in some other role? If so, please contact Steve Weingarden. Depending on the flow of responses, we will most likely kickoff in January with a project team meeting, where we further define the parameters.

      I was hoping that the History of the Winter Meetings project would be the tent-pole project that rallied committee members. It wasn’t.

      Before sending that recruiting email — as well as several follow-ups, through various SABR outlets — I had a ballpark figure for how many interested responses I would require to go forward with the project. I really wanted 40 to 50 interested SABR members in order to proceed. I would continue anyway as long as I was at 25 or more interested SABR members. I ended up with approximately 20 at the end of January 2011. The project, according to my own parameters, should have ended at that point. It didn’t.

      Many of those original 20 SABR members have remarkably lasted through the course of the development of this book, and I feel as though I have grown to know them well. One of those members was Jason Long, who wrote an email to me expressing his hopes that the project would advance, and also his excitement over the idea. I had developed the same feeling. I conducted preliminary research for a few of the years, and felt compelled by what I found. I wanted to know about the hidden and previously unpublished knowledge from each winter meeting; I wanted to read the book!

      So I redoubled my author-recruitment strategies, continuing to reach out to SABR members, and reaching outside of SABR. By March 17, 2011, there were 65 authors committed and I began the project. I remember several potential authors who chose not to participate but wished me luck and let me know that they believed the book would take possibly five years to complete. It was huge in scope, would require difficult research, and necessitated diligent oversight of authors throughout the project.

      The issue of scope required me to alter the initial vision of the book. It became clear fairly early on that the baseball winter meetings could not be covered in one volume. Additionally, coverage dating back to the 1850s would have stalled the book indefinitely. The same was true for coverage beyond the primary leagues typically associated with the winter meetings. So I placed the starting line as 1901 — the year the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL, the minor leagues umbrella organization) was formed. Considering how much of this book is devoted to the minor leagues, the 1901 date made logical sense, especially considering the interactions between the NAPBL and the major leagues from the start. Also, January 1901 marked the reorganization of the American League, transitioning from minor to major. So the end of the year represented one of the earliest winter meetings of the newly organized league.

      Indeed, the book required difficult research. Many of the authors didn’t have access to the needed databases, and some authors were less familiar with the specific search terms that would result in success. I pulled together research care packages for many of the authors to use as anchors for their own additional research and for the composition of their chapters. However, research is much more than locating the facts. The interpretation of that research and its insertion into chapters had to be as correct as possible. Our team delved into uncharted territory, and we insisted on accuracy as a guiding principle. There were no previous books on the topic to reference, and triangulation, with the inclusion of firsthand accounts would be impossible for many of the past years. I relied on our team’s capabilities to recognize fallacies in the research and the writing. For this, I am thankful for the efforts of Marshall Adesman and Len Levin. This book is unquestionably better to read and more accurate because of their immense contributions.

      I would be remiss to not call special attention to Marshall. He is one of the 20 SABR members who originally expressed interest in this book. Marshall has stayed with this book from start to finish, and he has read every chapter, and most chapters through several drafts. He has painstakingly questioned potentially misrepresented information, and suggested additions that are designed to make this book more enjoyable for our audience — for you. When author attrition became an issue that almost dissolved this book, Marshall volunteered to step forward and write a few chapters. Through conversations, Marshall has always been my compass to ensure that the proper attention is given to the minor leagues. He is not only an excellent editor and a former minor-league executive, but he is also a sounding board for me, and he has become a close friend.

      As for the diligent management of authors, I built spreadsheets, sent group updates to authors, and followed up on an individual basis with each author to encourage and guide their progress. I was honored when Don Frank (who will be featured in Volume 2) let me know how much he appreciated my editing approach. Yet, five years of author management is a long time — and, in reality this book took nearly six years to produce. Let me be blunt in saying that this book might not have been completed if not for the emergence of Bill Nowlin. Bill became involved in the book somewhere around the beginning of 2012, but in 2015, after he checked in on its status, I asked (maybe pleaded) with him to help solve the author attrition challenge and also to consider taking over the author management. Thankfully, after much discussion, Bill agreed. Almost immediately, a Bill Nowlin effect occurred; SABR members, many within Bill’s broad SABR network of relationships, eagerly volunteered to write chapters. Bill’s access to SABR process information also proved invaluable, as did his diligence in keeping authors on track. Bill also brought Len Levin aboard as an editor. I enjoyed the collegial manner in which Bill and I were able to interact, and we had fun with the choices around final book design. I have no doubt that this book is ready for publication in 2016 thanks to Bill.

      These are the stories behind how the book came to completion, but it’s the details of the stories at the winter meetings that make this book so rich and interesting. It’s the stories like the ones that Roland Hemond shares in the foreword that make me want to read more. What good fortune to have Roland write the foreword for a book about the winter meetings. When I — and several other individuals –imagined the book foreword in 2011, one name stood out as an aspiration to write the foreword — it was Roland Hemond. Roland’s impact on baseball is profound. According to his National Baseball Hall of Fame description in the list of recipients of the Buck O’Neil Award (he was the second recipient, preceded only by Buck O’Neil), Hemond revolutionized front-office management and strategy during a seven-decade career in baseball, while spending his post-general manager days assisting baseball family members in need. Roland, his work as a baseball executive, and his accomplishments for the game embody the individuals that our authors write about in this book. I and many others are grateful to have Roland as part of these pages.

      Absolutely this book was inevitable. I want to know the stories of the baseball winter meetings. Others who worked on this book want to know the stories of the baseball winter meetings. I hope that you want to know the stories of the baseball winter meetings.

      I speak for our team in saying that we hope you find this book to be a rewarding read, whether you read it straight through, or pick out the years most desirable to you. Both approaches are appropriate for this material. Reading in sequence opened my eyes to how trends in baseball evolved from year to year. Reading a particular year allowed to me to seek out answers to specific questions.

      Each chapter is designed to begin with a high-level overview of that year’s winter meetings. More detail regarding the plans and decisions of the minor leagues and the major leagues follows. Finally, player transactions are recounted. An individual chapter also reflects the methods each author applied in order to tell the needed story in the manner most appropriate to the year and to his or her own writing style. As available and appropriate, sidebars are also included with chapters.

      As an exciting supplement to the book, you will find Jim Overmyer’s article on the Eastern Colored League Winter Meetings.

      I know that our team has exhausted our efforts to pull together this book for you. Perhaps this book will be karma for painful meetings you may have endured over the years. In the following pages, our team is at your service, and we thank you and are honored by your sharing in these stories with us.

      Enjoy.

      Steve Weingarden

      1901

      Firsts, Foibles, And Failures

      By Jeremy Green

      Introduction and Context

      Professional baseball was mired in conflict throughout 1901. The American League abandoned the National Agreement of 1892 and announced its intention to compete on equal terms with the National League. The National League faced not only an external threat from the self-proclaimed new major league, but internal disunity revolving around organization and leadership. With the National Agreement having been abrogated and the big leagues at war, the minor leagues circled the wagons and set about defending their own interests. This strife set the stage at all three professional baseball meetings in 1901.

      The first meeting, that of the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, was held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York City on October 25. This was the second meeting of the year for the National Association, which represented all of the minor leagues except the California League.¹ The leagues had previously met in Chicago at the Leland Hotel on September 6 to draft an agreement that would form a new organization for their mutual protection.² The minor leagues were meeting in New York to ratify the agreement.

      The American League met in Chicago at the Grand Pacific Hotel on December 2.³ The new major league had proved to be a potent and viable force in baseball and a serious challenger to the National League. It had acquired four teams from the National when that league contracted, and also inserted itself into Chicago.⁴ The AL was meeting for the first time as a major league.

      The National League gathered in New York at the Fifth Avenue Hotel on December 10 for the last and most contentious of the three meetings. Casting a shadow over this one was the new contender, the American League. The threat of this strong newcomer, concerns about the league’s structure and leadership, and the election of a new president were already causing rifts within the organization. .

      Player Movement

      Little player movement or trades highlighted any of the three meetings. Business affairs and arguments left scant room for player trades in the National League, and while affairs were much more harmonious during the American League meeting, no trades were listed as having taken place in Chicago. The main form of player movement that winter was the removal of a number of players from the blacklist. The blacklist had been adopted by professional baseball starting with the adoption of the reserve clause by the National League in 1879, and was used primarily to prevent players from jumping to other teams for better salaries. The blacklist barred other teams in the league and their affiliates from hiring a player who had abandoned his contract.⁵

      In the American League, pitcher Bill Dinneen was removed from the blacklist and allowed to return to play for the 1902 season.⁶ (Dinneen had jumped a contract with Boston’s National League club to play for the city’s American League team.⁷) Charles Comiskey announced that he had acquired a third baseman for the season, but declined to say who it was. The AL continued to urge players to abandon the National League. One, Brooklyn outfielder-first baseman Joe Kelley, was lured to Baltimore for the 1902 season.⁸

      Despite conflicts over the presidency and the future of the league, some trading and player movement took place during the National League meeting. One major deal saw new Chicago manager Frank Selee signing first baseman Hal O’Hagan from the Rochester team.⁹ The Giants reportedly signed L. Quinlan, a shortstop with Montreal, and Matt McIntyre, an outfielder with Philadelphia’s AL club, although the deal was denied by Connie Mack — and, indeed, McIntyre did remain with the A’s.¹⁰ There were attempts made to move manager Ned Hanlon to the New York Giants, but Hanlon remained loyal to Brooklyn. There were reports that the Giants and Detroit had tried to sign Joe Kelley, but as we have seen, he wound up in Baltimore.¹¹

      The Business Side

      The National Association:

      Business affairs dominated each of the three meetings. Foremost on the agenda at the National Association meeting was the ratification of a new National Agreement, which protected the minors from the effects of the conflict in the National League and American League; in particular, having their players plundered by the major clubs.¹² The agreement was binding for 10 years and covered salary limits, transfer of players, and rules regulating contract-jumping.¹³ National Association President Pat T. Powers had gotten agreements from the American and National League presidents, who were by and large willing to respect existing contracts, though the Brooklyn and Boston clubs in the National League deferred responding until the matter could be taken up with the rest of the league. The minor leagues agreed on a sliding scale, illustrated in Table 1, below, for salary caps and fines for contract-jumping. The meeting set draft periods for each classification of the minors, with Class-A teams getting the most generous allotment of time to sign new talent, nearly the entire autumn.¹⁴

      Clubs that signed the agreement were bound to the salary caps, and those that exceeded the caps would first receive a warning, followed by the withdrawal of benefits and protections of the Association. Similar penalties existed for players who violated contracts by leaving without consent to play for other clubs. Not only would the player draw a fine, but he would be disqualified from playing with any Association club until the Association rescinded the ban.¹⁵ The minors agreed to use a contract form similar to the one employed by the National League.

      The minor-league magnates further agreed on a new classification system for the leagues that ran from Class A down to Class D. Table 2 illustrates which leagues were placed under which classification. Though there were no Class-D teams in the minors at this time, there was already talk about creating a Class-E circuit as well. Three leagues petitioned the Association for membership, the Ohio State League and two nascent leagues in Texas and in the Northwest.¹⁶

      Table 1: Minor League Caps and Fines

      Table 2: League Classification Scheme

      In addition to business relating to the new National Agreement, the minors addressed the issue of protection fees paid to the majors under the old National Agreement. Since the old agreement had expired, President Powers took the position that that the minor teams were due a refund.¹⁷

      Finally, the minors held elections for various offices, which included James O’Rourke to the National Board of Arbitration and Henry Chadwick unanimously elected to honorary membership in the new organization. The Board of Arbitration conducted brisk business on player transgressions. Among its decisions were the denial of Michael F. Hickey’s request for release from reservation by Lowell of the New England League, and the investigation of several instances of contract violation including the case of an umpire/player, George Prentiss, who was charged by the Waterbury club with playing for another club under an assumed name.¹⁸ The National Arbitration Board resolved the case Waterbury’s favor in 1902 and ordered Prentiss to return to Waterbury, though by then Prentiss had jumped to the Boston American League club.¹⁹ Prentiss died that same year, however, rendering the decision moot.²⁰

      American League

      In contrast to the National League, the American League meeting was reported as being fairly harmonious. As reported in the Chicago Tribune:

      There is a strong contrast between the two big leagues this winter. While the National has so many important matters to attend to, the American has its plans for next year all laid out and well under way toward accomplishment. The only way they could be seriously upset would be a wholesale kidnapping of American League players by the old league or tempting them away by outbidding the already high salaries offered. Many players would stand by their contract at that.²¹

      With all clubs represented, Byron Bancroft Ban Johnson was reelected president, with Charles W. Somers again winning the vice presidency.²² One of the first orders of business was the selection of committees, including a committee on playing rules made up of Detroit manager Frank Dwyer (a former umpire), A’s owner Connie Mack, and Cleveland owner Jack Kilfoyle; a committee to discuss the transfer of the Milwaukee club to St. Louis, consisting of owners Ben Shibe (Athletics), Fred Postal (Senators), and Charles Comiskey (White Sox); and a new board of directors.²³ Among the committee rulings was a decision to limit teams to a total of 15 players.

      One of the main orders of business, and a point of contention at the American League meeting, was the transfer of the Milwaukee franchise to St. Louis. Milwaukee’s co-owners, brothers Henry and Matt Killilea, were divided on the question of moving the team. Henry told the meeting he felt the team should remain in Milwaukee and that Matt should join him in retirement, but Matt held with the other magnates and the league approved the transfer. Matt Killilea would move to St. Louis as owner, sharing control of the club with Fred C. Gross after Henry Killilea disposed of his stock in the club.²⁴ In addition, the league announced a roster of teams and dates for the 1902 playing season, which was to run from April 23 to October 15, starting a week later than the previous season. The Chicago franchise was awarded the pennant for the 1901 season at the Board of Directors meeting.²⁵

      Changes in ownership of both the Detroit and Washington clubs were announced at the meeting. The Tigers switched hands from owners James Burns and George Stallings to a stock company headed by S.A. Angus. The Senators’ Fred Postal exchanged co-ownership with Jim Manning for co-ownership with Thomas Loftus.²⁶

      Ban Johnson ended the meeting with the proclamation that the AL would move to oppose wagering at league ballparks, including expelling spectators caught gambling on park grounds.²⁷ Johnson had made a point of upholding the American League as being committed to both fair and clean play, and was thus firmly against betting on baseball.²⁸

      National League

      The National League meeting was the most contentious of the three winter meetings in 1901. The main arguments among magnates concerned the election of a new president and the proposal from some of the magnates to alter the organizational structure of the league into a trust. There is some conflict in the record as to who first sought to create a trust. There are some indications that Albert Spalding and Jim Hart sought to organize the league in this fashion in the late 1890s, but were unable to secure enough options on individual clubs to enact this plan. John T. Brush, owner of the Cincinnati team, proposed a new scheme for a baseball trust in 1901 and acquired the backing of Giants owner Andrew Freedman. In a meeting at Freedman’s Red Bank, New Jersey, estate, two other magnates, Frank De Haas Robison of St. Louis and Arthur Soden of Boston, agreed to back Freedman and Brush’s trust. The Brush plan would have eliminated the office of president and turned executive duties for the league over to a four-man board of regents. Profits would be split between shareholders in the trust, with the lion’s share (30 percent) going to Freedman, and 12 percent each to Brush, Soden, and Robison. The rest was to be divided among the other NL owners.²⁹ Management of each team, down to the supplies they used, would be handled by the trust.³⁰

      Freedman, an enthusiastic supporter of Brush’s plan, had long attributed the waning fortunes of the National League to a lack of competitiveness among teams, the league being dominated by three clubs. By redistributing players between franchises, the trust could make seasons far more competitive and standings and championships far less lopsided from year to year.³¹ Though the pro-trust faction endeavored to keep the details of their meeting a secret, the information was leaked to the press before they could present their ideas to the other magnates at the winter meeting.³²

      As chronicled in Sporting Life, which published the stenographic minutes of the National League meeting in its February 8, 1902, issue, conflict arose on the first day. The meeting wasn’t very old when Barney Dreyfuss of the Pittsburgh club, seconded by Charley Ebbets of Brooklyn, nominated Spalding as league president. President Nicholas Young, whose term had expired and who was not eligible to run for re-election,³³ had excused himself from the meeting so that the owners would be able to discuss their candidate freely. Colonel John Rogers of Philadelphia joined Dreyfuss and Ebbets in backing Spalding, citing what he termed Young’s unsuitability for president as well as the need for strong, singular leadership that the league could rally behind to face the American League threat.³⁴

      At this point Robison raised a point of order, calling into question whether the National League still existed, stating that the agreement the League signed in Indianapolis in 1892 was no longer valid and that the organization’s charter had expired. Brush and Freedman spoke in support of Robison, but Rogers took the stance that the league was perpetual, that the 10-year dates Robison and the other Red Bank magnates referred to dealt only with procedural matters, as a sort of sunset clause for rules, not as a date on which the league was meant to expire.³⁵

      After much debate, primarily between Rogers and Freedman, and a personal appeal by Spalding that the owners not let the league expire, the matter was called to a vote on December 11, and the magnates decided in favor of perpetuity, 5 to 1, with Freedman and Brush abstaining and Robison ultimately the only vote in favor of syndicate ball.³⁶ The league would continue, but the question was: What form would it take?

      There were several allusions to the trust mentioned by Freedman during the meeting, as well as criticism of Spalding, who Freedman felt would not fully devote himself to the task of leading the league on a wartime footing. The vote on the perpetuity of the league having been decided, it was time to determine if Spalding would lead the league or if it would take a new shape. The vote on Spalding’s presidency, the first of 26 such votes, was divided 4 to 4, with the Red Bank faction voting unanimously against Spalding’s election.³⁷

      In an attempt to win over the other magnates, Freedman distributed a copy of the trust plan to each owner, with the caveat that several points would need additional verbal explanation. Rogers objected to the plan immediately. He asserted that none of the other owners would want to trade their property for stocks, that forming a trust would make the National League more liable to lawsuits, and that a single executive was far less cumbersome than a committee.³⁸

      The vote remained deadlocked, with no sign of compromise. Voting went well into the early hours of Saturday morning, December 14, with no resolution. Multiple votes to postpone the vote until the following month also failed — the matter was to be decided right then and there. Finally, the Red Bank faction walked out of the meeting, ceding the chair back to Nicholas Young. At this point, the other four magnates attempted to vote on Spalding but Young, noting that there was no quorum, refused to hold the vote. However, Hart mentioned that roll call had not been taken and that proxies might be present, allowing the meeting to continue in session. Once Young retired for the evening, the magnates elected Rogers as temporary chair and voted in Spalding 4 to 0.³⁹ The Spalding faction claimed that since the Red Bank members vacated without leave, they should be seen as present and abstaining. After the conclusion of the meeting, Spalding went to Young’s room at the hotel and demanded access to minutes and records.⁴⁰ Spalding claimed he would not withdraw his name but would accept only on condition that Freedman leave baseball. Spalding said, On (Freedman’s) record in baseball, and I speak only of his baseball record, I openly and publicly charge Andrew Freedman with being a traitor and a marplot. He has done more to ruin baseball than any other four forces that ever existed in the history of the game.⁴¹

      The election of Spalding was problematic, to say the least. Freedman immediately initiated legal action against the league,⁴² which remained divided, possibly leaderless, and certainly no more unified in the eyes of the press and the public.

      Summary and Close

      Baseball remained locked in conflict as the winter meetings ended and 1902 began. The National Association had a new set of rules and protocols under which to operate, a major change from the previous year. The American League started 1902 in a much stronger position, unified, growing, and presenting a serious challenge to the National. The National League remained beleaguered as 1902 commenced, divided, no closer to peace, and not even clear as to who was running the league. Freedman and other magnates continued to challenge the legality of Spalding’s election until Spalding relinquished his claim to the presidency in April. An executive committee would rule the league until Harry Pulliam rose to the presidency later in the year. During that time, the American League was able to consolidate its gains and set the stage for the peace agreement negotiated by the two leagues in January of 1903.

      Notes

      1 Not to be confused with the National League, the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues (NAPBL) was the corporate name of the minor leagues until 1999, when it renamed itself Minor League Baseball (MiLB).

      2 Minor Leagues in Union, Chicago Tribune, September 6, 1901: 6.

      3 Session of the Baseball Men, Chicago Tribune, December 3, 1901: 6.

      4 Benjamin G. Rader, Baseball: A History of America’s Game (Urbana-Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002).

      5 Robert F. Burk, Never Just a Game: Players, Owners, and American Baseball to 1920 (Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press, 1994), 62-63.

      6 Bars Those Who Bet, Washington Post, December 4, 1901: 8.

      7 Francis C. Richter, The American League Is Bravely Holding Its Own in Every Direction, Sporting Life, Volume 37, Number 4, April 13, 1901: 4.

      8 Approve Changes, The Sporting News, December 7, 1901: 1.

      9 Two for Uncle Nick, Washington Post, December 10, 1901: 8.

      10 Spalding Acts as League President, New York Times, December 15, 1901: 13.

      11 Jimmy Keenan, Joe Kelley, The Baseball Biography Project, January 25, 2011. Accessed August 11, 2011. bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=3632&pid=7362.

      12 T.H. Murnane, Hold the Power, Boston Globe, November 3, 1901: 40.

      13 Baseball Meeting, Hartford Courant, October 26, 1901: 1.

      14 Banded Together, The Sporting News, November 2, 1901: 3.

      15 Ibid.

      16 Ibid.

      17 Ibid.

      18 Ibid. Prentiss was misspelled as Prentice in this issue. For more on Prentiss, see David Forrester’s biography ofhim on BioProject at sabr.org/bioproj/person/a3bd6618.

      19 The Prentiss Case, Sporting Life, Volume 39, Number 1, March 22, 1902: 7.

      20 George Prentiss, SABR Encyclopedia, n.d., accessed May 20, 2012.

      21 Problem for the Old League, Chicago Tribune, December 8, 1901: 19.

      22 Baseball Club Owners Assembling, New York Times, December 2, 1901: 2.

      23 All Satisfied, Chicago Tribune, December 14, 1901: 6.

      24 Approve Changes; Bars Those Who Bet.

      25 Approve Changes; Session of the Baseball Men.

      26 Make-Up of the Clubs, Washington Post, December 3, 1901: 8.

      27 Bars Those Who Bet.

      28 Rader, Baseball, 80.

      29 Burk, Never Just a Game, 152.

      30 Bill Lamb, Andrew Freedman, The Baseball Biography Project. n.d. Accessed August 11, 2011. bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=2870&pid=17415; John Saccoman, John Brush, The Baseball Biography Project. n.d. Accessed August 11, 2011. bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&bid=3632&pid=7362.

      31 Rader, Baseball, 85.

      32 Rader, Baseball, 90.

      33 National League Meeting, New York Times, December 9, 1901: 10.

      34 Official Stenographic League Minutes, Sporting Life, Volume 38, Number 21, February 8, 1902: 10. (Hereafter Minutes).

      35 Minutes, 10-13.

      36 Minutes, 15; No Trust in Baseball, New York Times, December 12, 1901: 10.

      37 Minutes, 15.

      38 Minutes, 21.

      39 Minutes, 23.

      40 League’s Peril, Boston Globe, December 15, 1901: 4.

      41 A.G. Spalding Is Made President, Chicago Tribune, December 14, 1901: 6.

      42 Freedman Gets Writ, Washington Post, December 17, 1901: 8.

      1902

      A Peace Accord

      By Abigail Miskowiec
      Preemptive Measures by the Senior League

      Before the 1902 season ended, the National League presidents met to strategize their approach to the burgeoning American League. The year-old AL already had four teams in National League cities (Philadelphia, St. Louis, Boston, and Chicago) and was threatening a move to the NL stronghold of New York.

      For two days at the St. James Building in New York, John T. Brush presided over a meeting of six of the eight NL presidents. The presidents called the meeting to address what was called a very disastrous year by Philadelphia president A.J. Reach. To better address these issues, the NL presidents opted to reconvene a week later on September 26.

      While all eight National League presidents sat in a highly secret meeting at the St. James, the American League opted for a more public approach. AL spokesman James C. Kennedy announced to the press that the AL would be placing a team in New York for the 1903 season. However the location of the AL grounds remained tightly under wraps.

      National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues

      The feud between the National League and the American League was heating up when the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues gathered for their second annual conference in New York. The meetings, held from October 23-25, resolved only a few concerns facing the young association. However, some of the major-league managers used the meetings as a venue for discussion about several issues.

      The NAPBL held elections of officers. President Patrick T. Powers and secretary John H. Farrell were reelected to their respective positions. Farrell’s only proposal at the meetings suggested that the organization adopt a more stringent drunk and disorderly policy. The rule changes were submitted for adoption in February.

      Jim St. Vrain, Contract Jumper

      Like the major leagues, the NAPBL had to deal with players and managers who jumped from league to league, chasing bigger salaries. Although officials were unable to come to a consensus on the matter of a new minor-league salary scale that might discourage league jumpers, the NAPBL chose to inflict severe penalties against perpetrators, starting with pitcher Jim St. Vrain.

      The Tacoma Tigers signed St. Vrain to a contract after he led the Pacific Northwest League with 299 strikeouts. The numbers caught the attention of Chicago Orphans

      owner Jim Hart, who offered St. Vrain $300 a month to make the jump to the National League.

      St. Vrain failed at the big-league level and was sent down to the Memphis Egyptians of the Southern League. Manager Charley Frank played St. Vrain in spite of the Tacoma contract. A legal battle exploded between the two leagues. Pacific Northwest League president W.H. Lucas said, I wish I had Mr. Charles Frank managing a club in the Pacific League. I’d teach him a base ball lesson he’d not soon forget.

      The NAPBL resolved the matter at the winter meetings. Frank was expelled, and St. Vrain was suspended until he paid a $100 fine. John McCloskey, who managed St. Vrain and the 1901 Tacoma team, was censured for his part in the case.

      National League

      The baseball world remained relatively quiet between the close of the NAPBL meeting and the start of the National League conference on December 9. In the meetings, the road toward peace with the burgeoning American League began to be paved. Like the minor-league talks, the NL meetings were held at the Fifth Avenue Hotel in New York.

      The NL presidents passed some minor scheduling and rules changes over the course of the three-day meeting. The Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Beaneaters

      both agreed to play Sunday games for the first time in franchise history. After frontrunner John M. Ward withdrew from the race for league president, a unanimous vote raised Pittsburgh president Harry Pulliam to the head of the league. In place of an executive board, Pulliam would serve as president, secretary, and treasurer.

      The threat of an AL team in New York loomed at the meetings. August Herrmann, president of the NL Cincinnati Reds, sent a letter to Ban Johnson proposing a meeting between the two leagues. The conference closed with a meeting between committees from both the NL and the AL to discuss peace accords.

      Rampant Player Movement Between Leagues

      Among other things, the frequent defection of players from the NL to the young American League was a major point of contention between the two. The NL faced the decision of what to do with such players. A certain precedent had been set when the senior league banned Nap Lajoie, William Bernhard, and Elmer Flick at the start of the 1902 season.

      Lajoie, Bernhard, and Flick played together on the 1900 Philadelphia Phillies team in the National League. In 1901, Lajoie and Bernhard transferred to the cross-town rival Philadelphia Athletics of the American League. Lajoie led the team, batting .426, and Bernhard finished with a 17-10 record. Flick joined his former teammates in 1902.

      The NL obtained an injunction that banned the three from playing in the state of Pennsylvania. Athletics manager Connie Mack allowed them to play for the Cleveland Bronchos, another AL team.

      Another member of the 1900 Phillies squad, Big Ed Delahanty also caused an uproar at the winter meetings. The defending batting champ, Delahanty had allegedly signed contracts with both the NL New York Giants and the AL Washington Senators. Delahanty had played the 1902 season with the Senators. Delahanty’s case served as a major playing piece in the peace talks between leagues. AL representatives stated that Delahanty would have to fulfill his contract with the Washington club or the war would be continued.¹ The NL hoped that lifting the ban on Lajoie, Flick, and Bernhard would give them leverage in the Delahanty case. Eventually Delahanty was granted to Washington.

      Peace Committee Elected

      The senior league had already won two baseball wars since its inception in 1876. The NL defeated the American Association, its first rival, in 1891 and the Players’ League, which folded after one season, in 1890.

      Now, the NL faced the task of appointing a committee to face off against Ban Johnson’s American League. New NL president Harry Pulliam suggested a mutual respecting of contracts and extended an invitation to the AL for a meeting on December 12. They met at the Criterion Hotel in New York. The two sides agreed to cease hostilities until they could meet again in January.

      Not all of the NL moves were peaceful, though. For the first time, the NL released the coming season’s schedule before their rival league. Many saw it as a declaration of war because the AL would have to plan its own schedule around cross-town NL games in order to draw better crowds.

      American League

      Just a few weeks later on December 22, the American League presidents met for a six-hour meeting. The conference, held at the Pacific Hotel in Chicago, was the shortest yet held in AL history. The AL executives gathered to name the three-man committee to negotiate peace accords with the NL in January. Additional player movements and business issues were deferred until another time.

      Much of the winter was filled with wild speculation on the location of the New York American League stadium. Ban Johnson insisted that the team play on the island of Manhattan, but several hurdles postponed an official announcement for months. The Interborough Rapid Transit Company refused to lease the land for the original site, situated between 141st and 145th Streets, Lenox Avenue, and the Harlem River. Finally in mid-March 1903, Johnson announced that the New York Baseball Club grounds at 165th Street and 11th Avenue would host the AL New York team.

      Elections and Attacks

      The primary issue at the meeting was the restoration of peace between the two leagues. The AL chose Johnson, vice president Charles Somers, Cleveland president John Kilfoyle as representatives, and Henry Killilea as the league’s legal representation. They were to meet with NL presidents August Herrmann of Cincinnati, Jim Hart of Chicago, and Frank Robison of St. Louis. While on one hand the AL offered peace, they also discussed moving teams from Baltimore and Washington to New York and Pittsburgh, respectively. This would have created a direct conflict with existing NL franchises.

      Joint Meetings

      In late February, representatives of the NL, AL, and NAPBL convened in Chicago to discuss the state of the game as a whole. In this one-day meeting, officials regulated the slope of the field, ruling that the pitcher’s mound could be no more than 15 inches higher than the base lines and that the base lines must be level with home plate. The AL and NAPBL adopted the foul ball-strike rule as written in the NL rulebook. Initially, the American League representatives were fundamentally opposed to the foul-strike rule, but the alliance between the NL and NAPBL reps swayed the AL in favor of the rule. Finally, the three leagues agreed on a uniform balk rule, stating a balk shall constitute any delivery of the ball to the batsman by the pitcher while either foot of the pitcher is back of the plate.²

      Conclusion

      The ensuing peace meetings would create a temporary accord between the leagues. They agreed to honor each other’s contracts, in line with the ruling on Delahanty. The goodwill continued throughout the 1903 season and resulted in the first World Series behind held in October 1903.

      Sources

      In addition to the sources cited in the notes, the author was also informed by:

      Baseball War Declared, New York Times, September 26, 1902: 10.

      For Peace in Baseball, New York Times, December 11, 1902: 6.

      Baseball War at an End, New York Times, December 12, 1902: 10.

      New Baseball Setback, New York Times, January 8, 1903: 6.

      Agreement in Baseball, New York Times, January 11, 1903: 10.

      Sweeping Peace Pact is Signed, Chicago Daily Tribune, January 11, 1903: 9.

      Grabbing of Ball-Players, Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1903: 8.

      Baseball Suits Dismissed, New York Times, January 22, 1903: 10.

      More Baseball Troubles, New York Times, January 30, 1903: 10.

      Baseball Meetings Called, New York Times, February 19, 1903: 10.

      Baseball Season Near, New York Times, March 1, 1903: 16.

      Notes

      1 Baseball Legislation, New York Times, December 22, 1902: 8.

      2 Changes in Baseball Rules, New York Times, February 24, 1903: 2.

      St. Vrain Barred from the Ballpark

      The Jim St. Vrain incident led to interesting developments during the 1902 season:

      August 9 doubleheader: Both games were forfeited by Memphis to Shreveport, because St. Vrain appeared at the gate, and was denied admission. Memphis refused to play.

      August 10: Again, St. Vrain was refused admittance, and Memphis forfeited to Shreveport.

      August 11: Memphis players took the field, but didn’t even remove their coats. St. Vrain was refused admission and Memphis forfeited to Little Rock.

      Reportedly, at some point in August, St. Vrain began serving as a ticket collector for the team, instead of as a pitcher.

      At Little Rock, The Tennessean, August 12, 1902: 6.

      St. Vrain is Barred Again, Atlanta Constitution, August 10, 1902.

      Harry Pulliam on the presidency

      I did not seek the presidency of the National League, but I appreciate the compliment and the responsibilities that come with the office. I have been identified with Mr. Dreyfuss for the past eight years and our relations have been most pleasant. I did not want to leave him. Furthermore, my duties as president will be much more exciting than those of the secretary of the Pittsburg club because I propose to make them so. Of one thing you can be assured, I will give everyone a square deal and there will be no pulling of wires with me. The affairs of the league will be conducted open and above board, so far as I am concerned. I shall make an effort to run the league on a business basis.

      Pulliam on Record, Pittsburgh Weekly Gazette, December 15, 1902: 10.

      1903

      Married Life Begins

      By Marshall Adesman

      It could be compared, in a way, to a romance novel — first they hate each other, then they start to learn more about each other to where they like each other, and finally they fall in love and get married. Unlike the two protagonists in this popular style of fiction, though, the National and American Leagues actually went to war before they agreed, somewhat grudgingly, to their shotgun wedding.

      The ceremony took place in 1903, which has proven to be an early watershed season for baseball. After two years of battling, the established National League and fledgling American League signed a peace agreement in January and proceeded to play their games under a wary and uneasy cloud. Much like a marriage in its first year, the two leagues were learning how to live together, so by the time the last pitch had been thrown and the owners met again for their Winter Meetings, certain things had been learned, certain accommodations had been made, and some things still needed to be sorted out.

      The War and What It Meant

      In the very early years of baseball, it was common for leagues to come and go. Owners realized that their economic success was tied to bringing people to their ballparks, and people came out to see star players, so there were often fierce battles for these athletes, even those already under contract to another club. The 19th century ballplayer, in fact, rarely gave a second thought to jumping from one team to another, choosing a lucrative salary over legal obligation. Realizing this could undermine the public’s respect for the game and thus keep people away, three leagues — the National League, the American Association, and the Northwestern League — got together in February of 1883 and signed the Tripartite Agreement, which recognized the validity of the signed contract and prohibited all teams from pirating players. This accord shortly became better known as the National Agreement,¹ and by the turn of the 20th century it covered 13 minor leagues, plus the National League.

      When the original agreement was signed, the American Association was considered the other major league. While it offered fans such amenities as lower admission prices, Sunday baseball, and beer, the league struggled throughout its 10-year history, and after the 1891 season four clubs — Baltimore, Louisville, St. Louis, and Washington — defected to the National League. The owners in Boston, Columbus, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia were subsequently bought out, ending the American Association as a major league, and turning the NL into a 12-team major-league monopoly.²

      But in the 1890s, such a large circuit proved to be unwieldy, due to poor roads (no interstate highways then) and no air travel whatsoever. Many years later, when both majors expanded and became 12-team leagues (after the 1968 season), they wisely split into divisions to help with travel costs. Their Gay Nineties great-grandparents, however, did not do that, however, and for several years the NL struggled along until they contracted, ousting Baltimore, Cleveland, Louisville, and Washington after the 1899 season.

      One man’s trash is another man’s treasure, and that other man was Byron Bancroft Ban Johnson. He was President-Secretary-Treasurer of the Western League, one of the minor leagues that was a part of the National Agreement. Despite its success primarily in the Midwest, Johnson had higher aspirations, and for the 1900 season he moved into the newly-opened Cleveland market, transferred his St. Paul franchise to Chicago, and re-named his circuit the American League.³ Despite the name change it was still a minor league, but in the offseason Johnson grabbed for the brass ring, announcing his intention to operate the AL as a major league and, when the Senior Circuit scoffed, he renounced the National Agreement and declared war, moving into the open territories of Baltimore and Washington, as well as NL strongholds of Boston and Philadelphia.

      All bets were off. The National League had the reserve clause and a salary cap of $2,400 per player in effect, but Johnson said there would be no such thing in his league, and 111 players jumped into the new circuit, including such marquee names as Cy Young, Napoleon Lajoie, John McGraw, and Joe McGinnity.⁴ After the 1901 season, Johnson moved the Milwaukee franchise into St. Louis and saw more players make the move, including Ed Delahanty, Jesse Burkett, and Elmer Flick. (You may note that all the jumpers named here would eventually wind up in the Hall of Fame.) The new American League outdrew its more-established rival by more than half a million fans in 1902, which emboldened Johnson even further — he announced the Baltimore team would be moving into New York.⁵

      The Big Apple would prove to be the catalyst for bringing the war to an end. John J. McGraw had become a part owner of the Baltimore franchise, and he also became the team’s manager and third baseman. The pugnacious McGraw, however, quarreled regularly with umpires, and when Johnson, as AL President, regularly backed his arbiters, it incited the enmity of the Little Napoleon. After another tempestuous on-field dispute, Johnson suspended the Orioles skipper indefinitely, whereby McGraw jumped back to the NL, taking over as manager (and occasional infielder) of the New York Giants, a pitiful aggregation that, at the time of McGraw’s arrival, had only won 23 of its 73 games and had already gone through two other managers.⁶ It went through some players, too — McGraw brought a half-dozen men with him from Baltimore, including McGinnity and Roger Bresnahan, and he released people he felt were not producing.⁷ This soap opera proved to be the impetus for Johnson’s decision to invade New York and, when the newly-elected mayor, Seth Low, offered Johnson a site for a ballpark,⁸ the National League realized it was time to sue for peace.

      On January 9 and 10, 1903, the two leagues met at the St. Nicholas Hotel in Cincinnati to negotiate terms. Both league presidents brought three owners,⁹ and the eight men hammered out the Cincinnati Peace Agreement, which would govern baseball for almost 18 years. Better known as the National Agreement, it established the National Commission, the game’s version of the Supreme Court, which would be made up of both league presidents and, as Chair, a neutral third party, which became Reds owner Garry Herrmann, an NL owner but close friend of Ban Johnson. It allowed the Baltimore franchise to move to New York and also established that each league would be comprised of eight clubs, a configuration that would remain in effect until 1961! It mandated that each team respect everyone else’s roster, which was a nice way of saying don’t steal my players! It required the two leagues to coordinate their schedules and to use the foul-strike rule.¹⁰ It prohibited farming, which meant signing a player to a major-league contract but then assigning him to a minor-league team. (By the 1930s, of course, that clause would become obsolete.) It gave the minors the absolute right to their players, except during a six-week period from September 1 through October 15, when a major-league team could draft players and pay the minor-league club a set fee.¹¹ And, most importantly, it established a standard player contract that included the reserve clause, which essentially bound players to their teams for life unless they were traded, sold or released. Until it was overturned in the 1970s, the reserve clause made the players little more than property.

      The National Association of Professional Minor Leagues (now known as the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues, or NAPBL) also signed this agreement, making it the law of the baseball land. A special ruling was made on several players who were claimed by two clubs; for instance, Sam Crawford and George Mullin were awarded to Detroit, Wee Willie Keeler went to the Highlanders, Tommy Leach headed to Pittsburgh, Nap Lajoie was assigned to Cleveland, Ed Delahanty went to Washington, and Christy Mathewson wound up with the Giants. Despite gaining Leach, the Pirates lost several players to the Highlanders but gained in the long-run when the Agreement prevented Ban Johnson from moving a team into the Steel City.¹² The Pirates, in fact, won the National League pennant in 1903, though they lost the first World Series to the Boston team known at that time as the Americans, led by Cy Young.

      The Minors Meet

      The minor leagues gathered for their Winter Meetings on October 22 in St. Louis, just nine days after Boston’s Bill Dinneen had thrown the final pitch of the inaugural World Series. The Mound City was a happening place at that time, as they were preparing to host the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, and those members of the National Association who gathered for the three-day event at the Southern Hotel were treated to a visit to the grounds of what would be commonly known as the 1904 World’s Fair.¹³

      John Farrell, the Secretary of the National Association, gave the delegates what was more or less a State of the Minor Leagues address. At that point in time, the Secretary was more like a Chief Operating Officer, responsible for day-to-day dealings, which made him, and not the President, the right person to speak to the gathering. He was very proud to report that, even amidst the tumult of the first season played under the new National Agreement, 19 leagues began the season and 19 completed their schedules.¹⁴ This did not count the independent Pacific Coast League which, because of the nice weather in California, was actually still in the midst of their 200-plus game season.¹⁵

      The Association was hoping that, for at least this year only, the majors would issue an exemption to the National Agreement clause that allowed for minor-league players to be drafted during that six-week period in September and October. They were specifically seeking an exemption for players signed before September 11, but the new three-man National Commission disagreed and ruled that the draft had been held legitimately. The Commission also ruled on the fate of numerous players who were being claimed by two teams or leagues, with the most notable one being Ed Walsh, the big right-hander who had been drafted by the White Sox. Walsh would go on to win 195 games in the majors, all with Chicago, including 40 in 1908, on his way to the Hall of Fame.¹⁶ The White Sox (also known as the White Stockings at that time) had another right-handed hurler bring his case before the Commission. Drafted off the Birmingham roster, Frank Smith balked, saying he preferred to go to the Boston Beaneaters (later known, at various times, as the Doves, Rustlers, Bees, and ultimately, Braves). Smith consulted with an attorney, who told him he could ply his trade wherever he chose because the reserve clause was stricken out.¹⁷ The new governing body, however, ruled against him, and since the record book shows that he did, indeed, pitch in the same rotation as Ed Walsh in 1904, one assumes he and his lawyer chose not to fight the decision in court.¹⁸

      The Commission expected to have a very serious matter brought before it, the charge of fixed ballgames. Bill Phyle, a pitcher and third baseman who had played parts of three seasons in the majors — 1898 and 1899 with the Orphans, now known as the Cubs and 1901 with the Giants — had played with Memphis of the Southern Association in 1903 and claimed to have information about games that had not been on the up-and-up. He was asked to come to St. Louis and tell the Commission all he knew, but he failed to appear, whereupon he was banned from baseball for life.¹⁹ He appealed the decision and was actually reinstated and played through 1909, mostly in the minors but also 22 games with the St. Louis Cardinals in 1906.

      The various leagues were busy on numerous fronts. The American Association (Class A, the highest level of the minor leagues at that time), lost their president when Thomas Hickey resigned. Several people were rumored to be candidates to replace him, but ultimately the post went, for one year, to a writer and editor, J. Ed. Grillo, who was based in Cincinnati and was also a contributor to The Sporting News.²⁰ The Milwaukee Brewers chose New Orleans to be their spring training site, and they also announced a series of exhibition games against (Class-B) Southern Association teams such as Memphis and Nashville on their way north for Opening Day.²¹ Brewers manager Joe Cantillon announced he had purchased the contract of third baseman John Hankey from Decatur of the (Class-B) Three-I League. Hankey, however, had already marketed himself and signed to play with Atlanta in the Southern Association. The dispute was resolved by sending Hankey back to the Three-I (which stood for Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana), but not to Decatur; he played instead for Springfield, Illinois,²² and would, ultimately, never advance beyond Class B. Also in the American Association, long-time minor-league shortstop Bill Clymer signed on to be the player-manager of Columbus.²³ He stayed in the Ohio capital for several years and was a mainstay in minor-league dugouts through the 1932 season. Meanwhile, in an interview with The Sporting News, Indianapolis president William Watkins said of the meetings that the most important things accomplished...were the regulations governing the drafting of players, the acquiring of territory and the fixing of a salary limit, which he said was $2,100 per month.²⁴

      Patrick Powers, the ceremonial President of the National Association, was also head of the (Class-A) Eastern League and wanted to remain in that position. Some league officials, however, hoped to unseat him with Buffalo owner Harry Taylor.²⁵ Powers would fight off the challenge and remain in control for two more years, when he resigned after purchasing the Providence club, and at that time was succeeded by Taylor.²⁶

      You’ll recall that the American League had been born when Ban Johnson renamed his Western League and declared it a major, precipitating the battle for big-league talent. In the shadow of this conflict, the Western League re-formed as a Class-A circuit, with cities such as Denver and Des Moines. By 1903 they found themselves facing a challenge — the American Association had been formed and was competing with the Western, not only at the Class-A level, but also head-to-head in both Kansas City and Milwaukee. Obviously, while these were two of the premier urban centers in the Midwest, neither could support more than one club, and the two leagues hoped to settle the matter in St. Louis. While there was some talk about the Western dropping down to Class B, it was eventually decided to allow a committee of three to settle the matter via binding arbitration where, as predicted by former-pitcher-turned-sportswriter Tim Murnane, the American Association was victorious.²⁷ Milwaukee would remain in the AA through 1952, when the Braves left Boston and appropriated the territory for the National League, while Kansas City would be a league member through 1954, when the AL’s venerable Philadelphia Athletics were sold and moved to the Paris of the Plains. The Western League, meanwhile, had to scramble when George Tebeau, the manager of the

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1