National League

“ It is safe in the hands of true and tried men, who are devoting their lives to its success. It is dominated and controlled by that grand old organization, the National League, which for twenty years has been the great exponent of the game, and has done more to advance the game than any other factor. The League has, during its life, stood on one platform, "honesty and purity in base ball," and has always retained the confidence and respect of the people. It has elevated the game until to-day base ball stands on a firm foundation of popular approval unequaled by any other athletic sport. ”

“ That the National League fears the birth of a new rival has been time and again shown, and in my judgment without good and sufficient reason, for I hold that "competition is the life of trade," and that with a strong and healthy competitor in, the field the rivalry would be of benefit to both organizations.
From personal experience I know that the National Game was never in as healthy condition as it was when the League had the old American Association for a rival and when such a thing as syndicate base-ball was unheard of. ”

“ What was the organization of this League for? To perpetuate, establish and maintain the integrity of Base Ball. What is this Base Ball that we talk about? I do not want to take much of your time, but let us take a few moments to answer this question.
"Base Ball is a distinctly American sport, suitable to the American character, played under rules known to every American boy ten years of age. And here is the National League, the guardian of that sport. To be the guardian of a nation's sport is no mean honor. I sometimes wonder if you realize the responsibility. ”

“ Impossible, therefore, to exaggerate the importance of this League, therefore impossible to exaggerate the importance of this meeting, of every man and woman who has come here to-night. And when you rise from your seats and step up to this platform to enroll your names as members of the National League of Liberty, I want you to feel, every one of you, that you will be doing an important thing, a thing necessary to the nation, a thing in its way every bit as necessary and important as the thing the soldier does when he rises up out of his trench and goes over the top. ”

“ When the huge, wooden stadium burned at the Polo Grounds, in the spring of 1911, Base Ball men sat aghast, because it meant much to the national pastime to lose the home of the most important National League club in the largest city of the United States. ”

“ The cost of the amalgamation of the four American Association clubs with the National League, together with the financial losses incurred by the revolutionary period of 1890 and 1891—losses, by the way, which the players did not participate in, the clubs alone being the sufferers—left a heavy burden of debt to handicap the reconstructed National League in its efforts to recover the public confidence in professional ball playing lost by the malcontents of 1890 and 1891. ”

“ Had that ancient organization never encountered opposition, the chances are that there would never have developed a national game. And so it needed the American League, with the Boston Americans' victory of 1903, to make the National League managers realize that they had not all the ball players on earth—that there were others. And when the Chicago White Sox in 1906 again took the national pennant from the pioneer League, it served as nothing else could have done to stimulate interest in the sport in every quarter. ”

“ THAT the men who took upon their shoulders the task of organizing and maintaining the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs realized the herculean proportions of the enterprise in which they were engaging is not to be believed; else they might never have undertaken it. They did know, however, that they would have opposition. They knew that an immediate and bitter struggle with the whole gambling fraternity would follow the inauguration of their plans; for the men who organized the National League were aware that gambling and Base Ball must be divorced. ”

“ In all the former battles for the life of our national sport the men who stood for the preservation of Base Ball in its integrity had won. Every form of abuse had been so completely eradicated that public confidence had been regained, the press of the country was united in its declaration that the game was clean; that gambling had been kicked out; that pool-selling had been kicked out; that drunkenness had been kicked out; and now I was determined that so far as I had the power to help the upright managers of the League, Freedman and Freedmanism should be kicked out. ”

“ My plan is that the National League shall pass a rule forbidding the sale of a player from a club in the second division, to a club in the first division. I think this would, in a measure, prevent some of the hustling to dispose of a clever man for the sake of the cash that is in the trade. ”

“ The National League is made up of more than 600 local leagues which influence in a direct and practical way almost every community in the United States with any considerable number of Negro inhabitants. These local leagues are all chartered, guided, and supervised by the national organization and with them all the Secretary, Mr. Scott, keeps in touch. ”

“ I accord to most of the players who at that time suddenly abandoned the National League the utmost sincerity of motive. They argued that the people who patronized Base Ball paid to see them play. They were the star performers, the actual "producers" of the entertainment. They held, and truly, that no one would give up a farthing to the man at the box-office; nobody would part with a ticket at the turnstile; none would contribute a nickel at the grandstand, so far as the men presiding at those posts were concerned; and as for the owners of clubs, what did the public care for them? ”

“ Consequently, since the two big leagues were at war, a raid was made by the American League upon players of the pioneer organization, with the result that no difficulty was found in capturing a team for the metropolis. Mr. Brush, however, who had bought out Freedman's interest in the New York National League Club, did not believe that the American League could secure available grounds, and he was disposed to temporize with the situation. ”

“ This was the last season of the Professional Association, it being superseded by the National League, an organization which still exists, though it lacks the brains and power that carried it on to success in, its earlier days, this being notably the case in Chicago and New York, where the clubs representing these cities have gone down the toboggan slide with lightning-like rapidity. ”

“ Since the reconstructed National League began its new life, blundering management of teams has characterized the running of a majority of its twelve clubs, and it will continue to do so while the system of engaging players for their records merely and not for their ability in doing team work and in playing harmoniously together, is continued. Especially, too, is the plan of engaging players whose daily habits of life are at war with their ability to do first-class work in the field. ”

“ Spalding, your ruling was perfectly correct. But," he added, with a laugh, "You are no more President of the National League than am I. My knowledge of arithmetic does not enable me to make four votes a majority in an organization the total voting force of which is eight." ”

“ The unattached clubs derived much of their revenue from exhibition games with National League teams, and it was not unusual for a League nine to visit a small city, sign up one or more of the. best players of the local organization and take them away. ”

“ Two national associations were formed in 1871, one having jurisdiction over professional clubs and the other over amateurs. In 1876 was formed the National League, of eight clubs under the presidency of Nicholas E. Young, which contained the expert ball-players of the country. There were so many people in the United States who wanted to see professional base-ball that this organization proved too small to furnish the desired number of games, and hence in 1882 the American Association was formed. ”

“ The Chicago papers, for instance, would appear every morning with figures—furnished by club officials–and reading something like this:
"Brotherhood attendance—8,000." "League attendance—2,000." Round figures are always suspicious, and the constant reiteration of these attracted my attention. I knew that the National League games at that time were drawing very meager crowds, and while at first I was aware that the Brotherhood games were more popularly attended, I was unwilling to believe that there was so much difference in the size of the crowds as appeared upon "the face of the returns." ”

“ ALTHOUGH minor leagues had been recognized and protected long before—the National League having fostered the first Northwestern League, organized in 1883—and the Eastern League, formed in 1884, having received the protection of the National Agreement—and notwithstanding the fact that numerous minor organizations were constantly coming into being, all feeling the need of and seeking protecting care, it was not until early in October, 1901, that the lesser leagues took action to combine for self-protection ”

“ It was proposed to take the players of the Chicago team, of which club I was then President, with one or two additions, as a whole, and no difficulty was experienced in interesting them; but the forming of an opposing nine, to be selected from the best players in other National League organizations, was beset with many obstacles. To openly ask for volunteers was out of the question, because it would be certain to result in a deluge of applications from undesirable players in the fraternity. To choose those best equipped to play the game meant the asking of many who could not go. ”

“ He demanded always clean management, a clean game, and the best interests of manly sport.
There have been other forceful men at the head of our national organizations, men of high purpose, good judgment and fine executive ability. But in all the history of Base Ball no man has yet appeared who possessed in combination more of the essential attributes of a great leader and organizer of men than did William A. Hulbert.
Mr. Hulbert continued as President of the National League until his death, at his home in Chicago, April 10th, 1882. ”

“ To these facts, too, are to be added the statement that to the National League's government of the professional class of the fraternity is due the lasting credit of sustaining the integrity of play in the game up to the highest standard; so much so, indeed, that it has reached the point of surpassing, in this most important respect, every other sport in vogue in which professional exemplars are employed. ”

“ Washington has a new concrete and steel stand and the Boston American League club shortly is to have one. St. Louis owners contemplate building and will put in concrete and steel whenever they improve their parks. The Chicago National League club contemplates a new structure that may eclipse them all. So, everywhere, there is a tendency to add to the solidity and the permanency of the sport, which assures more comfort for patrons.
Nor is the lavish expenditure for better accommodations for Base Ball patrons confined to the larger cities of the major league circuits. ”

“ It is well managed and harmonious teams, not picked nines led by special stars, which win in the long run. Now and then—as there are exceptions in all cases—a picked nine will attain a certain degree of success. But for steady struggles for permanent success in the professional championship arena, team work of the very best, and admirably managed teams will alone achieve steady victory. The old Boston teams under Harry Wright, and the Chicago teams under Anson, are a standing proof of this fact. Let the National League magnates ponder these truths earnestly. ”

“ The Consumers' League began with a purely benevolent motive, and in this early philanthropic stage it gained immediate popularity. City after city, State after State, formed Consumers' Leagues, until, in 1899, a National League, with branches in twenty-two States, was organized. The National League, far from being a philanthropic society, has become a scientific association for the study of industrial economics. ”

“ He must not only stand between the players and managers and magnates of his league, but, if a member of the Commission, he must at times receive the jolts of players and managers and magnates of all the leagues, major and minor, and what he does not learn of trouble in the politics, management and playing of the game, and in the administration of discipline, he may find in the hospital for the insane to which his trials are likely to drive him. ”

“ So long as ball-players had been managing the affairs of the game the salary question was not so serious. It resolved itself into a division of the surplus—had there ever been any, after necessary expenses had been paid—be the balance what it might. But, under League control, with club management of teams and fixed salaries; with the essential declaration that players were to play ball and the management would do the rest, there loomed large upon the horizon of the Base Ball game a legal responsibility to be assumed—and by somebody who could be found on pay day. ”

“ For some years the National League consisted of twelve clubs organized as stock companies, representing cities as far apart as Boston and St Louis, but in 1900 the number was reduced to eight, namely, Boston, Brooklyn, Chicago, Cincinnati, New York, Pittsburg, Philadelphia and St Louis. ”