Base-Ball: How to Become a Player | Page 9

of the first part, and the minor leagues as party of the
second part.
The most important feature of the National Agreement unquestionably
is the provision according to the club members the privilege of
reserving a stated number of players. No other club of any Association
under the Agreement dares engage any player so reserved. To this rule,
more than any other thing, does base-ball as a business owe its present
substantial standing. By preserving intact the strength of a team from
year to year; it places the business of baseball on a permanent basis and
thus offers security to the investment of capital. The greatest evil with
which the business has of recent years had to contend is the
unscrupulous methods of some of its "managers." Knowing no such

thing as professional honor, these men are ever ready to benefit
themselves, regardless of the cost to an associate club. The reserve rule
itself is a usurpation of the players' rights, but it is, perhaps, made
necessary by the peculiar nature of the base-ball business, and the
player is indirectly compensated by the improved standing of the game.
I quote in this connection Mr. A. G. Mills, ex-President of the League,
and the originator of the National Agreement: "It has been popular in
days gone by to ascribe the decay and disrepute into which the game
had fallen to degeneracy on the part of the players, and to blame them
primarily for revolving and other misconduct. Nothing could be more
unjust. I have been identified with the game more than twenty-five
years--for several seasons as a player--and I know that, with rare
exceptions, those faults were directly traceable to those who controlled
the clubs. Professional players have never sought the club manager; the
club manager has invariably sought--and often tempted--the player. The
reserve rule takes the club manager by the throat and compels him to
keep his hands off his neighbor's enterprise."
It was not to be expected that club managers of the stamp above
referred to would exhibit much consideration for the rights of players.
As long as a player continued valuable he had little difficulty, but when,
for any reason, his period of usefulness to a club had passed, he was
likely to find, by sad experience, that base-ball laws were not construed
for his protection; he discovered that in base-ball, as in other affairs,
might often makes right, and it is not to be wondered at that he turned
to combination as a means of protection.
In the fall of 1885 the members of the New York team met and
appointed a committee to draft a Constitution and By-laws for an
organization of players, and during the season of 1886 the different
"Chapters" of the "National Brotherhood of Ball-Players" were
instituted by the mother New York Chapter. The objects of this
Brotherhood as set forth by the Constitution are:
"To protect and benefit its members collectively and individually;
"To promote a high standard of professional conduct;

"To foster and encourage the interests of 'The National Game.'"
There was no spirit of antagonism to the capitalists of the game, except
in so far as the latter might at ally time attempt to disregard the rights
of any member.
In November, 1887, a committee of the Brotherhood met a committee
of the League, and a new form of players' contract was agreed upon.
Concessions were made on both sides, and the result is a more
equitable form of agreement between the club and players.
The time has not yet come to write of the effect of this new factor in
base-ball affairs. It is organized on a conservative plan, and the spirit it
has already shown has given nothing to fear to those who have the
broad interests of the game at heart. That it has within it the capacity
for great good, the writer has no manner of doubt.
And thus the erstwhile schoolboy game and the amateur pastime of
later years is being rounded out into a full-grown business. The
professional clubs of the country begin to rival in number those of the
halcyon amateur days; and yet the latter class has lost none of its love
for the sport. The only thing now lacking to forever establish base-ball
as our national sport is a more liberal encouragement of the amateur
element. Professional base-ball may have its ups and downs according
as its directors may be wise or the contrary, but the foundation upon
which it all is built, its hold upon the future, is in the amateur
enthusiasm for the game. The professional game must always be
confined to the larger towns, but every hamlet may have its amateur
team, and let us see to it that their games are encouraged.
CHAPTER I.
THEORY OP THE GAME. A