# America's National Game/Chapter 23

Copyright, 1905, by Obickering.
CHAPTER XXIII.
1900-10
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; forced to do so, no doubt, by the uncertainty of affairs of the two Major Leagues, which at this time were at each other's throat in a deadly strife.
The abrogation of the old National Agreement by Mr. Freedman and his confreres at the historical secret Red Bank meeting in 1901 cemented the minor leagues in a closer bond than had theretofore existed, and the formation of "The National Association of Professional Base Ball Leagues," at a postponed meeting held on the 24th, 25th and 26th of October, 1901, was therefore most timely and important.
The objects of the new National Agreement, adopted ​by the association of minor leagues, are set forth as follows:
"1.—To perpetuate Base Ball as the National Game of America, and to surround it with such safeguards as to warrant absolute public confidence in its integrity and methods.
"2.—To promote and afford protection to such professional Base Ball leagues and associations as may desire to operate under its provisions."
As one of its fundamental features, the new Association provided for a governing body, denominated "The National Board of Arbitration," to consist of five members, to be chosen by the Leagues represented in the Association. The first members of this Board were: M. H. Sexton, of Rock Island, Ill.; James Whitefield, of Kansas City, Mo.; W. H. Lucas, of Portland, Oregon; J. H. O'Rourke, of Bridgeport, Conn.; and T. H. Murnane, of Boston, Mass.; with J. H. Farrell, of Auburn, N. Y., acting as Secretary. The first President of this Association was P. T. Powers, a most energetic and competent official.
In 1902 the new American League, of which Mr. B. B. Johnson was President, determined to drop Baltimore from its circuit and replace it with New York. 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. ​When the National League met in annual session in New York, in December of that year, its members were startled by the announcement that not only had grounds been secured, but that an "all star" team had been signed to play upon these grounds.
It did not take the managers of the older league long to realize that the time had come for peace with its rival, if peace was possible. Mr. Brush alone of all the club magnates was opposed to treating with the ambitious young league. Mr. Brush, however, was overruled, and a committee was appointed to call upon representatives of the American League, then present in the city, with overtures of peace. As the American League representatives were at New York upon another mission, they asked for time to lay the plans for a treaty before their League at a special session to be called for that purpose. The meeting referred to was held early in January, 1903, and a committee with power to act was appointed. The National League committee was retained, but no powers were given it except to confer and report. This resulted in further delay; but finally, after considerable sparring, a treaty of peace was agreed to which was subsequently ratified, and the two major leagues were now in a position to adopt mutual protective rules, which they did, under the title of a New National Agreement, in 1903.
The National Commission was to have power to inflict and enforce fines or suspensions or both upon either party to the agreement who are adjudged by it to have violated the terms of the agreement. It was provided that whenever the National League and the American League shall claim the services of the same player the right to the player in controversy shall be established by the Chairman of the Commission, who alone shall determine and declare the decision. It was provided that in case of controversy between a National League Club and a Minor League Club over the same player the case shall be adjudicated by the President of the Commission and the representative of the American League. In case of contention between an American League Club and a Minor League Club the question is to be settled by the President of the Commission and the National League representative. It was further provided, that in case the Chairman of the Commission and the representative of a League working with him in the adjudication of any case cannot agree, then the decision of the Chairman shall be final.
The first officials of the National Commission were H. C. Pulliam, President of the National League; B. B. ​Johnson, President of the American League; and August Herrmann, of the National League, chosen by the others as Chairman of the Commission. These gentlemen served until the death of Mr. Pulliam, in July, 1909, who was succeeded by Thomas J. Lynch, the Commission as at present constituted consisting of Messrs. Herrmann, Lynch and Johnson.
Most fortunate, indeed, was the selection of August Herrmann as third member of the National Commission. Honest, earnest, ever devoted to the interests of the game, he has brought to bear upon all cases brought before that body for adjudication a mind unprejudiced, a judgment keenly analytical and fair, and a will unswervable from the cause of justice. Much of the credit for the splendid record of the National Commission belongs to August Herrmann, who has stood through his incumbency of a trying position above criticism as an impartial and upright official. It is to be hoped that his services may be long retained as Chairman of the Commission that he has honored.
Thus has been established a Supreme Court of Base Ball. It has thus far worked admirably. It will continue so to act as long as men are at the head of the National Game who are willing to subordinate personal ends and aggrandizement to the good of the sport. Let us hope that condition will last henceforth and forever—that the people may never lose confidence in this ideal tribunal.
In the evolution of Base Ball, it took many years for those in control of the game to learn the very simple ​lesson, known well to every man engaged in commerce, that "competition is the life of trade." It needed just such a man as B. B. Johnson, and just such a League as he has established, to provoke the kind of public interest that now attaches to the game of Base Ball. It requires just such competition as is annually presented in the post-season contests to give zest to the sport. So long as the National League was alone upon the field it occupied a position akin to that of the Old Knickerbockers. 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. Since the two big Leagues are now engaged in a generous rivalry, each conceding that the other has its legitimate place in the field, both are to be congratulated that wise counsels have prevailed and that at last a Supreme Court has been established upon sound legal and business bases that promises to simplify the conduct of the game in future by guaranteeing justice in all cases where arbitration is found necessary.
It was not a great while after the coming together of the two big Leagues in a mutual understanding until a series of World's Championship games was proposed. So long as a bitter fight had been in progress this was impossible, of course. But, in 1903, the Boston and Pittsburg teams, winners of the American and National League pennants, respectively, met for an after-season schedule of games. To the very great surprise of the friends of the National League, who, up to that time, had regarded the players of the American League as not in the same class as those of the older organization, Boston took five games to three won by Pittsburg, and immediately the fortunes of the American League advanced by leaps and bounds. The contest of 1903 had established the equality if not the superiority of the players in the new League.
In 1904 there was no World's Championship series, the New York team, winners of the National League ​pennant, declining, for some reason, to meet the Boston winners of the American League pennant. This fact only sharpened the desire of the public for another contest. The wish was gratified in 1905, when the New York Champions met and defeated the Philadelphia Athletics, of the American League, winning four out of five games played.
In 1906 the tables were turned, and the Chicago White Sox, of the American League, defeated the Chicago Cubs, of the National League, winning four games to two of the series. The public was now beginning to look upon the World's Championship as a sort of hippodrome, cut and dried, to go one year to one and the next year to the other League. However, Captain Chance, of the Chicago National Cubs, upset that theory by winning the world's series over the Detroit Tigers, of the American League, two seasons in succession, capturing pennants in both 1907 and 1908, and the Pittsburg National League Club winning from the Detroit American League Club in 1909, and the Athletic American League Club winning from the Chicago National League Club in 1910.
Of scarcely less interest than the World's Championship contests were those between leaders in both the National and American Leagues in 1908, Chicago, New York and Pittsburg teams crowding each other in the National race, and Detroit, Cleveland and Chicago alternating throughout the season for the first place in the American League.
In 1909 the race in the National League was between Pittsburg and Chicago, Pittsburg winning. In the ​American League, Detroit, Philadelphia and New York led, Detroit finishing first.
In 1910 Chicago and New York were at the front, the Cubs winning the National pennant, and in the American League the Philadelphia Athletics won from New York.
It was in April, 1908, that Henry Chadwick, for more than fifty years connected as a writer on Base Ball matters with publications of New York and Brooklyn, died at his home in the latter city.
From the time of his arrival in America, at the age of thirteen years, Henry Chadwick was closely identified with our national game. As a lad, he saw it played by its earliest exponents. He was personally acquainted with members of the first Base Ball club ever organized. He knew all the members of the two famous quartets of clubs in New York and Brooklyn. He attended and made records of games played before the first Association of Base Ball Players was formed. He devised the first system of scoring and recording contests on the ball field.
In young manhood he became an authority on the playing of the game, and was personally instrumental in the working out of many improvements in the game itself. Aside from his acknowledged gifts as a writer of pure and forceful English, Mr. Chadwick possessed a peculiar penchant for statistics. To this attribute of Mr. Chadwick more than to any other source is attributable the perfectly accurate records covering the entire professional field and for which the game is to-day indebted.
Coming upon the stage of action at a time when the gambling and pool-selling evils were threatening its very life, he threw himself with all the force of an ardent nature into the struggle. He saw the managers of the early associations temporizing with the abuses referred to, encouraging them by continued toleration; but never for an instant did he falter in his demands for a clean game. He made enemies by the hundreds; he received the personal abuse of unscrupulous newspapers and their correspondents; he called upon his head the anathemas of all who were guilty, and the sneers and jibes of the weak and vacillating. He demanded the eradication of gambling. He exhorted strict temperance in the ranks of all ball players and advocated extreme measures in dealing with habitual inebriates. He insisted upon fair treatment of umpires, seeking always the enactment of rigid rules protecting them against rowdies, whether on the field, in grandstand or on bleachers. During the early evolution and development of the game, he was for many years Chairman of the Committees on Rules in the leading Associations. In that position his efforts were uniformly for rules looking to the upbuilding of an edifice of sport that should withstand the shocks of all time.
​As to his personality, I was for many years intimately associated with him and knew the fine old gentleman well. I cannot better express my estimate of him now than I did at the time of his death in these closing words of my contribution to his memorial tributes:
"I don't believe he had an enemy in the world, and I am sure I voice the sentiments of everyone interested in Base Ball and clean athletic sports when I say that he was an honor to the game he loved so well and for which he did so much."
April, 1909, witnessed the unveiling in Greenwood Cemetery of the monument erected to the memory of this fine old gentleman. It is a beautiful stone, and for ages will tell the story of how a good man's worth is esteemed by those who knew it and felt its influence.
The following, from the pen of John B. Foster, appeared in the New York Evening Telegram of April 22, 1909:
"On the eastern side of Greenwood Cemetery, near the driveway which circles from the Ninth Avenue entrance, is the grave of Henry Chadwick, the 'Father of Base Ball.'
"The plot is in a newer portion of the beautiful burying ground. The trees have not begun to grow above it yet, but the flowers have, and there are banks of pansies and violets around the mound underneath which sleeps the dead writer.
"Organized Base Ball, and the men who are connected with organized Base Ball, contributed to the monument to the dead. Yesterday it was unveiled. Very appropriately, the unveiling was done by Miss Leonora V. Caylor, daughter of another veteran writer on the national game, O. P. Caylor, formerly of the editorial staff of the New York Herald and also of that of the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune and the old Sporting Times.
"The monument which has been erected to the memory of Mr. Chadwick is a plain and simple gray granite shaft, quite massive in dimensions. On its top there is a huge Base Ball carved in granite and on three sides of the shaft there are bronze tablets which tell ​the story of his life and the story of the sport toward which he contributed so much. One tablet gives his age and across it, in letters which will last ages, there is the well-known inscription, 'Father of Base Ball.' The other tablets show bats crossed with the mask and the glove, which are part of the implements of the national pastime.
"Mrs. Chadwick, who is ninety years of age, was present yesterday with her daughters and listened to the ceremoni s at the side of the grave. The Rev. Dr. T. E. Potterton, of the Church of Our Father, began with prayer, after which Miss Caylor pulled the cord which held a national flag in folds over the monument. Mr. William Hudson, of the Brooklyn Eagle editorial staff, a personal friend of the dead writer, delivered the oration, and Charles H. Ebbets, President of the Brooklyn Base Ball Club, in behalf of organized Base Ball, presented the monument to Mrs. Chadwick.
"Miss Florence Richter, daughter of the editor of Sporting Life, designed the monument, which was warmly praised by those who were present yesterday at the dedication ceremonies."