The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1870-04-11
CITY INTELLIeENCE E.
THE BASE. BALL SEASON.

The Opening To-day-The Prospects for the
eeasOu-The Leading Clubs and their Cham-
pies Nines-Tho Grand Tournament.
The Athletic Baseball Club will to-day,
weather permitting, open the Philadelphia sea-
son by O game, at o'clock in the afternoon, on
their grounds at seventeenth street and Colun.
bia avenue The contestants on this occasion
will be the champion 1870 nine of the Athletics
and strong nine selected from the leading pro-
fessionals OF this city. The game in all prooa-
bity will be strongly contested, as the rival
sides are of nearly equal strength.
The coming season promises to be very
lively one in every respect. The victorious
conrse of the Western "Reds' of last season has
had the effect of making the leading clubs put
forth extra eKertions for the mastery. Should
the Red Stockings Of Cincinnati again come
this way, they will probably meet with much
warmer reception than they received last
season.
A new professional nine of great ability is said
TO have been organized under the auspices OF
the Chicago Club. 1t Is composed of the very
best men, as 1t may well be, for it is ten thou
sand dollar party. 1t is however, nothing but q
picked nine at the best, not club nine, as
those of the Athletic, the Atlantic, or the Red
Stockings are. 1t is composed of the best
players who we're formerly connected with the
Haymakers of Lansingburg, the Olympics of
Washington, the Eckfords of New York, and
the Athletics of Philadelphia. Though good
;nSividual PLAYERS it is yet to be seen how they
will work together. They may not be found so
very strong when on the field and opposed to
mines who have been playing together for long
time, and understand all the ins and outs of
each others playing.
The four leading professional clubs of the
country now are the champion Atlantics, of
Brooklyn; the Red Stockings, of Cincinnati the
Athletics, of Philadelphia; and the Mutuals, of
New York. These four took the lead last year,
and they now have the four strongest mines in
the country. The following are the names of the
players and their positions in the mines of the
above clubs:-
Positions Atlantic. CiacinnaH. Athletic. Mutual
catcher. Ferguson allison Malone Q. Mills
FIRST FiTsnfI Base Start 'H Gould EiseT \ Mis-
Seed Base Pike sWsazy @ Bss., Beach EElSHE EE
Short Stop Swandsll G Wright Radcliffe Hatfield
Left Fed Chapman r,, Patterson
IT. Field MoDonaidMcVey Berry Martin
The ball-payng fraternity is, as every one
knows, divided into the two classes of ''profes-
sionar' and amateur" The members of the
first class are compensated for their field services
either by regular salary, division of the gate
money receipts, or by appointment to public or
private offices. The members of the second
class pay for their amusement by club fees and
dues, and play only on account of the exercise
and excitement
There are now about one thousand regularly
organized clubs throughout the country, of
which number about five hundred have been
enrolled as members of the national association
or of its State branch associations. The total
number OF the clubs who favor the professional
system is about thirty, of which not more than
twenty are at all prominent. There are few
clubs which are in sort of half state of profess
sionalism. Their mines are mostly amateur,
but they have few members who expect some
compensation for their services, of which fact
little is said, and hardly anything is known.
The following table gives the names of the mest
prominent professional clubs in their alphabet
cal order:-