The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1897-06-13

corporations-With no object save to make
as much money as possible out of the hired
players. who perform their parts like a
company of actors.
THE PROFESSIONAL PLAYERS.
The encroachment of the professional
baseball player was gradual. The rivalry
between clubs soon became so great that
in order to strengthen itself and to win
victory over some rival, each would leave
nothing undone TO secure the best players.
Thus inducements" were held out to men
who had shown an unusual aptitude for the
game to induce them to play only with a
particular club. A wealthy gentleman for
instance. desiring to see his club in the
front rank would offer some young man
of rare baH-playing ability a position in
his business or counting house, with pri-
waite understanding that his commercial du-
ties were merely nominal, while his real
ones were to play baseball. Thus there
were numerous clubs in the country which
were virtually professional ones long be-
fore professional ball-playing was openly
permitted and while the stringent law
against it was still in force in the code of
the National Association of Baseball Play
ers This was notably the case with those
famous old-time opponents, the Atlantic
OluD Oh new 1OTk ana the athletic 0luD
of Philadelphia
By 1871 professional clubs had attained
such numbers and influence that in New
York, on March II of that year, a conven-
ton of delegates from those organizations
openly vowed themselves professionals and
cut loose from the National Association of
Baseball Players. They adopted champion
ship-game rules, the most important be-
he cIIIh wiz oaT as
of five with each of the other professional
clubs should be declared champion. Cham
pionship contests had previously been Who'll
ly unregulated. The baseball champion
ship originated about 1858, when picked
New York and Brooklyn mines played the
so-called Fashion Course Games New
York winning the first and third by % to
is and 20 to Is, respectively while Brooklyn
took the second by 20 to s. From that time
till the adoption of the above-named cham
pionship rules by the professionals, what
ever club won two games out of three from
the then champion club became champion
in turn.
From the organization of professional
clubs, in 1871, amateur baseball playing
steadily declined. Gentlemen no longer
seemed to care to personally engage in
sport which had been made a business.
The game gradually came to be looked upon
as money-making scheme instead of an
amusing recreation and healthful exercise
in which all should participate. The pro-
fessional club association of 1871 was sue
ceeded on Feb. 2, 1876, by the National
League. formed in New York city by the
following professional clubs: Mutual, of
New York; Athletic, of Philadelphia, and
the St. Louis, Chicago, Hartford, Boston,
Cincinnati and Louisville clubs, of their
respective cities. During it's first year the
league was the only organization of the
kind, but on Feb 20, 1877, in Pittsburg, Pa,
the Tecumseh Club, of London, Canada;
Maple Leaf, of Guelph. Canada; Allegheny
Of Allegheny, Pa; Live Oak, of Lynn,
Mass; Buckeye, of Columbus, o.; Roches-
ter of Rochester, n. Y, and Manchester,
of Manchester, N H., formed the Inter-
national League. In the same year thir-
teen minor professional and semi-profes-
sional clubs formed the League Alliance,
of which nothing has been heard since
1882. The International League was sue
ceeded, on Feb. 10. 1879, by a new organi-
cation, called the National Association.
which expired two years later.
CHANGES IN THE GAME.
Cincinnati, O., was the birthplace of the
American Association, and Nov. 2, 1881, was
it's birthday. 1t comprised the Allegheny
Athletic of Philadelphia, Baltimore, Gin
cinnati, Eclipse of Louisville, and st. Louis
clubs. Besides the leagues named there
have been countless. others formed at vari-
Gus times in different parts of the coun-
try, but many of them have had only an
ephemeral existence. The National League
and the American Association were for
ms fHn two cot 1tr+i
associations of professional players, and the
former still continues as such. The Play
ers League, or Brotherhood" was an or
ganization of the players themselves in OPP
position to the capitalists who controlled
the leading clubs 1t originated some six
years ago, and lasted only one season
1t is not alone the recognition of profess
sional players which is responsible for the
present decadence of baseball, for the fact
that five thousand are now considered an
immense attendance at a game, while a
quarter of a century ago ten thousand or
twenty thousand were not uncommon, and
for the abandonment of the sport as a re-
creation of those whose muscles must need
its stimulating exercise. The changes and
so-called improvements CD in the game are
also largely to blame. Take pitching, for
example. The old rule required the pitcher
to actually pitch the ball, and at the mo-
ment of delivery his hand must be below
his waist. The word pitcher is now who'll
ly a misnomer, for the ball is no longer
pitched but thrown to the bat. Formerly
''in the good old days." the pitcher was
required to pitch the ball just where the
batsman wanted it. The latter could call
for a ball shoulder high" hip high
knee high" "a low ball. the last
named being a ball between the knee and
the ankle. Now he must strike at any ball
that goes over the plate. Curtailing rights
of the batsman and giving more license to
the pitcher was done solely with the inten-
ton Of reducing scores to a minimum.
This has tended to greatly diminish the
popularity of baseball. Good batting and
base-running are the most attractive fea-
lures of the sport, and games where man
after man retires at the home plate on
strikes and short flies or at first base on
feeble tips to the infielders resulting in
scores of naught TO naught one to naught
or two to four. are simply wearisome To
have the bases kept filed with runners and
to see run after run scored--not by fielding
errors, but by good batting and base-run-
ning-would draw twenty people to every
one now attending baseball games.