The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1910-06-30
The Players.


There is scarcely a sport known to
the world in which professionalism
does not exert a lowering influence.
Cricket, golf, even the turf, draw strict
lines between the amateur and the
professional In most branches of
athletics to become a professional
means to take a step backward in the
social scale and in the estimation of
fellow men.
The great exception to this rule is
baseball. The chief reason for this Is
that baseball in the United States and
Canada no longer is upon a doubtful
basis, but ranks as an established and
honorable trade. In addition the game
requires exceptional qualities of body
and mind, and In consequence per
feet physical condition, involving
moral restrictions, not only is insisted
upon, but brings exceptional rewards.
In the earlier days of the game pro
fessional players were looked upon, in
many cases justly, as rufiians or at
best itinerant ne'er-do-weels. In many
towns and cities of that time the
atrocious conduct of the hired ath-
letes. their carousals and misbehavior
on and OFF the field, gave the sport and
its players a bad name Players of
that day were recruits who looked
upon the game as a means Of crafty
ing nomadic tastes. Few of them ex-
pected to continue in the sport, and
regarded an engagement as a summer
outing, to be devoted to having a good
time.
The end Of that era came when
baseball became a paying commercial
venture and was placed upon a busi-
ness basis. During the early days OF
the National league, as well as the
smaller leagues. club owners, man
ayers and hackers invested in the
game for the love Of the sport itself
and without much thought of getting
any monetary returns. They expected
to lose money; or possibly to regain 1t
through the advertising the team
would give them or their cities, rather
than in actual receipts at the gates.
They organized and operated their
teams from that standpoint. Some Of
the owners were wealthy men, back
ing teams as an amusement or from
a personal pride. There was no recog-
nized basis for salaries, but the aver
age was low, and attracted only the
adventurous or the tough, scrappy ath-
letes from the back lots and bottoms
OF cities. While here and there were
men OF character and Of education, de-
cent clean young men who loved the
game. the average of the players was
low. morally and intellectually.
When the owners began to perceive
that the sport was the latent rival OF
the theater In financial possibilities
and possibly might become the great
est amusement enterprise in the
world, the necessity of curbing rowdy-
ism among the players and of obtain
ing men Of higher moral and mental
equipment impressed itself upon some
OF them. A few still held out for the
old order of things. The majority,
however, became wiser. They had
seen crowds suddenly cease to attend
games; whole cities turn In disgust
against teams and their tactics as
happened in Cleveland, Baltimore, and
once In New York. The owners then
decided to cater to the patrons; to
protect them from the insults and
revilings and the coarse words and
acts OF some of the men.
Much as the "commercialization of
baseball" is to be regretted from some
standpoints, the fact that 1t has abol-
ished rowdyism, brought higher,
cleaner and more sportmanlike class
OF players into the game and put
premium on brains commends the
business administration With the
beginning of financial prosperity to
owners, who had long struggled
against loss and sometimes ruin, a
higher class of men was attracted to
the profession. The colleges sent some
or their best men; young athletes who
under ordinary conditions would have
remained at home and entered bust.
ness were lured to the game by the
chances of big salaries and some hon
ors.
This revolution OF conditions began
before the Brotherhood fight which
eliminated in the revolt OF the play
ers in 1890. The game was beginning
to prosper after years of struggles,
salaries were growing higher and
higher, and club owners ware bidding
against each other for the services of
the best players. In that respect,
baseball Is one Of the oldest of all
business ventures. Eight club owners
In the league are partners In business,
sharing receipts, sharing prosperity
and adversely. Yet all the time these
business partners must strive to beat
each other on the field and to take
each others players away from them.
The National league has almost from
the start been mercenary. and this un-