Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1912-01-07
BALL PLAYING
 AS 4 PROFESSION
The Cincinnati Red Stockings tht Pioneer Professional
 Organization

fame forty years ago as the inV1ncl- ble pitcher of the Boston club. pre- yious to the formation of the Na- tional league, has written a book of nearly 500 pages, with the tile Of Americas National Game.' an inter. esting record of events dating from pastime It is In no sense his the beginning of the great American pastime. It is in no sense a history, but deals largely with incidents dur Ing MT. Spaldings career, which ia practically contemporaneous with pro- fes .onal baseball. as Mf. Spaldins was player of renown in the late sos and early 70s, helped to found the present National League in 1876, playing for Chicago and leading the League pitchers of that year. subse- Quently becoming pr sident of the Chi cago club and the foremost figure n the government of baseball for many years.
 In Chapter X, dealing with the sub iect of professional ba ebaliMr Spald ing writes as follows concerning the birth of professionalism In the nat tonal game:
 As pertinent to the question i professionalism, l recall very distinc = ly bit Of controversy Wita Harry n,,io in bN Rockford to secure the services el Roscoe Barnes, Pred Cone and myself for the Boston Club. The profession al Red Stockings, of Cincinanti, the pioneer profess. s.onal club, had dis banded That organization. under Mr. Wright's management, had demon strated that professionalism not on- ly stood for a marked Improvement i'll playing, but that the dreaded oppos;- tion on the part of the public did not materialize, since the simple an nouncement that the Red Stockings were to appear had been sufficient al- ways to attract crowds.
 But the experiment. had not yet been tried in an Eastern city. Hence, when Wright came with his overtures to Barnes. Cone and myself, 1t was to ioin a club ostensibly amateur but really professional; for all we were to receive good salaries. I knew that the manager of the Bostons felt exactly as did with regard to the subject; but l could see that he was reluctant to break over the custom in vogue in Now England and oppose the honest prejudice existing in that section and all over the East against profession al baseball.
 However. was inclined to be ob- stinate in my views of the matter. had determined to enter baseball as . profession. was neither ashamed of the game nor of my attachment to 1t. Mir. Wright was there offering us adequate cash inducements to play on tho Boston team. We were willing t., accept his offer. Why, then, so before tho public under the false pretense of being amateurs? The assumption oi non-professionalism would not deceive anybody It vas not possible that any could be found so simple as to b. teve that George and Harry Wright. Cal McVey and the rest were in- the game merely for healthfA or philan- shropic reasons. Then why engage In duplicity?
 We went over the whole subject threshed 1t out in all its bearings, and finally agreed to come dat open iy and above-bcard as a professional organization. The result was oven moro gratifying than we had hoped Opposition In the East faded rapidly away. Soon after the orgaAizakioA in 1871. of the National Association ok professional baseball players, pro fessionaN m was firmly rooted end establiShed."
 MT. Spaulding devotes a chapter ot the literature of the game. quoting several instances of the base bell \ paragrapher's art, and also spect- nens of the distictive poetry of thu 2 pastime. Of which "Casey at the Bet Is probably tn most widely known.
 The Illustrations are numeroui and varied, and renge prom a pic ture of ball games of archaeology t< design of the new grand stand d the Polo grounds. New York. Th| pictures Of old time teams. player' and magnates of bygone era wtl interest every lover Of the game ant no doubt start many, discussions ans recollections among the oad-timers In addition Homer Davenport, Amer ica's great cartooniat. has contrib