Evening star., 1939-04-16

Stadium last year. Standing ne
diers tossed a baseball across the
lines to the Confederates during a
lull and the gray troopers tossed 1t
back and forth.
Baseball scared both during and
after the Civil War. The first great
turnout in history occurred on
Christmas Day in 1862, when two
military teams played a game at
Hilton Head, S. c. No fewer than
10000 troops surrounded the field
to cheer the opposing teams.
When the war was over soldiers
of both sides began to play the
game. Strong amateur and semi
professional teams sprang up every
where. In 1869 the Cincinnati Red
Stockings decided to drop the
mantle Of psuedo-amateurism and
come out openly as professional
club. Harry Wright was the man
ager and after the move the Red
Stockings booked the strongest clubs
it could find. They toured the East,
the Midwest and the Pacific Coast
and were unbeatable. They won 81
games and were tied only once. They
did not lose game in their first
season and were paid staggering
salaries. Star Of the team and Short
stop was George Wright, who was
the highest paid player in the world
at 81 .406 for the season. Harry
Wright. who played center, was paid
1900. A utility player. Hurley, was
on the pay roll at $500, an astound-
ing salary in those days for ball
player.
Pro Teams Sprang Up.
The Red Stockings disbanded in
1870, but the following year a num-
Der of other pro teams sprung up.
including the Nationals and Olym-
pics of Washington, Unions of Nor
risania, Mutuals of New York. Hay
makers of Troy, Forest Citys Of
Cleveland, Kekiongas of Fort Wayne,
Atlantics of Brooklyn. the Bostons,
the Athletics of Philadelphia, Mary
lands of Baltimore and Forest Citys
of Rockford, Ill.
The first league race in history
was won by the Athletics, who on
the centennial of baseball's birth
are almost unanimously picked to
finish last in the American League.
Ten professional clubs banded to-
gether in 1871 to organize the Ma
tional Association of Professional
Baseball Players. They were New
York, Boston, Brooklyn, Philadel-
phia, Troy, Chicago, Cleveland,
Rockford and Fort Wayne.
The first team ever to win four
straight championships was the
Bostons, who started in 1872 and
grabbed association titles with
monotonous regularity. They finally
were broken up and Chicago in
duced four of the Boston stars to
play for the Windy City, which was
rewarded, as a result, with the title
in 1876.
The pro game still was not the
respected, well-organized industry
that it is today. Gambling. drink
ing and other abuses were common.
So in the old Grand Central Hotel
in New York on February 2, 1876,
William A. Hubert, president Of the
Chicago club, called a meeting of
four Eastern teams and four West
ern outfits. Hubert was looking
toward the future and out of that
meeting came the National League
Of Professional Baseball Clubs. an
organization that Immediately barred
bookmaking and liquor selling at ball
parks. Players were warned against
contract jumping and threatened
with expulsion for making bets on
games. -Four Louisville players were
found guilty of throwing" games
that year and were expelled. The
public looked up at once to this new
era Of baseball. The colleges made
1t their major sport and the sand
lots buzzed with boy devotees.
League Flourished.
New leagues sprung up and faded
out. The National League became
the most powerful and the largest
in 1892, when it increased its mem
bership to II teams, including one
from Washington. But after the
Spanish-American War broke out
and money became scarce, Cleve-
land, Washington, Baltimore and
Louisville were dropped and the
National became an eight-club
league again.
Out of the 80s came many great
players-pitchers like Clark Griffith,
now owner of the Washington Sen
ators, and Al. G. Spalding: batting
stars like Dan Brouthers, Pop An
son and Wee Willie Keeler. And, as
the century turned, other fabulous
figures came who were even greater
Hans Wagner, Christy Mathew
son, Cy Young, Iron Man Joe Nc
Ginnity, Jack Chesbro, Napoleon
Lajoie, Ty Cobb, Grover Alexander,
Chief Bender and the immortal
Walter johnson.
As baseball moved. into the 20th