The First Major League (1875-1889)
As president of the Chicago White Stockings, William A. Hulbert wanted to put together the best baseball team in the world. As a businessman, he wanted the team to make money, and he didn't see how teams could make money within the structure of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players.
Hulbert felt there wasn't enough structure. Teams that were out of the pennant race often decided to stay home and play exhibition games against non-association teams rather than spend money on meaningless road trips. Since the association membership was concentrated in the east, this was a major problem for western teams, like Hulbert's, since they had to make lengthy trips to fulfill their schedules and then, all too often, most of the eastern teams didn't reciprocate.
Hulbert envisioned a compact, permanent, well-balanced organization of eight teams, four in the east and four in the west, committed to a full championship schedule while avoiding games with outside teams, insofar as possible.
His first move, though, was to strengthen his own team. While the 1875 season was still underway, he persuaded four Boston stars, Ross Barnes, Cal McVey, Albert G. Spalding, and James "Deacon" White, to join the White Stockings in 1876, and he also signed Adrian C. "Cap" Anson of the Philadelphia Athletics.
The moves violated an NAPBBP rule that a player couldn't sign with another team until the season was over. Anticipating trouble from the Eastern clubs that controlled the association, Hulbert worked with representatives of the St. Louis team to draw up a constitution for a new league and lined up support from good independent teams in Cincinnati and Louisville.
Four of the association's Eastern teams, Boston, Hartford, New York, and Philadelphia, were then invited to a meeting in New York City on February 2, 1876. The eight teams agreed to form a new organization, the National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, which was to become the first true major league.
The name of the organization indicates a major change in structure: This was a league of clubs, not of players. The promoters and owners of the teams were to be in charge.
The fact that the National League still exists is a tribute to Hulbert's vision. The first several years were difficult but, as president of the league, Hulbert refused to back down from his original idea, even when disaster threatened.
He achieved his first goal, of building the strongest team in the world, immediately. His White Stockings won the league's first pennant with a 52-14 record in 1876. Ironically, that precipitated the league's first crisis: The New York Mutuals and Philadelphia Athletics, well out of the pennant race, didn't make their Western road trips.
The Scandal of 1877
Even though they represented the two biggest cities in the league, the clubs were expelled. Struggling through the 1877 season with only six teams, the NL had to confront a major scandal when four Louisville players were suspended for throwing games. Hulbert immediately banned them for life, and Louisville dropped out of the league, along with St. Louis and Hartford. They were replaced by Indianapolis, Milwaukee, and Providence.
Most teams lost money during those early years and the turnover in franchises continued, yet Hulbert held his course, returning to an eight-team format in 1879, although the cities represented were much smaller than they had been in 1876.
Owners fastened on player salaries as the chief cause of their losses. After the 1879 season, they secretly agreed to allow each team to reserve five players. Other league teams couldn't negotiate with any reserved players. That was the beginning of the reserve clause, which was written into the standard player contract in 1887.
In the interests of profitability and respectability, Hulbert persuaded most of the NL owners in 1880 to adopt rules requiring a 50-cent admission charge and banning both Sunday games and the sale of liquor on club grounds.
A couple of teams objected to the high ticket price, but went along with it. The Cincinnati club, though, refused to agree to the other new rules. Many of the Cincinnati fans were of German descent. Unhindered by English Puritanism, they believed in enjoying themselves on the Sabbath and they also enjoyed drinking beer while they watched baseball.
On October 4, 1880, Cincinnati was expelled from the National League. But baseball remained popular in the city. It was also popular in some other good-sized cities that had been excluded from the National League.
Cincinnati led a move to form a new major league. At a meeting in the city on November 2, 1881, the American Association of Base Ball Clubs was organized with five charter members: Cincinnati, St. Louis, Louisville, the Pittsburgh Alleghenys, and the Brooklyn Atlantics. The Philadelphia Athletics joined a little later. Shortly before the 1882 season opened, the Pittsburgh club dropped out and was replaced by Baltimore.
The Association featured a 25-cent admission charge, Sunday baseball, and the sale of liquor at games. At first, there was no overt attempt to sign players away from National League teams, but after two Association players jumped to the NL just before the season, Association teams struck back by signing some NL players to "optional" contracts for 1883.
Despite having only six teams to the National League's eight, the Association probably drew more fans in 1882. According to one report, five of its teams outdrew Chicago, which was by far the NL's biggest gate attraction.
Over the winter, the Association added teams in New York and Columbus. In response, the NL quickly dropped its weakest franchises, Troy and Worcester, and moved into New York and Philadelphia.
A Sudden Peace
It appeared that a major battle was going to take place, with both leagues spending heavily for players. But peace came suddenly and unexpectedly because the minor Midwestern League was being revived and its backers wanted the NL to respect its player contracts.
The National League invited the American Association to join the talks and the three leagues worked out an agreement called the Tripartite Pact. It was later renamed the National Agreement to allow other minor leagues to become part of what became known as Organized Baseball.
The leagues agreed to honor one another's contracts and allowed each team to reserve eleven players, who could not be signed by any other club.
After a prosperous 1883 season, another challenge arose. Led by Henry V. Lucas of St. Louis, the Union Association placed teams in six major-league cities, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and St. Louis, as well as in Altoona, Pennsylvania, and Washington, DC.
The Unions said they would respect existing contracts but attacked the reserve clause. However, the new league managed to sign only a few established players and Lucas's St. Louis team won its first twenty-one games, virtually destroying fan interest.
Only five of the original Union Association teams made it through the season and the league officially went out of business in January of 1885. Meanwhile, Lucas was awarded a National League franchise in St. Louis.
Even after its demise, the Union Association haunted the two major leagues. The American Association, at the urging of National League owners, had expanded to twelve teams in 1884 to help fight off the Union threat, resulting in heavy losses. Lucas's team in St. Louis was another bone of contention, since the Association already had a team there.
In the spring of 1885, Association owners decided they would no longer honor the reserve clause, theoretically allowing them to sign players from National League teams. However, they also agreed to a conference committee to iron out differences between the two leagues.
New National Agreement Signed
The conference committee met in August and worked out a new National Agreement, under which the Association once again accepted the reserve clause, beginning another uneasy truce.
Meanwhile, the players were getting restless, mainly because of the reserve clause. Nine members of the New York Giants formed the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players after the 1885 season, with shortstop John Montgomery Ward as president.
By 1887, the Brotherhood had members on every team in the major leagues. Ward tried to get the owners to recognize the Brotherhood as a union, but was turned down. The players did win one small victory: The reserve clause was formally written into the standard contract, rather than existing only as a semi-secret agreement among the owners themselves.
When the owners adopted the Classification Plan, setting a limit of $2,500 on salaries for the 1889 season, the players talked about striking on July 4. At Ward's behest, they voted against the strike, though. Ward had another idea: A new league, to be operated as a cooperative of players and team backers.