"A Structure To Last Forever":The Players' League And The Brotherhood War of 1890" © 1995,1998, 2001 Ethan Lewis. All Rights Reserved.
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The final defeat of the Players' League had far ranging effects on baseball in particular
and professional sports in general. In baseball, salaries were lowered, the Brotherhood
ceased to exist, and within a year, the National League was the only major league
left, existing as a bloated, inefficient twelve-team baseball monopoly. As a result
of the failure of the Players' League all subsequent professional sports organizations
have been organized on the hierarchical basis first promulgated by the NL, wherein
players are treated as employees and assets, and have no input in league management
and very little role in deciding the conditions of their own employment. Several
Players' League leaders continued to fight against Organized Baseball in later years,
but many others tried to erase from their memories any trace of involvement in the
Brotherhood War. Ultimately, the men who were at one time in a position to revolutionize
sports have faded into the deepest recesses of sports history, where they are often
misunderstood and more frequently ignored.
In 1891, salaries in baseball were drastically reduced. Tim
Keefe went from earning $4,500 to $3,000; Jim
O'Rourke saw his salary lowered by $1,000; Roger
Connor, after batting .372 and leading the PL in homeruns took a cut from
$3,500 to $3,000. 129 To
establish rosters for the 1891 season, PL players were restored to the clubs
which owned them in 1889, as the long term PL contracts were voided when the
League disbanded, and with no alternative, the players were forced to sign with
whom the remaining Leagues told them to sign. This led to conflict between the
AA and the NL, as each failed to fully honor this agreement, and raided the
other organizations for players. The result was the 1891 "Association War",
which once again featured lawsuits, conflicting schedules, and the loss of a
great deal of money. The American Association, already gravely weakened by the
Brotherhood War, collapsed after the 1891 season, putting four of its' entries
into the National League and the other four franchises received $130,000 to
quit baseball. 130
The result of this merger was an unwieldy twelve
team circuit which saw ten teams finish out of the running every year. The
National League finally became the "baseball trust" which Ward
had warned of, and it quickly re-established the reserve rule and the practice
of selling players. In 1900, the American League (AL) was formed to challenge
the NL's exclusive control of major league baseball, but it too was organized
by capitalist entrepreneurs, who relied on the reserve rule and allowed no input
from players over League decisions. One of the AL's first owners was Charles
Comiskey, who just as Albert
Spalding had done before him used a new league to move to the ranks of ownership;
he even took the name "White Stockings" for his team.
In an interview arranged by Spalding at Christmastime, 1890, John
M. Ward revealed the toll which the tumultuous season just past had taken on
him. Ward had been a tireless worker for the Players' League, as well as the shortstop
and manager of the Brooklyn team, where he enjoyed his best season as a player, hitting
.369 and leading the league with 207 hits. 131
While his comments apply most completely to himself, Ward's sentiments doubtless
represented those of many Brotherhood leaders:
To tell you the truth I have thought but very little about baseball for the last three weeks, but I should say that it's pretty muddled...It doesn't make a particle of difference to me what is done by the League. I am satisfied to go out of the business and may. I worked faithfully for principle, and don't know but now may be the best time to stop. I will enjoy a little country life from now until the first of the year, and then go into a law office here in New York and practice my profession. I am not certain that I will remain in the business. I certainly will not unless I have something to say in the matter. 132
Spalding
generously (as befits a victor) told Ward,
"Well John, if you had died last June the Players' League would have gone
to rest. You were the man who, singlehandedly, kept it alive." Showing
the grim strength of spirit which made him a leader, Ward
replied, "I was almost dead long before that, but struggled along, thinking
the other fellows were in a bad way."133
Ward
played for four more years, two with Brooklyn of the National League and the
final two once more with the Giants. He retired at the age of 34 after seventeen
years in the big leagues. In 1896, he successfully petitioned the Giants to
remove his name from their reserve list. While many sportswriters suspected
that Ward
wanted to return to the game, he insisted that he only wanted to live his life
free of the loathsome rule. Interestingly, one of those most opposed to giving
Ward
his freedom was Giants shareholder and former Players' League turncoat Edward
Talcott. 134 Ward
continued to fight the good fight for players rights; as a lawyer he often defended
baseball players in disputes with ownership. Ward
also ventured into the ranks of management later in life, as part owner of the
NL Boston Braves in 1912, and as secretary of the BrookFeds of the upstart Federal
League in 1914. 135 While
he was always proud of his work with the Brotherhood and Players' League, when
he was inducted to the Baseball
Hall of Fame in 1964, his plaque omitted any mention of either enterprises.
Other men who first showed their mettle in the Players League and went on to
become owners include Ned
Hanlon and Connie
Mack, who owned and managed the Philadelphia Athletics for 53 years. As
mentioned above, Charles
Comiskey became owner of the (AL) Chicago White Sox, and his tight-fisted
ways as an owner are reputed to have led to the Black Sox scandal of 1919.
Orator Jim O'Rourke, one of the earliest Brotherhood firebrands and a shareholder
of the Buffalo PL team eventually became president of the New England League,
a minor league, and denied that he had ever been in the Brotherhood. 136
The failure of the Players' League has been blamed on many things. Ward
blamed "stupidity, avarice, and treachery" by the capitalists; capitalist
J.E. Wagner blamed players such as Buck
Ewing, who reportedly betrayed the PL and advocated the conglomeration of
the New York Clubs (which Ewing denied). Frank Brunell, former PL Secretary,
blamed "the treacherous eagerness" of the New York and Brooklyn capitalists,
who allowed themselves to be outsmarted by Spalding,
as well as a failure to raise more stock, which would have enhanced the clubs'
ability to handle the adversity of 1890. 137
All of those are good reasons, to which may be added the failure to change their
schedule to avoid the conflicting dates which so adversely affected attendance and
public opinion; as well as the fundamental problem of entering into a co-operative
relationship with men whose only stake was monetary. The Brotherhood started the
Players' League to redress the inequities of life under the National Agreement, and
to prove that they could successfully manage the business at which they had spend
years training. The players were armed with conviction and very little money, both
of which they heavily invested into their new enterprise. The wealthy capitalists
towards whom they turned for aid were initially strongly in favor of helping the
players, and were opposed to the practice of "selling players like they were
so much cattle"; these men also invested both capital and conviction. Unfortunately,
when confronted with the loss of considerable sums of money, the Players' League
backers found it judicious to sacrifice principle to profit. The Brotherhood men
were no less principled than they had been, but without the financial aid of their
supporters, the Players' League and the Brotherhood died.
In an editorial at the end of 1890, the Sporting News attempted to assess
how history would judge John
Ward and his Brotherhood:
John Ward might have gone down in history as a great man in a small way had he succeeded in placing the Brotherhood on a solid footing and breaking through the impenetrable baseball line. Others, like, him, might have shared in the glory, providing, of course, their efforts had been crowned in success....Ward and those who fought with him might have been written down in history as great had that one word, success crowned their efforts. As it failed to follow them, however, there are no crowns for them and when they are gone they will be thought of as fellows of no great shakes at all. 138
On the one hand, as mentioned above, this judgement is prescient; the Brotherhood
and the Players' League receive little if any attention by baseball historians. This
is mainly due to a lack of proper perspective on the part of those scholars. It is
true that the PL failed, and that by 1892 players were under as strong a yoke as
ever before. But that does not mean that the leaders and organizers of the Players'
League should not be recognized for the vision and creativity they possessed. While
the Brotherhood did look back with a longing gaze at the National Association days,
it was in itself a truly revolutionary organization, which alone of any prominent
industrial union of the day attempted to create a truly co-operative business partnership
between skilled laborers and capitalist entrepreneurs. The Brotherhood men, contrary
to public opinion, viewed themselves as gentlemen and professionals, who deserved
respect and fair treatment and earned enough money to qualify for such.
Modern baseball players are in a similar position as the men of the Brotherhood were
over a century ago. They are confronted with arrogant owners who are intransigent
in their desire to trample the players' rights in pursuit of their own profits. Like
the Brotherhood men, they are very well off in comparison to the general population,
are members of an effective union and are extremely disgusted with their treatment
by the owners. "Replacement" baseball shows that the owners do not respect
the major league players.
Perhaps the time has come for a new Players' League, populated by the players
of the Major League Baseball Players' Association, which could learn from the
lessons presented by the Brotherhood's failure. It is likely that today's players,
who have much more money at their disposal, and access to television (which
could put the new league on a stable financial footing, as well as help take
their case to the public) and modern advertising could withstand the hazards
which doomed the Players' League. Perhaps then, John
Montgomery Ward would receive the credit he deserves as a visionary and
gifted leader, and perhaps the Players' League of 1890 would be recognized as
the forerunner to a less exploitative form of professional sports.
129. The Sporting News February 14, 1891.
130. Seymour,
Baseball: The Early Years pp. 260-261. Baltimore, Washington, St.
Louis and Louisville joined the NL at this time.
131. Baseball Encyclopedia , p. 1568.
132. "Ward and Spalding" New York Clipper
December 20, 1890.
133. ibid.
134. Lowenfish
and Lupien, The Imperfect Diamond p. 52.
135. Voigt, "John Montgomery Ward", Biographical
Dictionary of American Sports .
136. John
Thorn and Pete Palmer, eds. Total Baseball (New York: Warner Books)
1989. p. 375. Lowenfish
and Lupien, The Imperfect Diamond p. 50.
137. Seymour,
Baseball: The Early Years p. 248.
138. "Ward and Success" The Sporting News
November 22, 1890.
Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7
"A Structure To Last Forever":The Players' League And The Brotherhood War of 1890" © 1995,1998, 2001 Ethan Lewis.. All Rights Reserved.