Clipping:$1000 paid for a release
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| Date | Monday, September 24, 1883 |
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| Text | ...[Fred] Lewis, the crack centre fielder, for whom St. Louis paid $1,000 to the Philadelphia Club for his simple release... The Sporting Life September 24, 1883 reaction to the formation of the UA As foreshadowed last week, a movement toward the formation of a rival base ball association has taken shape at a meeting in Pittsburg last Wednesday, whereat was organized what is called “The Union Association of Base Ball Clubs.” Officers were elected, and a constitution adopted which is said to be similar to that of the American Association, “with a few changes.” What these changes were may be inferred from the adoption of a resolution that “while we recognize the validity of the League and American Association, we cannot recognize any agreement whereby any number of ball players may be reserved for any club for any time beyond the term of his contract with said club.” The meaning of this is that the new Association proposes to adopt the club-wrecking policy and go into the “cut-throat” business helter skelter. If this programme were backed up by men of means, responsibility, and respectability, the League and Association clubs might well feel alarmed at an outlook so injurious to their own prospects generally. But we search the list of officers and directors in vain for the name of one person of means or responsibility, or whose business and social standing is such as to inspire confidence either among ball-players or ball-patrons. The organization savors of the wildcat species all through. Nevertheless a wildcat may scratch around and do considerable mischief when people are off their guard. Believing firmly that a wide-open competition for players will force salaries up to a point where financial failure and insolvency are a certainty, and that in this way an injury will be inflected upon players and upon the game of base ball, American Sports favors the reserve system as wise and judicious, and condemns the policy of the new association as mischievous and censurable. Players will be foolish if they fall into any such trap as that set by the adventurers and speculators who made up the Pittsburg meeting. There is a vast difference between a big salary promised in May and a big salary not paid in July or August, and if players allow themselves to be tempted by a large offer by parties without capital or character they will have nobody bu themselves to blame for the consequences. The Sporting Life October 1, 1883, quoting the Chicago American Sports |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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