Clipping:A challenge to Chadwick on playing 'social' games to evade eligibility rules
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| Date | Saturday, August 3, 1867 |
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| Text | [a card from Philadelphia, regarding a “social” game in which the Mutuals played the Hudson River club, including in their nine Lipman Pike] We have referred to this game (a full report of which, with the incidents which we have mentioned above, being published in the New York Tribune, of the 23d inst.), for a purpose, and that purpose is not only to remind the gentleman who professes to have bas ball matters under his especial charge in the United States, that, as this game and the circumstances attending it are precisely similar to the games played by the Athletic Club in Boston, we insist that he assumes the same position against the Mutuals that he did toward the Athletics; that he lectures them as severely, denounces them in terms as ungrateful, speaks of them as disparagingly and as bitterly as he did of the Philadelphia Club. We say that we shall insist that he does this, otherwise we shall hold him up to the ridicule of all fair-minded men. He must either do this or retract all that he has said against the Athletic Club. He will find that when the prominent clubs of the country show their independence by interpreting the laws of the association themselves, and not for a moment allowing a single base ball reporter to assume this duty for them, he will find, we remark, that he has mistaken, not only the character of the clubs to whom he was presumed to dictate, but mistaken likewise his calling. New York Clipper August 3, 1867 [editorial comment] We have not seen any attack on the Mutuals for their course with regard to Pike, as in the case of the Athletics, and we therefore presume that the assailants of the A’s, are now convinced that the position they took is untenable. New York Clipper August 3, 1867 The Mutual Club, following the example of the Athletics, we notice, have adopted the Philadelphia plan of violating the rule of the game–prohibiting players from taking part in match games, who have not been members of the club they play with thirty days–under the guise of playing a “social” game; this is, they played the Hudson River Club, with Pike in their nine, before he had been a member the designated thirty days. ... Were these so-called “social” games merely friendly meetings, designed for amusement and recreation alone, without any object of testing the playing strength of the clubs, of course no objection could be interposed, for under such circumstances two clubs could mix up their nines for the sake of making things equal; but they are not; on the contrary, these so-called “social” contests...are regular trials of skill, in which each club tries its best to win, and in which each puts forth its full strength. Hence the injurious effects of the example of contempt for the rules of the game thus afforded to less prominent clubs. If this latest dodge for violating the rules of the game be allowed to go unrebuked, by and by there will be none but “social” games played, and under this guise any and every rule of the game may be violated; for instance players may be paid for their services; the ball may be thrown or jerked; a half dozen players of other clubs can be introduced; money may be played for openly, as in the prize ring, and, in fact, all the evils which the rules prohibit, may be introduced under the plea of this “social” game system. Ball Players Chronicle August 8, 1867 |
| Source | New York Clipper |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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