Clipping:Hired Players will Destroy Base Ball
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| Date | Wednesday, August 21, 1867 |
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| Text | “The great element of popularity of base ball thus far has been the belief that the clubs were composed of young men who played to amuse themselves and improve their leisure hours. This was formerly true, but the champion matches, at first the result of an honest spirit of emulation, have begotten a new order of things—base ball playing from a mere recreation tis becoming a business. … There is hardly a club that pretends to any eminence, or that plays public matches, but employs men at a salary to play in their nines. The National Base Ball Association has discountenanced this practice, but has not been able to check it. There is no secret about it; the names of the men who play for hire are known to the ball players and frequenters of the ball grounds. In some clubs there is an attempt made to cloak this practice, the gratuities of players are made in the shape of benefits, or assistance in a business way. … The professional players will naturally sell their services to the highest bidder; then what is the value of the championship to a club when the very men who won it for them may be hired the next week by a rival club to wrest the title from them. The club that can afford to pay the most money will be champions.” |
| Source | Brooklyn Daily Eagle, Aug. 21, 1867, p. 2 |
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| Submitted by | Bruce Allardice |
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