Clipping:How games come to be thrown; professionalism defended and illustrated
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| Date | Thursday, February 13, 1868 |
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| Text | [commentary by “A Professional”] There as been a great deal of unnecessary and unjust abuse of professional ball playing, I take it, and the reason has been that the class who may now be ranged as professionals, have not been as careful of their character as they might have been. You know well enough that the class of first-rate ball players who have been playing ball for money, as well as for a love of the sport, for these past five or six have, have not been, as a general thing, men you can trust or rely on. The temptation to act dishonestly I know to be very great. For instance, a grand match is to be played between two clubs ranking as champion contestant, and the day is appointed, great excitement exists, and considerable money is bet on the result. Now, I am one of the nine, we will say, and two or three well known betting men come down to my place to see me early on the morning of the match. They want to know what the chances are of my club’s winning. We sit down at the table, and all have a drink around. Says A to me, “Bill, I know a man who has bet high on this match that the --------- club will win, and who would like to bet two hundred dollars to two cents with you that they will, and he has put the money up in my hands. If you take the bet, all you have to do is to give me two cents as your share of the bet, and see to it that your club gets beat. You know that they are down on you, and don’t treat you right, and it would be a good chance to get square with them. We don’t want you to ‘sell’ the game, or anything of that kind, but just go in and play kinder mad, you know.” Now, you see how this works, Mr. Editor. If I am not particular, and am badly in want of stamps, of course I take the bet. If am I honest, I just say to them that I am not “on” that style of thing, you know, and don’t care about betting. But how many are there of us professionals who will do this? Now, this thing has been done time and again. There is another way, too, which may be called implied dishonesty, or wining at fraud in a match, and it is this: A party of five or six make up a betting “ring” on a big match, one out of town, we will say, in which case the rascality can be easier accomplished. This “ring” have an understanding with one or two of the nine of one of the contesting clubs, in which it is arranged that a handsome per centage of the bets won shall go to the players who enter the “ring,” and this being amicably arranged, these players are then informed that the “ring masters” have bet their pile on the success of the other club. It then, of course, becomes the interest of these players to see that that other club wins, and it generally happens that it does win. This little game was to have been tried in a game some four seasons ago, between a certain club located on the Island which faces the Atlantic Ocean and an old club of the city of Gotham; but a certain honest old veteran found out the “little game” in time, and, threatening exposure if it was carried out, put a stop to it. It was not known, as he kept it quiet for the sake of the club. The same thing has since been tried both at Hoboken, where it was publicly exposed, and in Philadelphia. Now, it is this kind of thing which has brought disgrace upon the name of professional ball players, and not the fact that they are paid for their services. I don’t see what possible objection there can be to a man being paid by a club for his services as a ball player. Suppose I am in a store as a clerk or porter. I am engaged to work from 8 A.M. to 6 P.M., with no chance to get away to enjoy a game of ball of an afternoon. Now, suppose that before I went to work as a clerk I had become a noted player, and was very fond of the game, but could not engage in it without losing my place and having nothing to live on. Suppose, too, that, as a clerk or porter, I was getting $12 or $15 a week. If Mr. A or Mr. B, who is a wealthy member of this or that club, should say to me that if I would join his club and play in the nine when I was wanted, we would give me $5 a week more for my services, will you please tell me wherein I should be acting dishonorably in accepting his proposition, and thereby becoming a professional ball player? If you can tell me how I act a dishonest part in doing so, I shall feel obliged, for I can’t se it, to save me. Again, say I am a first-class ball player, and that I have a father or a mother to help to support, and through my skill as a player, and because I belong to a club having influential politicians in it, I am placed in a good clerkship, but only on conditions of my playing with the club in question, is there any just reason why I [line cut off] do not allow of, say, [illegible] receiving compensation for his services as a player? I don’t know of any sound reason against my taking such a position. The fact is, the rule prohibiting compensation to players is a rule which actually promotes the very evil it is designed to prevent, namely, getting in a class of men in ball matches who will do anything for pay. I adopt this playing ball as a business, conscientiously believing that I am simply earning my living by my skill as a player, just as I would as a penman or accountant, or a pilot or engine-driver, and while I act an honest part, prove faithful to my club, scorn to act as an accomplice of any “betting ring” arrangement, and play the game fairly and squarely, I claim to be just as much entitled to the respect of my companions as the man who plays in the club for exercise and love of sport only. If I am to be found loafing around drinking saloons when not playing ball, and always associated with professional gamblers or “sports,” as they are called, and depend solely on my “pay” for ball playing for a mere living, and don’t avail myself of my leisure time to work other irons placed in the fire, when then people are justified in believing that I am one of the tools of the “ring,” ready to sell or be bought, and this is the class of “professionals” I do not belong to. The fact is, professional ball players have their characters in their own hands, that is, it depends upon themselves whether they are to rank with the reputable portion of the fraternity, or with the school of professionals who cultivate “plants” like that which disgraced the game in 1865. |
| Source | American Chronicle of Sports and Pastimes |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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