Clipping:The Brush plan for graded salaries
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| Date | Wednesday, November 28, 1888 |
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| Text | [reporting the NL meeting 11/21-22] The entire [second day] was spent in revising the constitution, and many important changes were made. The principal changes were made in the clauses relating to salaries and contracts and the result was the adoption, despite the opposition of New York and Boston, of a salary limit. Section 29 was amended to give the president-secretary extraordinary power and reads as follows: “All contracts between a club and its players shall be executed by the secretary of the League on behalf of such club, and may be either by telegram or writing, to be followed within 30 days thereafter by a regular League contract which, after registry, shall be transmitted to said club, and notice thereof transmitted to all other League clubs and all associations, parties to the National Agreement of Professional Base Ball Associations.” The next section provided for a salary limit and formulated rules for its enforcement as follows: The compensation for all League players for services as players shall be limited, regulated and determined by the classification and grade to which such players may be assigned by the secretary of the League, after the termination of the championship season, as follows: Class A—Compensation $2,500. Class B—Compensation $2,250. Class C—Compensation $2,000 Class D—Compensation $1,750. Class E—Minimum compensation $1,500. But this section shall not prohibit the payment of extra compensation for the services of one person to each club, as field captain or team manager. In determining such assignment, batting, fielding, base-running, battery work, earnest team work and exemplary conduct, both on and off the field, at all times, shall be considered as a basis for classification. Each player upon executing a League contract shall make affidavit in form prescribed by the secretary of the League, to the effect that the consideration prescribed in said contract includes all salaries, bonuses, rewards, gifts and emoluments and every other form o compensation expressedly or impliedly promised him for his services as player during the term of such contract, and satisfactory proof to the secretary of the League of any false statement in such affidavit, shall, after fair notice to such player, blacklist him, unless the ruling of the secretary be reversed by the Board of Directors of the League upon proper appeal, hearing and counter-proof. The president of each club shall, between the 20th and 31st days of October of each year, file an affidavit with the secretary of the League setting forth the full payment as salaries, bonus, reward, gift, emolument and every other form of compensation, express and implied, made to each player in full settlement of his services as player for and during the season then terminating. A violation of the limit to compensation prescribed in Section 30, or any false statement in said affidavit, shall, upon satisfactory proof to the secretary of the League, subject the club to which said president belongs to a fine of $2,000 and the release of any player, the subject of such illegal compensation or false statement, from reservation by such club for the succeeding year, which player, however, will be retained under reservation for such other club as the League may determine. Negotiations for the release from contract or reservation and for services of players other than those of National League clubs, shall be carried on exclusively through the secretary of the League or his duly authorized agent. The president, secretary or manager of a club shall file with the secretary of the League, either by letter or telegram, a written offer for the release and salary for said player. If two or more League clubs file an offer for the same player, the offer first received shall have priority of claim to such player, until such negotiations fail, when the offer next in order filed shall be entitled to negotiation and so on in sequential order with any subsequent offers. But no club shall have prior claim to any such negotiations for more than one player not under contract with it as required by another League club. Negotiations carried on directly or indirectly with any such player except through the secretary of the League shall forfeit all right to contract with and subsequent reservation of such player or by the club so offending. The Sporting Life November 28, 1888 [editorial matter] The section referring to the negotiation with the engagement of players from other leagues is certainly excellent and eminently practicable, and will effectually put a stop to a growing abuse by means of which minor players are enabled to put competing clubs against each other in the market, thus forcing not only their salaries up far beyond market value, but by force of example swelling the already excessive salaries of major league players. The grading of salaries strikes one as the least practicable feature of the scheme. The idea is not a new one. President Howe, of the Cleveland Club, presented it to the League several years ago, but it was incontinently sat upon as visionary and impracticable. That this idea should now, after the lapse of years, be taken up and incorporated, in almost the original form in the League constitution, shows most strikingly the growth of the spirit of reform... In theory this section is beautiful—indeed, the entire scheme is so—but whether it will work satisfactorily in practice is a question. To make the apportionment properly would be a heavy task for the entire board of League presidents and managers, but to delegate to one man the power of grading of salaries and the punishment of clubs whose creature he is, is to impose upon him an enormous task, confer unlimited arbitrary power, and make him at once a dependent and yet an autocrat, and saddle him with tremendous power and responsibility. Under such a scheme more or less injustice cannot be avoided. The president of the League is but human, and his range of knowledge, judgment and acumen must necessarily be more or less limited. He must depend, in forming his classes, upon the advice of the club presidents, the reports of managers and the returns of official scorers, and these in turn cannot fail to be more or less actuated and influenced, wittingly or unwittingly, by personal likes, dislikes or other motives, and thus players will be at the mercy of and buffeted between many conflicting arbiters. It is also a serious question whether such a classification will not lead to jealousies, dissensions... The Sporting Life November 28, 1888 |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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