Clipping:The League's war of extermination
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| Date | Saturday, May 24, 1890 |
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| Text | [a letter to the editor from “B”] The National League's declaration that the present fight was one of extermination and that it was in it to stay is being borne out by its actions. When the Brotherhood took up the fight its best friends said that if the League won it would b by superior legislation. The magnates who have controlled the game for years are certainly shrewd men, and in the present fight it is known that they would stop at nothing to effect the removal of their troublesome rivals from the field. On the surface it looks as though a scheme was being hatched worthy of the genius and shrewdness of Richelieu. A few days ago Mr. Spalding came out boldly and expressed the opinion that the game was dead for the time being. Simultaneously Byrne, of Brooklyn, Stern, of Cincinnati; Day, of New York; Robison, of Cleveland, and Nimick, of Pittsburg, rushed into print with the same statement. While Mr. Spalding was sincere in his first statement, he seems to have given the cue to the League for its future action. There can be but one inference, and that is that the league has adopted a desperate measure, involving the death, for the time being at least, of the national pastime. It strikes me that their idea is to kill all interest in the sport and then freeze the Brotherhood out by playing to empty benches. The Brotherhood is paying big salaries, and besides was under enormous expense in fitting up grounds in the cities of its circuit. The old League men argue that if, with less expense, they can kill the game and then worry along until the Brotherhood backers have tired of their bargain, then they will remain sole masters of the situation and will reorganize on a more economical basis. Left alone in possession of the field, they will proceed to build up the game with low salary limits and will in a few years make back their losses. Their plan is certainly a far-reaching one. The League magnates, of course, deny that they have any such purpose, but their whole course points to it. If any business man went around the country telling people that his business was dead, that there was no demand for his goods, but that he proposed to run his store because he had a pride in it and was willing to lose a lot of money in it, he would be considered crazy, and justly so. When men are in a losing business they are the last ones to say so. Yet the League magnates are going out of their way to advertise the fact that their business is dead. It is a situation almost without a parallel in the history of sport. The League announces that in the whole course of its existence it clubs had declared dividends amounting to $155,000, while it declares that some of its clubs have lost over that amount. If certainly looks rather queer that if base ball is such an unprofitable venture the League should make such a desperate attempt to hold on to it. There can be but one surmise, and that is that the old League, in some quarters at least, has been making money and sees prospects of more in the future. The League magnates are all business men, and as such would not hold on to a losing venture unless they felt that in the future there would be some chance to make back their losses. It is known that even before the Brotherhood outbreak the League had fully determined to take up the high salary evil and correct it. Here its magnates see an opportunity to bring salaries down at one clever stroke. If the Brotherhood can be wiped out and all interest killed for the time being in the game, it would be easy to cut salaries down to a low level and by stringent legislation keep them there. Then there would be big money in the game. It looks like a conspiracy of gigantic proportions. The magnates are playing a very desperate game. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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