Clipping:Wilmington Club disbands, accuses Lucas; a response
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| Date | Wednesday, September 24, 1884 |
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| Text | When the Keystone Club of the Union Association disbanded the [Wilmington] club was importuned to take the Keystone’s place. According to the Wilmington News, President Lucas agreed that when the Wilmington Club was on its western trip he would guarantee that their salaries, board bill and traveling expenses would be paid, and that the club would get the $75 guarantee as usual. As the club was already deeply in debt, and nothing was to be gained by remaining in the Eastern League, the directors decided to withdraw from the latter and enter the Union upon these terms. Burns and Casey, however, jumped the club, and this so demoralized and weakened it that they made a miserable showing in their games. When it regained its form again it was but to meet some of the best clubs in the country, to which it succumbed, and the attendance was reduced to a minimum. When the time for the Western trip approached, the directors charge, Mr. Lucas failed to fulfill his contract and a meeting, which had been called at Washington the first week in September for the purpose of furnishing the aid promised, was postponed again and again for the purpose of freezing the club out in order to let Milwaukee in. It is fair to add that Mr. Lucas’ friends emphatically deny these charges. Be this as it may, the directors saw no hope of success in the future and rather than take the Western trip decided to disband, the directors paying all the losses out of their own pockets. The Sporting Life September 24, 1884 [a response from a “gentlemen, who is very close to Mr. Lucas”] At the time of the disbandment of the Keystone, Mr. Lucas telegraphed the Wilmingtons asking them to enter the Union and take the place of the Keystone. At that moment the Wilmingtons were not in the humor to leave the Eastern League and they replied that they would not join the Union. Right here all correspondence between Mr. Lucas and the Wilmington officials came to an end. Since that day Mr. Lucas has never met an officer or anyone connected with the Wilmington Club, nor has he had any correspondence with anyone connected with the club either by letter or telegraph. He never made them a promise of any kind and he never authorized anyone to make them a promise of any kind. Besides that, when Secretary White, of the Union Association, subsequently asked him to vote for the admission of Wilmington to the Union he replied that he would vote against their admission, and he did vote against it, and a majority of the directors of the Union also voted against their admission. But notwithstanding the fact that the vote denied them admission they by order of Secretary White, who acted according to the vote of the minority, took up the schedule of games originally allotted to the Keystones and this they did without even being elected a member of the Union. Mr. Lucas not only voted against their admission, but those who generally side with him on all questions of the kind voted with him. So their appearance in the Union ranks was really a surprise to him and he concluded to investigate the matter at the Baltimore meeting. Before it was held, however, the Wilmingtons had disbanded and he had other and more important business to attend to than the investigation of their entrance and exit. These are the full facts in the case and by publishing them you will simply be doing Mr. Lucas justice. The Sporting Life October 1, 1884 |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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