View source for Clipping:A Boston opinion on the Wise case

{{Clipping
|Type of Date=Day
|Date=3/26/1882
|Title=a Boston opinion on the Wise case
|Text=<p>Competent legal authority in Boston ridicule the idea of the American Base Ball Association, or, what is virtually the same thing, the Cincinnati club, endeavoring to get out of an injunction against the Boston club to prevent the latter from playing Wise.  No court in Boston will for a moment entertain an application for an injunction on so trivial a matter—one that involves at the utmost only a few hundred dollars.  If such a claim should be allowed, the doors would be open for hundreds of cases of a similar trivial nature, and the business of the court seriously interfered with.  The remedy for Cincinnati, if she has one at all, is in an entirely different direction than in any interference with the Boston club.  Boston Herald March 26, 1882</p>
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<p>season ticket prices;  no tickets for stockholders;  payments to visiting clubs;  Boston Club finances</p>
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<p>At a meeting of the directors of the Boston club, held the past week, the price of season tickets was placed at $15 for gentlemen and $10 for ladies, the tickets to be transferable.  The old custom of giving a complimentary season ticket to the stockholders will be abolished, and everybody,. Including the president and directors, will be required to purchase their tickets.  This decision meets the approbation of nearly all of the stockholders, who, in view of the fact that no partiality is to be shown, but every one is to be placed on an equal footing, see no cause to complain.  The tickets can be procured at Wright & Ditson's George Howland's, or of any officer of the club, and already a goodly number have been engaged.  Season ticket holders will be admitted to the stockholders' seats.  Boston Herald March 26, 1882</p>
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<p>...a petition has been drawn up and shown to most of the stockholders, reading a follows:  “The the President and Directors of the Boston B. B. Association:  The undersigned, stockholders in the Boston B. B. Association, having purchased their shares in said association with the understanding that they thereby became entitled to free admission to all games played on the Boston grounds, hereby respectfully request that the customary season tickets be issued to them as usual, and that no assessment be levied therefor.”  It is claimed that every owner of stock considered he was guaranteed a complimentary season ticket, and the original subscribers are said to have fully understood this to be the case.  For this reason the petitioners claim that a majority of the whole stock had already signed the above document, and look to the directors for a revocation of their action.  Boston Herald April 2, 1882</p>
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<p>[a letter to the editor from “Stockholder”]  An article in the Sunday Herald in regard to a recent vote of the directors of the Boston Base Ball Association discontinuing the custom of issuing complimentary tickets to stockholders, was evidently written by some disappointed stockholder, who, doubtless, purchased his stock at a round price, perhaps for the purpose of electing himself and friends to office in a corporation he knew to be bankrupt, but, being defeated, now endeavors to make a value for his stock and unload.  The stock of the Boston Base Ball Association was subscribed for originally by a few persons, no one taking less than five shares (par value $100) while several of them subscribed for 10 shares.  Of the original subscribers there are but four holding stock, in all 11 shares:  the balance of the stock is held by persons who have purchased at prices ranging from $15 to $30.  the only possible value to the stock was the fact that it had been customary to issue one complimentary ticket to each stockholder, whether owner of one or more shares, and, in some instances, ladies' tickets have been given with the gents' tickets, to a stockholder of a single share.  Season tickets for gents being sold at $15 and for ladies at $10, a person buying one share had the equivalent of his stock often in one, but always in two seasons, and, as the club has to pay the visiting club the sum of 15 cents on each person admitted, this tax has been a severe strain on the finances of the club.  A question having arisen, on which legal opinion is divided, whether the stockholders are not personally liable for the debts of the corporation, will soon be decided, and if it is found they are, and after all the debts are paid, I can see no objection to issuing complimentary tickets to responsible stockholders, who, at the end of the season, if there is a deficiency in the finances, will gracefully come forward and pay any equitable assessment necessary to liquidate all debts.  The public is interested in having a good nine;  this can only be done by cutting off all unnecessary expenses, as experience has shown that every year but one out of six has resulted in pecuniary loss.  The directors are expected to provide for any deficiency, and, while they furnish us with a first-class nine, let us support them as well as the club, as it is the only way to insure success.  Boston Herald April 4, 1882</p>
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<p>To C. H. Porter and others, Petitioners—Gentlemen:  The board of directors of the Boston Base Ball Association has carefully considered your petition, that the customary complimentary season tickets be issued to stockholders, and, after due deliberation, has unanimously decided that the best interests of the association demand that your request be denied, and that for the ensuing season no dead-head tickets be issued to stockholders.  Upon investigation nothing is found in the original articles of association, or in the constitution and bylaws of our association, that intimates or implies that stockholders are to receive free admission to witness games of ball or other athletic sport.  It is true, in the past, that the unwise custom of giving complimentary season tickets to stockholders has prevailed, greatly to the detriment of the association and to its serious financial loss.  Your board, aware that the association is largely in debt, with an empty treasury, feels it incumbent upon it to stop every leak, and to manage all the affairs of the association in such a wise and economical manner as to insure itself support, that there may be no deficiency to report at the close of the year.  It would be manifestly unequal to issue a complimentary ticket to each holder of a certificate of stock, for in such an event the stockholder who owned one share of stock would receive exactly the same benefits as the holder of a certificate representing 10 shares of stock.  If it was deemed advisable to issue free tickets to stockholders, the only equitable basis of such issue would be to issue a free ticket to each share.  Such a course would entail a large expense to the association, and is not favored by your board.  A railroad corporation would hardly be expected to give free passage over its roads to each stockholder, and, so far as this board is informed, such a custom does not prevail.  Certainly, such a course would be open to severe criticism, and justly merit the condemnation of the public.  All corporations divide their benefits, not to each certificate holder alike, but acco4rding to the number of shares which each certificate represents, and any division upon any other basis would be unfair and undoubtedly illegal.  No league base ball association issues to its stockholders free tickets of admission, and the past policy of the Boston association of issuing complimentary tickets to stockholders has received the serious condemnation of other league clubs, and been pronounced detrimental to the general good of the game.  Your board of directors trusts that this explanation of its action will be satisfactory to all the stockholders of the association, and that it may have the earnest and hearty cooperation of all, to the end that the association may be relieved of its present financial embarrassment, and be placed upon a firm self-supporting basis.  Boston Herald April 5,1882</p>
|Source=Boston Herald
|Submitted by=Richard Hershberger
|Origin=Initial Hershberger Clippings
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