Clipping:The declining condition of the AA; percentage vs. guarantee
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| Date | Wednesday, December 5, 1888 |
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| Text | [from the editorial column] ...The American Association was never in a worse condition than it is to-day. Partisans and those who know nothing of the practical conduct of professional base ball may sneer at or make light of this assertion, but that doesn't alter the facts. Each season the Association finds some club member dropping by the wayside or withdrawing with just that many valuable players, and the list of desirable cities from which to select suitable successor is also with each year growing exasperatingly smaller. This everlasting drawback, added to a vacillating policy, unstable purpose, lack of business tact and unity, ever increasing expenses and steadily decreasing income, has served to drag the Association down step by step from the safe and commanding position it occupied a few years ago to present hard struggle for bare existence. … A high tariff, qualified percentage and a perfunctory equalizing of a few clubs were the means adopted to stave off the evil day and rejuvenate the patient. The expected results, however, failed to materialize. High tariff proved only a partial success, several clubs were almost ruined by it, and the experiment had to be abandoned in mid-season. Unwisely the percentage system was simultaneously discarded, thus driving out a club member, and to complete the disaster the result of the work in the field was but a repetition of that of former seasons, half the clubs being out of the race almost from the start. In fact, the results were just what had been predicted and expected. So in the course of a year the Association has gained nothing, perhaps not even sense from bitter experience. In fact, it is to-day in even more precarious position than it was last December, and a most uncertain future lies before it. The loss of the Cleveland Club and players is more serious than partisans care to acknowledge, and the Association will find it impossible to satisfactorily fill the breach made by that club's withdrawal. Choice is restricted to Columbus, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Worcester and Jersey City. None of these cities are of the first class, such as should find a place in the circuit of a major league, and each is sadly handicapped in some way or other. At present Columbus is the most earnest in the effort to secure admission, and seems to have decidedly the best chance of securing the franchise. Buffalo seems unwilling to try its fortunes in the Association; Milwaukee is out of the circuit, an Eastern club being needed to make up proper geographical division; Worcester is well located, but not large enough or enthusiastic..., and Jersey City, the most desirable city of the lot by reason of location and population, is handicapped by its National League ownership. On the whole, however, it matters little which city is selected, as by reason of local drawback, weak tam and other disadvantages incidental to entrance into fast company, the successor of Cleveland, no matter where located, will but be more or less of a dead weight on an Association already afflicted with too many clubs weak in finances and teams. Financially the situation of the Association could hardly be worse than it is. But three clubs out of eight made any money worth speaking of this year. Of the rest all lost money, some very heavily, and none are in condition to stand the drain much longer. In fact, another season like that of 1888, will simply wipe out one-third or more of the clubs, and practically break up the Association. Next year, as this, the race will be confined to four clubs at the most, and with so many tail-enders to carry, the Association will have to return to the percentage system. There are no ifs ands or buts in this question. Even under the best conditions the percentage system is the only system under which professional base ball should be operated. In such desperate straits as the Association finds itself, that system is the only one under which it can work and maintain itself. To continue the guarantee system with a new weakling in a small city, added to the three or four weaklings already in the ranks, simply means irretrievable ruin to half the clubs. This fact has been put so plainly of late before the delegates, that at this writing the indications are favorable to a return to the percentage system. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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