Clipping:The Brotherhood's demands, threats, grievances
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| Date | Wednesday, September 28, 1887 |
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| Text | [from an interview of Ward] ...unless we receive recognition there will be no contracts signed for the season of 1888. our demands are perfectly just. In the first place, the League must recognize us as a body. After that we will expect them to present contracts that are equitable for both player and manager. We do not object to the reserve rule or the clause relative to the discharge of men on ten days' notice, etc.; but every ball player in the country is subject to rules that are absolutely tyrannical. Men can be suspended without pay or fined at the whim of any set of directors, and still be held by an iron grip. Take for instance the case of Radbourn, of the Bostons. He was suspended without pay because the officials of the team allege that his work was not satisfactory. Mark you, no charges were made against him, and he wa refused his release. Now, if you fail to satisfy your employers they can either discharge you or you can quit. In Radbourn's case they simply held him by an iron-bound contract without pay, and had he quit the club he would have been debarred from playing in any club recognizing the National Agreement in the United States. If the Brotherhood had not existed 'Rad' might yet have been without work and without salary. Under the present contract system a player can be fined for walking around the corner and buying a cigar if the officials of a club in their wisdom see fit to construe the act into an offense. But what we most object to is being sold like cattle. This evil must be checked, or it is going to injure the National game. It is on this point that the League refuses to recognize us, for it has been a great source of revenue to its clubs in having the privilege of selling its best players wherever and whenever it liked. The men have made their reputations, not the club. Then why should the clubs. Then why should the clubs have the right to sell those men and force them to go to some club they may not like to go with? |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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