1872.5

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Chadwick Foresees Amateur Base Ball's "Revival"

Salience	Noteworthy
Tags	Business of BaseballBusiness of Baseball
Location
City/State/Country:	NY, United States
Modern Address
Game	Base BallBase Ball
Immediacy of Report	Contemporary
Age of Players	AdultAdult
Holiday
Notables	Henry Chadwick
Text	"AN AMATEUR REVIVAL -- Now that the distinction between the two classes of the fraternity is marked beyond the possibility of mistake, each class having its own National Association and its own special rules and laws, there being no longer any just cause for amateurs retiring from base ball playing for fear of being classified as professional or hired ball tosser; not that it necessarily follows that to be a professional ball player is to occupy a degrading position, but that the majority prefer, for business reasons, to be participating in the game for recreative reasons.  No ball player can now be regarded as a professional unless he be attached to a club nine which either pays its players a regular salary or a share of gate receipts.  This appears to be the boundary line between the two classes . . ."
Sources	Brooklyn Eagle April 5, 1872.
Warning
Comment	Richard Hershberger, 150 years ago in baseball (FB posting, 4/4/2022) "Chadwick on amateur clubs. He is optimistic that amateur baseball will be more popular than ever, since the existence of separate amateur and professional associations ensures that no one will mistake an amateur player as being a professional. There is a lot of classic Chad here. He hopes for an amateur "revival," and so reports that it will happen. He quietly passes over the detail that there were separate associations last year, too. He defines professionals as members of any club that "either pays its players regular salaries or pays them by a share of gate receipts." Then in the next paragraph he adds a class of "quasi amateur organizations" without explaining what these are. This is Chad in his ideologically-motivated hand-waving mode. In reality there is no need for a revival. Amateur baseball was doing just fine. Chad is right that there were far more amateur teams than professional. The same is true today. It could hardly be otherwise. But notice the three specific clubs he identifies: the Knickerbockers, Gothams, and Excelsiors. These are the kind of amateur clubs he likes, on the old fraternal club model. This model is, in 1872, irrelevant. Those three clubs are dinosaurs. The amateur club of this era is nine guys, with perhaps one or two substitutes, organized for the purpose of playing--and beating!--other, similarly organized clubs. These clubs are amateur or semi-professional or professional precisely to the extent that they can persuade people to pay to watch them play. Chadwick's idea of how baseball should be organized is a thing of the past. He will figure this out eventually, but we need to give him time to process."  Edit with form to add a comment
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Submitted by	Richard Hershberger
Submission Note	FB Posting 4/4/2022.
Has Supplemental Text

1872.5 Chadwick Foresees Amateur Base Ball's "Revival""

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