Clipping:A condemnation of the reserve system; a call for a Players' League
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| Date | Thursday, August 12, 1880 |
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| Text | What right has the League to say to any player where he shall play next year? The days of slavery are over. This system of Ku-Kluxism in ball-playing ought to be quashed. A ball-player has no better right than to place a price on his services in Cincinnati and another for his services in Chicago. It may be that he would rather play in Chicago for $100 less than in Cincinnati, or vice versa. Let him name his price for each place. Let the city which considers him worth the salary asked pay fo4r it. If he asks too much; that city need not engage him. No man with common business sense would engage a clerk at a salary he could not earn. And no Ball Club will engage a player for a sum stated unless that Club thinks that player is worth the money asked. … … It is time such outrageous policy was ended. If the League will not do it, the players must. It is a poor rule that will not work both ways. Let the players then anticipate the fraud, and meet it half way. Let every League player sign a solemn agreement with every other League player not to play ball next season with any Club that shall attempt to coerce players in this manner. The players command the field. Club can not do without them; but they can do without Clubs. If the League intends to repeat the fraud, it deserves to have its existence ended. Such men as George Wright, Jim White and John Clapp can not afford to be driven out of the profession by such repeated outrages. If the player, or, at least, the better part of them, will but demand their rights as men—freemen--they can have them. If they go on supremely careless and do nothing until forty of them are under the yoke of despotism, they will richly deserve all that they suffer by it. This is the time to act. We warn players that the log is already rolling which is intended to pin them down again under the dictation of a despotic power. The prime movers in the plot are the Club that have been most successful and want to retain some of their players for next year, but are not fair and honest enough to pay deserving salaries not to let the players go where such salaries can be obtained. It is the one great stain upon the record of the National League, and ought to be wiped out effectually. Cincinnati Enquirer August 12, 1880 Isn't it about time for League players to form a “league” of their own, and announce to the world that they do not intend to be sold this fall. New York, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburg, St. Louis, and probably several other cities, might be willing to step in a do the right thing if the players will give them a change. Think this over, boys. Cincinnati Enquirer August 19, 1880 If the League should continue the Buffalo 'five-man agreement' it would be well for the players affected to rise up in their manhood and rebel. No man or body of men have any right to compel a player to play in a certain city in the League, or to go outside of that organization, against his own free will. If the League should continue this policy, and legislate much more in the same direction, the players owe it to their own self-respect to form a League of their own, which, however, in order to be successful and effective, would require that every professional of prominence should unite with it. Cincinnati Enquirer August 27, 1880, quoting the Boston Herald |
| Source | Cincinnati Enquirer |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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