Clipping:Abuses of the reserve
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| Date | Wednesday, July 20, 1887 |
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| Text | [from Ward's resume of the history of the reserve rule] During the season of 1883 [Charles Foley] contracted a malady which incapacitated him for play. He was laid off without pay, though still held subject to the direction of his club. In the fall he was placed among the players reserved by the club, though he had not been on the club's pay-roll for months. The following spring he was still unable to play, and the Buffalo Club refused either to sign or release him. He recovered somewhat and offered his services to the club, but it still refused to sign him. Having been put to great expense in securing treatment, his funds were exhausted and it became absolutely necessary for him to do something. He had offers from several minor clubs, to whom he would still have been a valuable player, but on asking for his release from Buffalo it was again refused. He was compelled to remain idle all that summer, without funds to pay for medical treatment, and then, to crown all, the Buffalo Club again reserved him in the fall of 1884. The second abuse was a clear violation of the spirit of the rule, and a direct breach of contract on the part of several clubs. A clause in the old form of contract gave the club the right to release any player at any time, with or without cause, by giving him twenty days' notice. Of course, this was meant to apply to individual cases and total releases. But several clubs, seeing in this a convenient means of escaping the payment of the last month's salary, gave all their players the twenty days' notice on Sept. 10, and on Oct. 1 dismissed them instead of on Nov. 1, as the contracts stipulated. One club did not even go to the trouble of giving the notice, but, in open disregard of its contract obligations, dismissed its players Oct. 1. Two of the men had courage enough to bring suit, and they recovered judgment, and finally got their full pay; but the others lost the month's wages. But now, the most extraordinary part of all, after formally releasing the men, the same clubs claimed and were conceded the right of reserving them for the following year. |
| Source | Sporting Life |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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