Clipping:Poaching players from the NA
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| Date | Saturday, June 14, 1879 |
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| Text | ...the Troy Club visited Rochester to play; and here is where the peculiar workings of the institution which is pledged “to encourage, foster and elevate” our national game come in. It seems that the Troys wanted a first-baseman, whereupon Gardner Earl (who, I believe, is president of the Troy Club), by representing to A. McKinnon of the Hop Bitters that said club was not a member of any Association, and would not be admitted to the National, and that therefore his contract was of no account or binding force, induced McKinnon to break his contract with said Hop Bitters Club and sign with Troy. Mr. Earl must have known that he was making false representations, but justified himself in the manner hereafter explained, as he was informed that the Hop Bitters club was a member of the National Association. Mr. E. further stated to the president of the Hop Bitters that any way to get men was allowable under the rules (I suppose of the League, of which his club is a member), and that he would do things in baseball that he would not do in any other business. This is the way the president of one of the League clubs interprets the constitutional provision above quoted. Now see how the president of the League itself feels about such matters. Mr. Earl showed the president of the Hop Bitters club a telegram on the subject received from the president of the National League, a portion of whose constitution is above quoted, advising him (Earl) as follows: “Get all the men you can of the Association, and break up the – {big, big D.–Ed.) concern, if you can.” This is making baseball-playing “respectable and honorable” with a vengeance. This action by the president of an association formed for the very purpose of preventing revolving and other disreputable practices, directing one of his members to use every effort to induce men to break their contracts anything but encouraging for our national game in such hands. [from a longer letter by J. A. Williams] |
| Source | New York Clipper |
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| Submitted by | Richard Hershberger |
| Origin | Initial Hershberger Clippings |
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