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Workman began laying out the lines last Monday for the grounds of the new Players' League club in [New York]. They are at Eighth avenue and One Hundred and Fifty-seventh and One Hundred and Fifty-ninth streets, extending from the avenue line back to the bluff, a distance of 800 feet. The grand stand will be situated under the bluff and the men will bat toward Eighth avenue. There will be room for carriages and any amount of space for spectators. Tim Keefe says “it will be the finest ground in the world.” Architect David W. King will have the work in charge. The specifications provide for a double-decker grand stand seating from 6000 to 7000 people, with opera chairs, and free seats fro 14,000 people. The stand in form will resemble the present one at the Polo Grounds. There will be a carriage driveway on One Hundred and Fifty-ninth street, and on either side of it will be club houses for the players, fitted with all modern conveniences. A running track will encircle the field, and it is expected that some athletic club will use the grounds when not needed by the players. The contracts were awarded Friday.

Excuses and explanations by the dozen will not alter the glaring fact that these individual negotiations, immediately after the conference had been broken off...were directly responsible for the present deplorable situation of the Players' League. These individual negotiations defied and nullified the action of the Players' League; gave notice to the world and the enemy that the organization was divided against itself, and that it contained an element which would rule or ruin; exposed its weakness to the very party from which it should have been studiously concealed; put the Players' League clubs individually in the position of mendicants; made it difficult to meet bluff for bluff; depreciated the value of every franchise in the Players' League; and made it impossible for all of the Players' League clubs to treat with their League rivals upon even footing, or to exact an equitable settlement.

This is a heavy indictment, and yet a calm, unprejudiced survey of the situation will convince any fair-minded person that it has not been overdrawn in the least, and that these conditions confront the Players' League to-day as the direct, though perhaps unlooked-for, result of the reopening of unauthorized consolidation negotiations by the capitalist members of the Players' League Committee upon their own responsibility.

If anything of real value to base ball or towards a mutually satisfactory clearing up of the situation had been accomplished the end would perhaps have justified the means. But so far from achieving their object the few Players' League capitalists bent upon consolidation have actually defeated it. Had they accepted the decision of their organization and held hands off it is pretty certain that the League would in time have ceased bluffing, as it always does when bluff fails to work, reopened negotiations through the proper channel and with the regularly organized committees, and then the Players' League would have had the advantage of an equal footing, and been able to make satisfactory terms for all of its members. But the consolidationists manifested as little diplomacy here as they did in their dealings with the League when they showed their entire hand to the old magnates and in return got so little of a peep at the latter's hand, that while the League knew the exact conditions of affairs in the Players' League the latter has nothing but mere surmises as to the real situation in the League. They rushed in where angels would have feared to tread, showed their condition so plainly, their desire for consolidation and disregard for other considerations so completely...

[from Chadwick's column] I notice by a paragraph in the New York World last week that the P.L. And N.L. regulation balls were tested at the Brotherhood Park in New York, and Mr. Dickenson states that “the difference was astonishing.”

“The heavier batters in the New York Club could not knock the old League ball as far as the lighter ones could bat the Player' League ball, and when one batter tried the two he could knock the Players' ball one hundred feet further than the one used by the Nationals. This in a measure plainly shows why it is that the scores in the Players' League are larger than those in the National League.”

He should have added that the foot and a half of increase in the distance between the box and the home plate also helps the Brotherhood batsmen. This does away with the absurd talk about “the superior batting of the P.L. teams.

The Cincinnati team will in all probability henceforth give opposing teams the first turn at the bat, as Captain Latham believes in taking the outs. He says:--”I know there is considerable talk about the advantage to be gained by getting the first rap at the ball, but that does not hold good now. It used to when only one ball was used. Now two balls, sometimes three and four, are brought into play during the game, and one team has no advantage over the other in this respect. When you have the last chance yo always known what is ahead of you, and the men play better ball.

[from Chadwick's column] What a great help to a catcher's record the padded gloves has been. Without it, with the great speed of the catchers of this season have had to face, there would have been a dearth of catchers able to continue behind the bat long ere this. As it is, here we have them catching over a hundred successive games, even beating the old-time records, such as that of Barnie, etc.

[New York vs. Philadelphia PL 5/8/1890] Many games are called sloppy on acdount of the poor fielding, but yesterday's was not sloppy in that sense. The grounders, however, were exceedingly sloppy, especially the outfield. The players would have looked much more seasonable in bathing suits than ball suits, for the outfield was a perfect sea of mud. It was so thick that O'Rourke carried several planks into his territory to keep his feet dry and when the ball happened to drop in that neighborhood in invariably buried itself. The left and centre fields were very little better, the outfielders playing at a great disadvantage. The infield was a little better, but every now and then a fielder would drop in up to his ankles, and balls that should have been fielded had to be chronicled as base hits.

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[Boston vs. Philadelphia NL 5/8/1890] The ground was soft and heavy, and it was only by a liberal use of sawdust that it was got into any kind of playing condition. The infielders had plenty of fun skating around the base lines, but notwithstanding these disadvantages the fielding, as a whole, was good.

[Harrisburg jumps from the Interstate League to the Atlantic Association] The only objection to Harrisburg's admission was the fact that two colored players were members of the team. It was made a condition of admission that these colored men be released, but this Harrisburg declined to to. The Sporting Life July 26, 1890

[from the Harrisburg correspondent] The stand taken by the local management in the [Frank] Grant matter is commended on all sides. We would rather remain in the Interstate that to go into the Atlantic and dispense with the services of that hard-working player. The Sporting Life July 26, 1890

[reporting to aborted conference committee meeting of 10/21] At noon the National League and American Association members were in Parlor F in waiting for the Players' League delegates. Both committees were as before, Spalding, Day and Byrne for the League, and Thurman, Barnie and Von der Ahe for the American. Shortly after noon the original Players' League committee—Johnson, Talcott and Goodwin—made its appearance, reinforced by Ward, Hanlon and Irwin.

Then Chairman Thurman declined to call the meeting to order, stating that he was not chairman of a joint committee of twelve, but of nine representatives; that the National League, American Association and Players' League conference of Oct. 9 had been adjourned until Oct. 22, but that the presence of the players compelled him to refuse to act.

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Finally Chairman Thurman suggested that the three players should retire temporarily so that the original committees could come together to consider the question of admitting the new members. The six Players' League men then retired from the room and went across the street to consider this proposition. After a fifteen-minutes' consultation they agreed upon a line of action and returned to the conference room. Mr. Johnson then stated that they had determined that perhaps it was best to convene as originally constituted, and then take up the question of new members. Messrs. Ward, Hanlon and Irwin then retired.

Immediately upon the retirement of these gentlemen Mr. Thurman called the conference to order. The minutes of the meeting of Oct. 9 were read, and the chairman thereupon read the communication above given and asked what action the meeting would take.

It was thereupon moved by Mr. Johnson and seconded by Mr. Talcott that inc ompliance with instruction from the Players' League their delegation to this conference be increased from three to six members by the addition to their delegation of John M. Ward, Ed. Hanlon and A. A. Irwin. A long discussion followed and during the heated part of the argument a motion was made to adjourn, but it was finally withdrawn. The vote was finally taken on Johnson's motion with the following result: [The three PL delegates for, the six NL and AA delegates against].

The chair then declared the motion lost, and the three delegates of the Players' League heretofore on the committee thereupon withdrew. On motion the committee adjourned subject to the call of the chair. The Sporting Life October 25, 1890

As was expected, the joint conference between the National League, American Association and Players' League committees did not take place on Wednesday, Oct. 22, because the two first-named committees refused to confer with the Players' League committee, to which three additional members had been added by the Players' League for its own protection. The objection of the National Agreement people was apparently based upon parliamentary grounds, but the real reason was that the additional Players' League members were ball players, with whom the League and Association people had previously announced their determination not to confer. The Sporting Life October 25, 1890

The Cincinnati Enquirer states that Loftus' club has to exercise more care in the use of base balls than they did last season, because a different system in regard to distribution of the regulation sphere obtains in the League from that in vogue in the American Association. In the latter organization clubs are privileged to use all the balls they want without charge, and the firm that furnishes them gives a handsome bonus for the word “official.” “In the League,” says the Enquirer, each club is charged at the rate of $1 a ball for every ball used. This money is taken by President young and is used to defray the running expenses of the League, such as umpires' fees and expenses. Of course the money is not given to any individual, but the club that uses the most balls is bound to pay the largest share into the League treasury. Hence considerable care is used in dealing them out.

[from the Players League rules] One of the umpire shall stand behind the bat, and is designated for the purpose of these rules as No. 1. The other umpire, standing in the field,shall be designated as No. 2. The two umpires may alternate at the end of each even inning. The duties of No. 1 will be to call all balls, strikes, blocks, dead balls, foul hits, foul strikes, intentional fouling of balls, all questions arising at the home plate or as to delays by the side at bat, or as to batsmen striking out of turn, and shall call play, time and game. No. 2 shall decide all other questions arising between the contestant in any game, including balks and illegal delivery.

“This season ha brought out many peculiar incidents in relation to base ball,” says the New York Tribune, which then enumerates them as follows:-- “The double-umpiring system has been tried and found wanting. It has been illustrated that two poor umpires are worse than one. There has been twice as much wrangling in the Players' League, where the double-umpire system has been in vogue, as there has been in the National League, where one umpire has been the plan. Of course two good umpires would be better than one, but this season has shown that there are not enough good umpires to go around.

[from Chadwick's column] Did you notice the arrest of the old Providence catcher, Nava, last week for fighting in a low Baltimore dive? Here is another striking illustration of the downfall of a noted ball player by drink. The descent was from $2000 as catcher of a League club down by degrees from one fail to a still lower one, until we find him a bouncer in a wretched Baltimore dive. From ball playing to keeping a saloon, then as bartender, hackman, and now to the lowest round of drink degradation. What a lesson his career inculcates! And yet, even at this late dray, we find drinking players finding engagements. The managers who engage them are blind to their club's interests.

Since the advent of the big catchers' mitt a marked improvement has been shown in the work of the men behind the plate. The improved glove is what makes it possible for so many catchers to go in game after game for weeks.

The pitchers of the new League are nearly all well-seasoned and have always pitched a certain distance, at which, by years of practice, they have become so accustomed that now it will take them some time before they can twist the ball so that it goes eighteen inches further before it curves, drops or shoots. Buffinton, in his first game in New York, could not at first realize why his famous “drop” struck the plate instead of going over before striking ground, and, as the ball dropped too soon, the batters did not “bite,” with the result that after two or three balls had been called on him he had to put it over straight, and they hit it in every direction.

[from Ren Mulford's column] Unless I miss my guess there will be more games won and lost in th4e first inning this year than were ever so conspicuously noted before. Why? That new rule preventing the old custom of dirtying “the clean face” of the ball the moment it is tossed into play will work this revolution. The pitcher who takes his turn in the box at the opening of the game will suffer the most. It is an impossibility to get a good grip on the polished surface of a ball just out of its silver swaddling clothes. The home team will always have the advantage of sentencing the pitcher of the rival team to work the “slickness” off the sphere, and while he is doing that the other fellows are likely to be making hits and runs. In nearly every game played here this year the first inning was marked by just such performances.

Short Stop and Lawyer John M. Ward's victory over the League was made complete March 31. Judge Lawrence, in the special term of the Supreme Court, granted the motion made by ex-Judge Howland, the Brotherhood's counsel, to dismiss the complaint in the suit brought by the Metropolitan Exhibition Company to restrain Ward from playing the the Brotherhood Club of Brooklyn this season.

The Judge evidently thought that the opinions of Judge Thayer, of Philadelphia, and Judge O'Brien, his associate upon the bench of the Supreme Court, were conclusive, for he handed down only a short opinion as follows:-- “As I am informed by counsel for the plaintiff that they do not intend to submit a brief in the case, and as I am of the opinion that the contract referred to in the complaint is one which a court of equity will not enforce, judgment will be granted dismissing the complaint with costs.”

The counsel for the National League evidently concluded that the law was against him and practically abandoned the case.

[from an interview of Ward] It has been frequently claimed that the idea of a Players' League originated and was fomulated on our trip around the world. As a matter of fact the idea never occurred to us there. What originally set the ball rolling that was was the attempt of the magnates to classify the players. This classification list provided for five classes of salaries. Class A to receive $2500, class B $2250, class C $2000, class D $1750 and class E $1500. The first intimation was from some American newspapers we received at Cairo, Egypt. Even then we did not thoroughly understand the scope of the proposed classification until we reached Naples, where letters and additional papers explained the scheme more fully. Of course, we talked over what action had best to taken.

The trouble culminated last June, when we asked the League to meet us and discuss an obnoxious rule. Their reply was that it was not of sufficient importance to engage the attention of the League in mid-summer, although they had classified our men and reduced salaries. We knew if the hearing was postponed until the fall it would go over until the winter, when they would practically has us at their mercy, and we would not have time to organize in time for the season. We determined to act at one. As a matter of fact, he wad all we could do to prevent a general strike of the players and a meeting was actually held on July 2 and a ballot taken whether the season should be played out or not.

It required all the persuasion which the more conservative element could bring to bear to prevent a large body of the men from refusing to play the season out. Such a course would have been fatal, as it would have alienated the public sympathy. We, therefore, played the season out, but lost no time in perfecting the plans for our new organization.

Committees were appointed to secure capital in the different cities. Pfeffer had charge of this branch in Chicago, Sanders in Philadelphia and myself in New York. We have been successful beyond our most sanguine expectations. We organized with one hundred and twenty-five players. Of this number about twenty-five deserted us.

[from the Boston correspondent] Some idea of the growth of the base ball department in the Boston papers can be drawn from the difference in the size of the base ball force of the Globe to-day, and in '84, the last year in which we had two teams here throughout the season. Then it was the Boston League team and League Reserves, and the Boston Unions. That year one man handled the entire base ball department of the Glove. Since then it has grown so much, and has become so great a feature in the papers that at present, with both teams away, there are four men in the department besides Tim Murnane, who is its editor.

editorial matter] The interesting disclosures made during the attempted deal [to transfer Indianapolis players to New York], by President Brush, shed some light upon the inside history of the admission of Brooklyn and Cincinnati, and prove conclusively how correctly The Sporting Life sized up the situation from the day of the League meeting up to the present moment, and how impartial and just was the stand this paper took despite the freely expressed displeasure of the magnates and their shouters. Mr. Brush's admission corroborates the previous belief that the admission of Brooklyn and Cincinnati, so far from being a voluntary act of kindness to the two clubs which were alleged to be clamoring for admission in order to escape from the persecution of their fellow Association clubs, was really a preconcerted and well-defined movement to strengthen the League at the expense of the American Association, and if necessary of fellow League clubs. The strenuous objection of some of the League clubs to the proposed absorption of the two strongest clubs of a friendly organization and the measures taken to placate the internal opposition, even at the expense of guarantees to perpetuate a ten-club circuit, prove conclusively that the League scheme was to strengthen itself at any and all cost in utter disregard of everything but the most entirely selfish consideration.

The underlying object of the admission of the two Association cities was the formation of one great monopolistic League, and at that time the League magnates thought they saw the way clear for the accomplishment of a long-cherished purpose. The Players' League had failed to effect a permanent organization, the American Association was in the throes of a bitter factional fight, and so the League magnates thought they had both on the run, and calmly proceeded to appropriate the two strongest clubs of the Association. The calculation was that the Players' League movement would quickly fall to pieces right after the Indianapolis desertions, under the weight of discouragement and the outlined assaults of League money and bluff; that for Brooklyn and Cincinnati a ten-club circuit could be made, since if two of the clubs would not be frozen out, enough players would be available when the Brotherhood movement collapsed to equalize all the teams with material equal to that acquired by the accession of the two Association clubs; and that with the Brotherhood movement dead and the Association bereft of its two strongest and richest clubs, the latter would either go to pieces or fall to a minor league state—it did not matter which—and then the League would have been left supreme in base ball, without a rival and monarch of all it surveyed.

[from Brunell's column] Had it not been for a speech of vehemence and military flavor by Colonel McAlpin last spring the schedule would have been changed and a list of playing dates with less than a total of eight conflicts would have been adopted. Last April, while Al Johnson and I were at St. Louis witnessing the opening games between the Cleveland an Chicago teams fresh from their Southern practice tour, a special meeting was called for the avowed purpose of considering a change of schedule. John and I left St. Louis, and on the way down we discussed schedule changes. Finally, we got to manufacturing a new list of playing dates, and I finished and took into the New York meeting a schedule with but seven conflicts.

...Chicago instructed me to vote against change, cut Cleveland, Pittsburg, Buffalo and Philadelphia leaned towards a change, and Brooklyn could have been got into line. But Col. McAlpin's “death or glory” speech turned the tide and the schedule, with its average of 65 conflicts, stood. And the colonel's crowd with its death or glory principles didn't stand...