Spalding's Base Ball Guide, and Official League Book for ... : a Complete
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London, England BASE BALL GUIDE AND OFFICIAL LEA6UE BOOK FOR 1895 A COMPLETE HAND BOOK of the NATIONAL GAME of BASE BALL, CONTAINING TMK FULL OFFICIAL LEAGUE RECORDS FOR 1894, TOGETHER WITH The New Code of Playing Rules as Revised hy the Committee <>f Rules. Attached to which are EXPLANATORY NOTES, Giving Correct Interpretation of the New Rules. A PROMINENT FEATURE OF THE GUIDE FOR 1895 the new championship record ; ADDED to which .are THE COMPLETE PITCHING RECORDS OF 1 894 AND SPECIAL CHAPTERS ON THE BATTING. FIELDING AND BASE RUNNING OF 1894, together with eresting Records of the Most Noteworthy Contests, Incidents and Occurrences of the Eventful Season of 1894, Occur- ring in the College Arena as well as in that of the Professional Clues. edited by HENRY CHADWICK. published by AMERICAN SPORTS PUBLISHING COMPANY 2-11 Broadwav, New York Citv. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1895, by American Sport? Publishing Company, in the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washingtor — PUBLISHERS' NOTICE. The official handbook of America's national game Spalding's Base Ball Guide—which was first issued in 1876, has grown in size, importance and popular favor year by year, until it has become the great standard statistical and reference annual of the game throughout the ball it is base world ; and now recog- nized as the established base ball manual of the entire profes- sional fraternity, as well as the authorized Guide Book of the great National League, which is the controlling governmental organization of the professional clubs of the United States. The Guide of 1895 not only records the doings of the twelve clubs of the National League for the past season, with all the official statistics, but it gives space to the championship campaigns of 1894, not only of the Minor Professional Leagues of the country, but also of those of the College clubs and of the lead- ing organizations of the amateur class—the majority class of the entire base ball world—and in this respect the Guide has no equal, the book of 1895 being exceptionally full of the most interesting chapters of the leading events of the diamond fields of the past year, and for the first time contains many fine half- tone illustrations of all the leading clubs and players, making it the largest and most complete Guide ever issued. Copies of the Guide will be mailed to any address upon receipt of twelve cents each. Trade orders supplied through the News Companies, or direct from the Publishers, American Sports Publishing Company, 241 Broadway, New York. The Guide, as hitherto, is issued under the entire editorial control of the veteran writer on sports, Mr. Henry Chadwick, popularly known as " The Father of Base Ball." The great size of the Guide precludes the possibility of including the game record of the League campaign, as also other records of League legislation, etc., and these will be found in the " Official League Book," which contains only official League matter, as furnished by Secretary Young, including the League Constitution in full. PREFACE. Spalding's Base Ball Guide for 1895 is the twentieth annual edition of the work issued under the auspices of th» National League. It is also the fifteenth annual edition pub' lished under the editorship of Mr. Henry Chadwick, he having first entered upon his editorial duties on the Guide in 1881. Moreover, it is the fourth annual edition issued under the gov- ernment of the existing major League, which League was the result of the reconstruction measures adopted during the winter of 1891-92 ; and this latest issue of Spalding's League Guide. in several respects, if not in all, surpasses all of its predecessors. New features are presented in its pages this year which are of special interest ; the most noteworthy being the new record of every game played in the League championship series—won, lost to inclusive or drawn—from April 19 September 30, 1894, ; the names of the opposing pitchers in each game ; being a record never before published in any base ball manual, this alone making the Guide of 1895 a model book of reference for the whole base ball fraternity. Added to this are not only the full statistics of the League season of 1894, but also special articles on the latest scientific points of, play developed in the professional arena ; together with editorial comments on the leading events of the past season^now regarded as one of the interesting features of the book—and the scores of the model games of 1894, etc. A new chapter is " The Reference Guide," devoted to statistics valuable as references. In addition to which is the new code of rules which went into effect in April, 1895, and the editorial explanatory appendix, revised by Presi- dent Young of the League ; the whole making the Guide the model base ball manual of the period, the book being of special value, alike to the amateur class of the base ball fraternity, as to the class of professional exemplars of the game. AMERICAN SPORTS PUBLISHING COMPANY, 241 Broadway, New York City. Washington, D. C, March, 1895. By authority vested in me, I do hereby certify that Messrs. A. G. Spalding & Bros, have been granted the exclusive right to publish the •« Official League Book " for 1895. N. E. YOUNG, Secretary of the National League and American Association of Professional Base Ball Clubs. INTRODUCTION The decade of the nineties in League history bids fair to surpass, in exciting events, that of every preceding series of years known in the annals of professional base ball. The decade in question began with the players' revolt in 1890 and was followed up by the secession of the old American Associa- tion, a fatal movement, which ended in the death of that organ- ization in the winter of 1891-92 ; the reorganization of the National League resulting in the absorption of the best half of the old Association clubs and the beginning of the experiment of governing the whole professional fraternity by one major League instead of by a dual government as before ; this one powerful League being itself controlled by the laws of the "National Agreement." The cost of the amalgamation of the four American Association clubs with the National League, together with the financial losses incurred by the revolutionary period of 1890 and 1891 —losses, by the way, which the players did not participate in, the clubs alone being the sufferers—left a heavy burden of debt to handicap the reconstructed National League in its efforts to recover the public confidence in pro- fessional ball playing lost by the malcontents of 1890 and 1891. But, nevertheless, the seasons of 1892 and 1893 saw the heavy indebtedness removed from the League's shoulders ; and in 1894 the flourishing financial times of 1888 and 1889 were, in a measure, renewed, and for the first time since the Brotherhood revolt of 1890, the professional base ball business in 1894 became a paying investment. It will scarcely be believed that, in the face of the financial losses incurred during the revolutionary period of 1890 and 1891, that the closing part of the season of 1894 saw another attempt made to renew the troubles of 1891, by an effort made to resuscitate the defunct American Association under the banner of " Death to the League's reserve rule" together with that of a joint attempt made to revive the old Brotherhood plan of rival League clubs in the larger base ball cities of the Union. This revolutionary effort, made by one of the promotors of the revolt of 1890, aided by two dismissed managers and a dis- gruntled star player itching for notoriety at any cost, led the magnates of the National League to adopt repressive measures BASE BALL GUIDE.