Outside the Lines of Gilded Age Baseball: Profits, Beer, and the Origins of the Brotherhood War Robert Allan Bauer University of Arkansas, Fayetteville
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University of Arkansas, Fayetteville ScholarWorks@UARK Theses and Dissertations 7-2015 Outside the Lines of Gilded Age Baseball: Profits, Beer, and the Origins of the Brotherhood War Robert Allan Bauer University of Arkansas, Fayetteville Follow this and additional works at: http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd Part of the Sports Studies Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Bauer, Robert Allan, "Outside the Lines of Gilded Age Baseball: Profits, Beer, and the Origins of the Brotherhood War" (2015). Theses and Dissertations. 1215. http://scholarworks.uark.edu/etd/1215 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UARK. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UARK. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Outside the Line of Gilded Age Baseball: Profits, Beer, and the Origins of the Brotherhood War Outside the Lines of Gilded Age Baseball: Profits, Beer, and the Origins of the Brotherhood War A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History by Robert A. Bauer Washington State University Bachelor of Arts in History and Social Studies, 1998 University of Washington Master of Education, 2003 University of Montana Master of Arts in History, 2006 July 2015 University of Arkansas This dissertation is approved for recommendation to the Graduate Council. ___________________________________ Dr. Elliott West Dissertation Director ___________________________________ _________________________________ Dr. Jeannie Whayne Dr. Patrick Williams Committee Member Committee Member Abstract In 1890, members of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players elected to secede from the National League and form their own organization, which they called the Players League. The players objected to several business practices of the National League, including aspects of the reserve clause in player contracts, the Brush Classification Plan to control their salaries, the buying and selling of players, and fines for various infractions. This dissertation explains how these events combined to produce the revolt by the players at the conclusion of the 1889 season. It also examines various other important aspects of 1880s baseball, including abuse of alcohol, treatments of umpires, physical training techniques, violence on the field, cheating, gambling, mascots, team finances, and racism in baseball. The dissertation illuminates various social and economic aspects of life in Gilded Age America as well. Finally, it helps explain the importance of a little-understood era in the baseball’s history that lasted from 1885-1889 and contributed to confirming baseball’s status as America’s national sport. © 2015 by Robert A. Bauer All Rights Reserved Acknowledgments I would like to thank the faculty of the history department at the University of Arkansas for their time and patience in helping me complete this project. Especially my adviser and committee chair, Dr. Elliott West, for having the flexibility to allow me to undertake a dissertation on baseball, as well as Professors Jeannie Whayne and Patrick Williams for serving on my dissertation committee. All three of these people have been supportive and very helpful to me throughout my graduate career. I should also thank my family for their moral support, especially as this dissertation reached its second and third year of serious work. I will not have to spend family holidays reading books and typing late into the night anymore. Finally, I must thank my close friend and unofficial editor, Dr. David Mitchell, for his insights, suggestions, and willingness to read most of the chapters. I would gladly return the favor in the future, if only I had any advanced knowledge of physics or astronomy. Your help throughout the project was invaluable. Dedication I am dedicating this dissertation to my father. You taught me how to play. Then you came to every game to watch. Table of Contents Introduction ..........................................................................................................................1 Chapter 1: The State of Baseball in 1885 ..........................................................................13 Chapter 2: The Reserve Clause ..........................................................................................32 Chapter 3: The 1886 Salary Limit .....................................................................................82 Chapter 4: The Origins of the Brotherhood, 1886-1887 ..................................................124 Chapter 5: The Winter of 1886-1887 ...............................................................................149 Chapter 6: Alcohol and 1880s Baseball ...........................................................................187 Chapter 7: Physical Fitness and Training ........................................................................244 Chapter 8: Umpires and Gilded Age Baseball .................................................................280 Chapter 9: Gambling and Dishonest Play ........................................................................352 Chapter 10: Violence and Baseball ..................................................................................381 Chapter 11: Team Finances in the 1880s .........................................................................408 Chapter 12: The Sunday Baseball Question ....................................................................491 Chapter 13: Mascots and Racism .....................................................................................503 Chapter 14: The Winter of 1887-1888 .............................................................................532 Chapter 15: The Brotherhood, Contracts, and the Millennium Plan, 1887-1888 ............564 Chapter 16: The Winter of 1888-1889 and Spalding’s World Tour ................................632 Chapter 17: The Brotherhood and the Brush Classification Scheme of 1889 .................659 Chapter 18: The Beginning of the End of the American Association .............................686 Chapter 19: The Storm Gathers .......................................................................................723 Chapter 20: The Storm Breaks .........................................................................................741 Bibliography ....................................................................................................................768 Appendix A: Navigating Baseball’s Statistical Seas .......................................................771 Appendix B: Major League Baseball Standings, 1885-1890 ...........................................791 Appendix C: Coda to the 1886 Salary Limit and the Contract Language Question ........796 Appendix D: The 1888 American Association Contract .................................................801 Appendix E: The Terminology of the Game in the 1880s ...............................................805 Introduction Why Write a Dissertation on 1880s Baseball? Why write a scholarly dissertation about baseball? I found myself answering that question nearly every time someone asked me what my PhD dissertation was about, as everyone from my academic advisor to my mother was a bit skeptical at first. Furthermore, when I told them it was about baseball in the 1880s, and the decision of major league baseball players to start their own league separate of the existing ones in 1890, I had to answer a few more questioning looks. Given enough time, however, I eventually worked out some answers. First, and most importantly, it is something that deeply interests me. It is nearly impossible to write a work of this length if not fully invested in your subject, and the previous topics I had considered, while interesting and important, just did not quite grab hold of me as this one did. However, there have to be some good academic reasons, too, as telling your doctoral committee you really like your topic is not enough by itself. Among these good academic reasons is the fact that very little scholarship exists that specifically addresses this period in baseball’s history. For whatever reason, the late 1880s have escaped the attention of most baseball writers. There is some baseball literature mentioning events in these years, certainly, but few have attempted to put these years at the center of the story and describe why they are important in their own right. As it turns out, they are. What happens in the second half of the 1880s leads directly to the Players League and the Brotherhood War of 1890, and the 1 consequences of the Brotherhood War do much to shape the landscape of baseball in the 1890s. The problems that arise in the 1890s because of the failure of the Players League eventually contribute to the rise of the American League in 1901. And so it goes. Originally, my plan was to write a dissertation that told the story of the Players League and the Brotherhood War with the National League in 1890. There are a handful of books on this event, some better than others, and I hoped to contribute something new to the study of what happened in 1890. As I went deeper into the research, however, I discovered that the causes of the conflict were more numerous and multifaceted than the existing literature generally indicated. As the preparatory chapters became both greater in number and more lengthy, I realized that these events, in and of themselves,