While the exact origins of baseball are unknown, essentially historians agree that it is based on the English recreation of rounders. A game which began to become absolutely universal in this country in the early 19th century, and a few sources report the increasing acceptance of a game called “townball”, “base”, or “baseball”.amid/amidst the early part of the 19th century, small towns assembled teams, and baseball clubs were formed in bigger cities. In 1845, Alexander Cartwright wanted to formalize a list of rules by which all teams could play. Much of that initial code is still in place today. on the other hand universal legend says that the game was invented by Abner Doubleday, baseball’s true father was Cartwright.
The first listedbaseball contest took place a year later, in 1846. Cartwright and his Knickerbocker Base Ball Club of New York City lost to the New York Baseball Club in a game at the Elysian Fields, in Hoboken, New Jersey. These amateur games became more recurring and more popular. In 1857, a convention of beginner teams was called to discuss rules and other issues. Twenty five teams from the northeast sent delegates. The following year, they assembled the National Association of Base Ball Players, the first syndicated baseball league. In its first year of operation, the league backed itself by occasionally charging fans for admission. The future looked exceptionally bright.
The early 1860s, however were a duration of great turbulence in the United States. In those years of the Civil War, the number of baseball clubs sank greatly. But interest in baseball was carried to other sections of the country by Union soldiers, and when the war ended there were more citizens playing baseball than ever before. The league’s annual association in 1868 drew delegates from over one hundred clubs. As the league grew, so did the expenses of playing. Charging admission to games began to become more standard, and teams often had to seek out donations or sponsors to make trips. In order for teams to get the economic support they needed, winning became very important.
Although the league was estimated to be made up of amateurs, many players were clandestinely paid. Some were given jobs by sponsors, and some were in secret paid a remittance just for playing. In 1869, the Cincinnati Red Stockings decided to become an entirely professional team. Brothers Harry and George Wright enlisted the best players from all over the country, and beat all comers. The Cincinnati team won 65 games and lost none. The resolution of paid players immediately caught on. Some wanted baseball to remain an nonprofessional endeavor, but there was no way they could compete with the professional teams. The beginner teams began to melt away as the best players became professionals. In 1871, the National Association became the first professional baseball league.
Professional baseball was built on the foundation of the amateur leagues that came before it. Interest in baseball as a spectator sport had been nurtured for more than 25 years when the first professional league began action. The National Association fielded 9 teams in 1871, and expanded to 13 teams by 1875.
The National Association was short-lived. The appearance of gamblers undermined the community confidence in the games, and their presence at the games mixed with the sale of liquor readily drove nearly of their crowds away. Following the 1875 season, the National Association was replaced with the National League. Once, players had owned the teams and operated the games, but the National League was to be run by businessmen. They installed standards and policies for ticket prices, schedules, and player contracts.
The businessmen established that professional baseball could be successful, and a contending league soon came about. In 1882, the American Association started to compete with reduced ticket prices and teams in big cities. Rather than fight each other, the two leagues reached an accord, ratifying a National Agreement. It called for teams in both major leagues and all of the minor leagues to recognize each other’s player contracts. In addition, the arrangement allowed each team to hold together a positive number of players with the Reserve Clause. This provision granted teams the rights to unilaterally renew a player’s contract, keeping him from entertaining other offers.
Needless to say, this inflamed the players. In 1884, they tried to form their own league, the Union Association. Manyplayersquit their teams for the freedom of the Union Association, but the league held out only one season. The teams lost too much capital to attempt a second season. Another try was made in 1890, when the Players League was started. Most of the best players from the American Association and National League joined, but like its ancestor, the Players League went bankrupt after one season. The competitive fight and loss of players compelled the American Association to pull up stakes too, with four of its best teams joining the National League.
The turn of the century brought another candidate, the American League, which started play in 1901. They raided most of the National League’s best players. In their attempt to meet the challenge, the National League owners turned on each other. A court injunction impaneled a three-man committee to run the league, and they found a way for the two-leagues to co-exist peacefully.
Through the first ten years of the twentieth century, baseball remained a game of strategy. The so-called “dead ball”provided few homeruns. The game relied on contact-hitters, bunting, and base-stealing for its offense. The selection of a ball with a cork middle in 1911 changed the game greatly. Forty years of batting records began to drop, and the popularity of the game began to blow up.
In 1914, yet another opposing league tried to gain a foothold. The Federal League sought to establish its presence both on the field and in the courtroom. They sued, arguing that the American and National Leagues made up a monopoly. While the case languished in the legal system, the Federal League went bankrupt after just 2 seasons. In 1922, the Supreme Court decided the matter by ruling that baseball was exempt from anti-trust legislation. The Court consensually acknowledged and confirmed baseball’s monopoly.
The Roaring Twenties were an exceptional time for the United States and for baseball. A huge gambling scandal in 1919 brought absolute reforms, and in the nation’s largest city, a legend was born.Babe Ruth had been a prospering pitcher with the Boston Red Sox, but the New York Yankees bought his contract and made him an outfielder. He was the most tremendous hitter the league had ever seen. Ruth revolutionized the game with his adeptness as a homerun hitter. He escorted in an era of financial prosperity for baseball, and became one of the most favorite individuals in American history.
Like other American men, a big percentage of ballplayers entered the armed forces during World War two. The forties were a perplexing time for baseball, but a new era beckoned. Although it was not a written rule, baseball had constantly been racially segregated. In 1947, Jackie Robinson became the first human being to break the color obstacle in the twentieth cetury, joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. But integration was a very slow development. Other teams were slow to accept African-American and other minority players. It was another ten years before all of the teams had integrated , and it wasn’t until the early sixties that professional baseball could truly call itself integrated.
In 1960, yet another rival league appeared. Although a handful of teams had transfered, most of them were concentrated in the northeast. Large cities in the south and west wanted teams of their own. The Continental League sought to win in court before they had a chance to go bankrupt on the field. Faced with the likeliness of losing their monopoly, major league owners reached a compromise. They would agree to grow, growing from 16 teams to 24 by the end of the decade.
The players loved this, because expansion meant more jobs. Baseball prospered economically, as attendance continued to grow and national television and radio contracts brought in huge amounts of money. Soon, the players began to see that the owners were not sharing the wealth. Salaries had remained inactive for many years, and the players were still bound by the reserve clause. Although they had an union, its only real mission was to administer the meager pension former players received. Seeing the achievement of organized labor in the auto industry and the steel industry, the players decided to put some bite into their union. After nearly a hundred years, the players wanted to regain some control of the game. And they would get it.
Professional baseball players had organized diverse times in baseball history, but they were never able to make the advances that unions in other industries had achieved for their members. The Major League Baseball Players Association had been surrounding for more than thirty years, but its sole use had been to assemble and administer a small pension. Concerned about getting a piece of growing television revenues, the players sought to strengthen their union in 1965.
They hired Marvin Miller, a veteran labor organizer who had fought for the United Steelworkers union for years. He knew there was more at stake than adding broadcasting cash to the pension fund. When Miller came on board and saw what the conditions were, he knew much more was at stake.
For one thing, the lowest salary was $6,000, just a thousand dollars more than it had been in 1947. As he began to collect data, the players were taken aback at how poorly they were being paid. This education paved the way for the first collective bargaining agreement in 1968. It provided some limited improvements, but most importantly it gave the players some leverage. For nearly a hundred years, team owners had a take it or leave it relationship with players. The union could (and did) file complaints with the National Labor Relations Board when they were treated unfairly. Players also won the right to have their grievances heard before an independent arbitrator.
The owners did not like this. They did not like the union interfering in their business, and they did not like the players standing up to them. Curt Flood, one of the league’s superior centerfielders declined to report to training camp in 1969, demanding that the St. Louis Cardinals offer more than a $5000 raise. They relented, but after an lackluster season, they traded him to Philadelphia. Flood did not want to go. He had close ties to the community, and filed a suit against Commissioner Bowie Kuhn. Flood argued that the Reserve Clause was illegal, and that he should be given the chance to negotiate freely with other teams. The Supreme Court ultimately ruled against him, but it made a lot of players think.
By 1975, two pitchers decided to challenge the reserve clause again. It said that the teams had the right to renew a players contract for one year. They interpreted that to be frequent, that they could renew it every year. Dave McNally and Andy Messersmith declined to sign their contracts. If the reserve clause held them for the 1975 season, there was no contract that could be renewed for 1976. An arbitrator held up their case, and free agency was born.
Players were still bound to a team for the first few years of their career, but after that they could sign with any team. The owners couldn’t contain their excitement at this, and spent the next five years outbidding and outspending each other. The players were joyful, because everyone’s salary was going to climb. But many owners were getting upset. When a player left, they got nothing in return. They argued that a team who lost a player should get something in return for repayment. Otherwise, the money they had invested in that player’s development would be lost. The players argued that this would extremely limit their freedom. The two sides couldn’t agree, so in the middle of the 1981 season the players struck.
There had been a brief players strike at the start of the 1972 season, which delayed the start of the season by thirteen days. This was much more crucial, as little negotiation took place. After fifty days, the owners relented and agreed to an altered repayment plan. In return, players not yet eligible for free-agency could have their salaries decided by an arbitrator. The economic issues was growing more complicated, and the adversarial relationship between owners and players grew more intense.
In 1985, the players struck again. The owners had hoped that salary arbitration would help keep salaries down, but it propelled them through the roof. The owners wanted to change it, the players said nope. After two days, the owners relented and the players came back.
Then the free-agent market suddenly and mysteriously dried up. Following the 1986 season, players in search of contracts found no bidders, and several re-signed with their teams for lower salaries. This continued for the next few years, until an arbitrator ruled that the owners had conspired. The collective bargaining barred that action, and the players were awarded damages.
This all set the stage for the worst battle of all. In 1992, the owners compelled Commissioner Fay Vincent to resign. The labor contract was about to expire, and they didn’t want him to interfere in negotiations. Turns out they didn’t want any negotiations either. Their had been a strike or a lockout every time the collective bargaining agreement expired, and the players didn?t want to go through that again. They started the 1994 season without a contract. The owners were insisting that a salary cap was necessary for teams to survive. They claimed free agency and salary arbitration were wrecking them. No progress was being made, so the players went on strike in August.
The World Series was canceled for the first time in 92 years. Fans across the country were disgruntled and heartbroken. President Clinton appointed a mediator, but nothing happened. Finally, the owners decided to unilaterally implement their own plan. They assembled teams of replacement players and set out to start the 1995 season without the real players. The players asked for and got a restraining order, prohibiting the teams from implementing their plan and forcing them to work under the terms of the old agreement until a new one was reached.
It took almost two more years for a labor deal to be reached, and it finally happened in November of 1996. While it’deals too soon to tell if the deal will address the financial problems that face Major League Baseball, it does offer the hope that fans can start thinking about the game on the field once again. Baseball has fallen behind other American sports in popularity, and it will take a lot of work to regain the prominence it once held in American culture. There is a long, proud history to build on, and baseball will enter its third century with reasons for optimism.
Baseball is the greatest sport there ever was. I hope you agree.
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