[SelzShoes]

Excerpts from “The History of Professional Base Ball” (1941)

As odd as it may seem to the throng that hails Base Ball as the National game; a scant seventy years ago the professional game barely existed. It did not exist in a form now familiar to the nearly nine million people who cross the turnstiles at the “major” league level and nearly half that number at the various “minor” league levels.

The heroes of these early days have faded from our collective memories—replaced by men whose skills with the bat and ball push the game to higher and higher levels. . .

Men were paid to play as early as 1858 as the club teams from New York, Brooklyn and Philadelphia battled one another for the right to declare themselves “National Champions.” It was not uncommon for a talented baseballer to bat and pitch for as many as three different clubs in a single weekend. Teammates one day would be on opposite sides the next.

These loose arraignments and tournaments lasted well over a decade, until what is considered the watershed moment in the development in professional baseball: The 1869 tour of the Cincinnati Base Ball Kings.

While the sporting press focused on the eastern cities, the “Western Game” was developing its own stars. A. J. Helmuth, a promoter most noted for scandalous theatrical performances, hit upon the idea of hiring the best ballplayers and touring—taking on all comers. Attaching the club, initially at least, with the Longwood Circus, the Base Ball Kings started modestly beating local nines in Western Pennsylvania and the Midwest. By the time the club reached Chicago for a two-week stay against the top clubs there, they were already becoming a legend.

The stay in Chicago resulted in a remarkable 18 wins in 14 days against what had been regarded as the best clubs in the center of Midwestern baseball. The results were similar in Saint Louis, Indianapolis and Louisville. The Kings had begun to acquire a mystique about them.

With the attention of the press beginning to face westward, many of the best eastern clubs decided to quash the notion that these “backwards players who can’t possible know the game like we do,” could be the true masters. An eastern leg, stretching from Washington to Boston was quickly arranged; and late August through October was to show who really were the “Base Ball Kings.”

One of the innovations of the Kings was what we now call the “pitching rotation.” While most clubs had rosters of 11 or 12 men, with 1 primary pitcher, the King’s schedule required a roster of 15 men, with 3 men who were top-flight pitchers. Rarely was a man asked to pitch on back-to-back days—the rest allowed by the expanded roster made a better-rested club. Few squads the Kings encountered had the depth to compete. The Base Ball Kings were also able to exploit rules, such as substitute batters, that other clubs did not have the manpower to use.

By the time Cincinnati swept the five top Brooklyn nines, the Eastern press proclaimed them National Champions—with a full two weeks left in the tour. When all was said and done, the Kings had won 75 to 90 straight games (records for the early portion of the tour are incomplete) with an amazing 22 straight against the so-called powers from Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston.

That winter, from Saint Louis to Boston, the top clubs started consolidating talent—buying the best players from weaker clubs. Bidding for some of the best players reached $1,000.00. By mid-summer 1870, distinct levels of play were developing. And as the masses clamored fro the higher level of play; prominent businessmen gathered in Philadelphia to organize the first Professional League.

Moguls from the “centers of baseball” gathered in August of 1870 to plan this association. Chicago, Cincinnati, Brooklyn, New York, Philadelphia and Boston all would be represented. A 40 game schedule was agreed upon, so as to leave room for the numerous (and profitable) exhibitions against lesser clubs. And in the case of Brooklyn and New York, a total of 10 additional head to head games were played that did not count as “official” league games.

When play began in the spring of 1871, the wildest dreams of these moguls and players could not have envisioned the gift they would bestow on a grateful nation.