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A Game of Inches Updates, Chapter 13
The nature of a book of firsts is that it is always a work in progress. Although A Game of Inches was published only last year, I have already
received and uncovered a great deal of new information. I encourage anyone who
has read the book to contact me with questions,
concerns, comments, updates, and corrections. A few simple corrections have been
made in new printings, but longer updates will have to wait for the next
edition. For now, I’ll be putting such updates to both volumes on these pages on
an ongoing basis, so check back frequently if interested.
Links to Updates to Other Chapters
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapters 4-5
Chapters 6-8
Chapter 9
Chap. 10-12
Chapter 14
Chapters 15-17
Chapter 18
Chapters 19-21
Chapters 22-26
VOLUME TWO: THE GAME BEHIND THE SCENES
CHAPTER 13: BUILDING A TEAM
I may add to the introduction another example of an early reference to a
“general manager”: the Philadelphia Times, reprinted in the St. Louis
Globe-Democrat, March 26, 1883, mentions “General Manager A. J. Reach.”
13.1.1 Minor League
David Ball makes the
following point: “you describe the Northwestern League as a minor league
under the terms of the agreement … I believe that’s not correct. It’s natural
to look at the Northwestern and Interstate Leagues and see them as structurally
the ancestors of the minor leagues, and I certainly don’t object to
characterizing them as minors. However, I do not believe any league was defined
that way by the National Agreement until 1885. The original agreement allowed
the Northwestern and later other minors to reserve players at a lower minimum
salary than the American Association and the National League, which indicates
they were recognized as weaker, as of course they were. But that only makes
them the lessers among equals. They had the same right of reserve, subject to
no draft, and the same voice in the governance of the Agreement. These are not
trivial rights -- especially the reserve rights, but in addition, in January,
1885, when the National League wanted to amend the agreement to allow it to
place a team in St. Louis, the Eastern League (the only other surviving
Agreement league) had the same right to approve or reject the amendment that the
American Association and National League did. In theory, when the American
Association and National League came to an agreement allowing the National
League to take in St. Louis, the Eastern League could have blocked the deal by
refusing to go along, and that notwithstanding the fact that it was the only one
of the three with no direct interest in the matter. No doubt that would not
have been the last of the matter, of course, but in legal powers, I’m pretty
sure all leagues were equal under the first Agreement. From what I’ve read, it
was A.G. Mills attempt to redress the failure of the League Alliance, which had
been unpopular because the League ran it with so heavy a hand.”
I don’t entirely agree with David, because as I see it,
defining yourself as a “lesser among equals” essentially makes you a minor
league. But it’s a good point that I’ll try to incorporate into a revised
version of the entry.
13.1.3 Drafts
David Ball
pointed out that the first player draft was in 1891, not 1892. I have a
lot more research to do on this, but here’s
a preliminary version of what I’ll
add to the entry:
“The first player draft was instituted in 1891, not 1892. In February of
1891, the new Board of Control met in Chicago and announced new
‘laws
governing the transfer and the reservation of players ... In case a higher
League desires to draw on a lower League in a certain class for a player and
comes to terms with the player, he can be drawn, and the Board guarantees an
indemnity to the club drawn upon’ (Cincinnati Enquirer, February 15,
1891). The price paid the minor league club for a drafted player was fixed by
the newly created class system.
“The minor league team also had the
right to apply to the Board of Control to have the draft blocked if it would
suffer a hardship. This seemed only fair but it proved a problem since most
clubs considered it a hardship to lose a star player for a relatively modest sum
in midseason. The first appeal came when Chicago drafted a catcher named Brown
from Albany in late May. The appeal process dragged for weeks and made it clear
that the system would not be a success.”
13.1.5 Farm Clubs and Farm Systems
Lots of additions to this already long entry:
An example to add to the end of par. 2: “The Junior
Nationals include among their number several promising young players, and the
Washington Clubs could not do better than to organize a junior nine for each
club to form a corp de reserve to replace retired stagers who may become
played out.” (French Scrapbooks, May 1868)
Harry Wright was manager of Providence, not Boston, when he
made the efforts discussed in paragraph 3. I also need to say more about the
reaction to it and will add these two quotations that illustrate that, as with
so many new ideas, there was a mixture of ridicule and outrage. Ridicule:
“Manager Wright has the idea that the larger the number of players the greater
the chance of winning the championship … This makes about the sixteen hundred
and eightieth player that Wright has signed this season. As only nine can play
at any one time, however, Wright contemplates using the spare force in lending
them to the state to break stone.” (National Police Gazette, May 5,
1883) Outrage: “Al Spaulding’s [sic] western trumpet for the Chicago club, the
American Sports, is making a grand boo-hoo over Harry Wright having from 20 to
22 professional players signed with Providence. They call his extra nine a
‘plug team,’ and say that it will surfeit the Providence public with baseball
and detract from the interest heretofore taken in the contests between the
giants of the diamond field (meaning, of course, the Chicagos).” (National
Police Gazette, May 12, 1883)
I also want to cite Troy Soos’s argument, made on page 67
of Before the Curse, that Wright’s scheme was a success
Par. 4, sentence one, change “a year later” to “later that
year”
Par. 4, replace sentence three with “The idea of a ‘Base
Ball Academy’ caught on quickly and A. G. Spalding now became a chief proponent,
announcing in October that his Chicago club ‘has decided to engage for next
season an auxiliary team of ten or twelve young players from semi-professional
and amateur ranks, put them on salary and keep them in training under the direct
supervision of Captain Anson with the view of developing base ball talent to
supply players in emergencies, and with a view of increasing the supply of
available men in the country. The rules by which each club can reserve eleven
men will tend to make good unengaged players scarce’ (Wheeling Register,
October 20, 1883).”
An addition to the end of paragraph 4, “Even minor league
clubs such as Evansville and Milwaukee signed or considered signing reserve
nines.”
Illustrating par. 5: “The reserve team system has proved an
expensive fizzle.” (National Police Gazette, June 28, 1884)
Replace first sentence of par. 6 with: “But by then the
advantages of having additional players available was becoming apparent.
Several clubs loaned players to ones that were short-handed, prompting one
reporter to comment, ‘This thing of one club lending players to another is a new
wrinkle, and it strikes us that it is in violation to the National Agreement,
else what is to prevent the New Yorks from borrowing Keefe and Holbert from the
Metropolitans? The Buffalos, however, are letting Hagan play with the
Minneapolis club on condition that he shall be on hand when the Buffalos want
him. If this is regular it will be of invaluable benefit to the Metropolitan
Exhibition Company’ (National Police Gazette, July 5, 1884). And indeed,
as discussed in entry 13.2.3, Keefe was transferred to the New Yorks after the
season.”
Then start a new paragraph with “With the need and the
potential benefits so great, owners soon found new ways to resurrect schemes for
having players in reserve.” And then include the rest of current paragraph six.
In the paragraph beginning “The 1903 National Agreement” I
want to add this quotation from the agreement after the first sentence: “The
practice of ‘farming’ is prohibited. All right or claim of a major league club
to a player shall cease when such player becomes a member of a minor league
club, and no arrangement between the clubs for the loan or return of a player
shall be binding between the parties to it or recognized by other clubs.” (New
York Times, August 30, 1903, 3; quoted in Mike Roer, Orator O’Rourke,
228)
In the paragraph beginning “The unfairness of farming …” I
want to add this example after the first sentence: “It seems to be rather a hard
matter for a ‘farmed’ player to keep track of himself. Word comes from
Washington that Mike Kahoe, who supposed that he belonged to the Cincinnati
Club, was released to Indianapolis some time in February. When he joined the
Hoosiers last season Kahoe was signed to a Cincinnati contract. When the season
closed he was on the reserve list of the Cincinnati Club. As the Cincinnati
Club did not tender him a contract before the first of March Kahoe – who was
ignorant of the fact that he had been released to the Indianapolis Club – though
that he was free to sign where he pleased. Now comes the information that the
Cincinnati Club gave up its claim to him in February and as the Indianapolis
Club offered him a contract within the limited time he must go to the Hoosier
capital. It seems strange that this transfer should be made without the consent
of the other clubs and without being mentioned in President Young’s official
bulletins. Still the information from headquarters says that all this did
happen, so there was nothing for Kahoe to do but to sign an Indianapolis
contract. And next fall, when the drafting season opens, it will be found that
the Cincinnati Club has drafted Kahoe before any league that may want him. And
thus will his prospects of breaking into fast company be killed. Verily, the
farming and drafting systems are the pride of the magnates – or should be.” (Cincinnati
Times-Star, Sporting Life, April 9, 1898, 2) Then the Frisbee
example will become a new paragraph, with slightly modified wording.
Ten paragraphs from the end, following the one beginning
“With the farming laws …” I want to add this new one: “And the intent of these
arrangements was unmistakable. ‘It is an open secret,’ remarked I. E. Sanborn
in 1911, ‘that [White Sox owner Charles] Comiskey was prominent in the purchase
of the Des Moines club when sold by John Higgins during last season. It is the
purpose of the new arrangement to put Hugh Duffy in charge of Comiskey’s
interests in the Iowa club and let him train and develop young players for the
White Sox. Instead of loaning out his promising youngsters here and there to
clubs whose managers are subject to change and who often know less about the
science of baseball than the young players themselves. Comiskey, under the plan
evolved, can plant young players in Des Moines and be sure that Duffy will teach
them something, for there is no question about the former Sox manager knowing
inside baseball. In that way young players obtained from the minor leagues, who
give evidence of becoming good players, can be polished off and given experience
in actual games under Duffy’s generalship instead of being kept on the bench at
the south side with small chance of getting into actual contests’ (I. E.
Sanborn, “Jimmy Callahan New Sox Manager,” Chicago Tribune, October 23,
1911, 12).”
Four paragraphs from the end, in addition to citing Murray
Polner, I’ll cite Lee Lowenfish’s Branch Rickey, pages 140 and 181.
Replace last paragraph with, “Lee Lowenfish notes that by
1938 almost every major league club had begun to imitate Rickey’s system.
Opponents like John McGraw had died out and even Commissioner Landis, according
to a 1937 Sporting News editorial, might be ‘pained, but scarcely
surprised to note a baseball world that has been completely “Rickeyized”’ (Lee
Lowenfish, Branch Rickey, 279). Another Sporting News editorial
observed that farm systems were not merely expanding but fundamentally changing
in nature: ‘Unless all signs fail, 1934 promises to become known as the “year of
the farms.” Formerly, the fountain head of the system was the major league
club. Now a number of the minor league clubs are going in for the farm stuff
and the end is not yet in sight’ (Sporting News, March 15, 1934). By
1940, even Landis had essentially abandoned his war on the farm systems (Lee
Lowenfish, Branch Rickey, 308).”
13.2.1 Sales
David Ball has a terrific essay on the origins of sales in
the first issue of the new journal Base Ball that I intend to cite
extensively. In particular, I want to incorporate his excellent analysis of the
1874 sale of Craver and Bechtel and his perceptive point that the recent end of
slavery made sales an especially touchy subject.
I need to add this example to paragraph five: “The
Philadelphias, when they found all hope was lost of their winning the league
championship, adopted a new scheme, and are now selling their players in order
to get their money back. Lewis was sold to St. Louis for $800, which shows the
market for flesh and blood is as good as it was in the days of slavery.” (National
Police Gazette, August 4, 1883)
I want to revise the paragraph on the Kelly side to include
Mark Lamster’s insightful comments on page 37 of his Spalding’s World Tour
about how the historical context, especially the recent Haymarket Affair, made
this a highly charged issue.
I want to rework
the final paragraph, since the White quote is from 1889 (before the Players’
League) and the Gleason one from 1894. I’ll probably move the White quotation
to the end of the previous paragraph, with an introduction of “Others put it
more succinctly:”. Then I’ll have a new paragraph along these lines: “With the
threat of the Players’ League looming, the National League finally offered to
compromise. The league first promised players a quarter of their own purchase
price and then even offered to let players negotiate their own sales. A. G.
Spalding maintained that these concessions would ‘[do] away with the systems of
sales, over which there has been such an outcry by the seceding players and
their organs’ (Spalding Guide 1890, 26; Mike Roer, Orator O’Rourke,
153).” Then I’ll close with a paragraph noting that the players had much less
leverage after the Players’ League folded but that they still tried to obtain a
part of their purchase prices. The Gleason quotation will be used to illustrate
this.
13.2.2 Going-out-of-Business Sales, Garage Sales and
Shopping Sprees
David Ball’s essay in the inaugural issue of Base Ball
also has some excellent points that need to be added to this entry.
After the third paragraph, I’ll add this new one: “The
sensitivity of the issue was shown when the Terre Haute Courier claimed
in June of 1884, ‘The Evansville managers are pursuing the plan adopted by the
Fort Waynes last year, that of selling off their players like so many cattle.’
The Evansville Journal issued an angry denial and a war of words ensued
(Evansville Journal, June 13, 1884).”
I want to add a concluding paragraph that will cite this
article and link it to the development of the hierarchical farm system in the
twentieth century: “Developing baseball players is quite a profitable
undertaking these days, observes Charles Zuber. The crop of good players always
is short, and the manager who can bring to light a bonafide phenom is certain to
make money out of him. Take the Cincinnati club as a buyer for instance. In the
last three years it has paid out cash money to secure Breitenstein, Peitz, Ehret,
Hill, Corcoran, Taylor and Selbach from major league clubs, and has paid extra
money – above the drafting price – for McBride, Steinfeldt and Hahn. It is safe
to say that the club has expended between $15,000 and $20,000 for players in the
last three years. Other clubs also have invested much money in purchasing
players outright, although none of them has spent as much money as Cincinnati.
“Using players as merchandise is of comparatively recent origin.
The sale of Kelly and Clarkson to Boston about ten years ago, was among the
first important sales in baseball. About this time, too, Chris Von der Ahe was
making a reputation for himself as a dealer in players. So general has this
traffic grown that every minor league goes into the business with the hope of
being able to exist through the sale of such players as may develop for faster
company. Commenting on the present traffic in players, Manager Bancroft said,
‘In the early days of professional baseball players were not sold about as they
are now. Every club was allowed to reserve only four [sic] players at the end
of the season. The others were free to sign where they pleased and changes in
teams were much more numerous than they are now. If a club had an extra man
that it had no real use for and some other club wanted him, he was given away –
not sold. In consequence teams were more evenly matched than they are now.’
“However those days are gone. Players change teams now only through
sale, trade or when their usefulness is gone.” (Daily Iowa State Press
(Iowa City), March 6, 1899)
13.3.1 Roster Sizes
I’ve found a couple of nice illustrative citations that I’d
like to work into the second paragraph. The Boston Sunday Herald scoffed
at the idea that Boston might try a thirteen-man roster in 1877, pointing out
that this would mean that four players were “lying idle all the time. It need
hardly be said that this is too large a number to carry.” (Boston Sunday
Herald, reprinted in the Chicago Tribune, December 3, 1876) And a
few months later the Tribune stated that even an eleventh man was generally
regarded as a “luxury.” (Chicago Tribune, March 4, 1877, 7)
13.3.4 Trade Deadlines
As Cliff Blau pointed out, the
trade deadline was changed from June 15 to July 31 in 1986.
13.4.1 Scouts
I intend to reword the first paragraph to read something
like this: “In the early days of baseball the acquisition of new players was ad
hoc. The hustlers (see 6.1.3) who managed clubs were too busy and club owners
tried to help out but did not necessarily have a keen eye for talent.”
I want to add the following after the third paragraph: “By
then, however, there was a realization of the need to reverse the process and
have teams search for players instead of the other way around.
In 1876, the
Chicago Tribune chided, ‘A curious idea is manifested in the Clipper
by an advertisement of the Louisville Club for players. Generally a club has
only to pick out from applications’ (Chicago Tribune, December 10, 1876,
7). This way of doing business came increasingly the norm, as was dramatically
illustrated in 1884 when the secretary of the Milwaukee club of the Northwestern
League placed an ad for a first baseman, a second baseman in a Chicago sporting
periodical. The ad prompted these harsh words from a Milwaukee
journalist: ‘This is another of the stupid moves that have been the cause of so
much dissension in the club. It is not very probable that the players at
present filling the positions mentioned will be fired with zeal at the sight of
the advertisement. The fact of advertising for players is generally considered
the exclusive right of country clubs, the pride of towns like Mukwonago, as the
men in charge of a metropolitan team are supposed to know when a valuable player
is on the market. At present the veriest tyro in baseball matters knows that
the equal of Milwaukee’s shortstop cannot be secured for love or money, as they
are all playing for big salaries. It is also extremely doubtful if advertising
will bring replies from players as good as either the present second baseman or
first baseman’ (Milwaukee Sentinel, June 22, 1884, 3).
“Still, learning whether a valuable man was on the market was not as
easy as it sounded. Teams simply couldn’t afford to spend their limited
resources on talent hunts, so they relied principally on informal scouting
networks.” (Then continue with the current second sentence of paragraph four and
the rest of that paragraph.)
Then I’ll replace the first sentence of what is now the
fifth paragraph with: “As difficult as it was to justify the cost of talent
hunts, neither could clubs afford to stand pat as losses mounted and attendance
dwindled. And the ad hoc methods of player acquisition meant that there
generally was a better player out there – if only the team could find him. So
more organized forms of scouting began to emerge.”
This would be nice to add to the early part of the entry as
well: “There has always been a lack of some convenient means of communication
between ball-players who want engagements and ball clubs wanting players. The
best way, if it were possible, would be to have a central office where both
clubs and players could apply for their needs. This will not be possible until
a man in whom every club and player has confidence takes up the idea.
Meanwhile, The Tribune offers its services, so far as they may serve, to
bring the employer and employe into communication. From this time until the
opening of the playing season … each issue of The Sunday Tribune will
contain in its Base-Ball Department a register of players who desire engagements
for 1878, and also of clubs, or associations, which have needs of players.” (Chicago
Tribune, January 13, 1878, 7)
13.4.2 Cross-checkers
An addition to
paragraph three, after the first sentence: “This was particularly true because
so many clubs received tips from bird dogs. The discovery of Hall of Famer
Gabby Hartnett was a perfect example, according to this account: ‘The 1921
season wasn’t half over before Kitty Bransfield, former big leaguer, who was
umpiring in the league and who was an ivory outpost for the Cubs, became
convinced the young catcher was a worthy major league prospect. Kitty passed
the word along and eventually came old Jack Doyle, Cubs scout, to whom was
intrusted the final say. Doyle thought Bransfield’s hunch was justified, so the
deal was closed’ (Irving Vaughan, “Hartnett’s Dad Inspired ‘Gabby’ to Become
Catcher,” Chicago Tribune, May 10, 1925, A2).”
13.4.5 Advance Scouts
My suspicion is that what Tony Kubek meant was that what
was new was the
practice of having a scout whose specific job was advance scouting. I’ll try to
clarify that.
13.4.6 Tryout Camps
I’ll add a second paragraph about Branch Rickey’s use of
them: “Branch Rickey’s association with the tryout camp began in St. Louis in
1919 and he used such camps to sign talented players like Ray Blades and Jim
Bottomley. As the success of the camps became apparent, he began to hold them
in a variety of Midwestern towns. Some believed that Rickey had to hold these
camps to supply players to his ever-expanding farm system, but he maintained
that it was the other way around – that all the talent discovered at the camps
made it necessary to create additional farm clubs (Lee Lowenfish, Branch
Rickey, 118, 156, 338)
13.4.7 Baseball Schools
Another example to add to paragraph two: “Billy Holbert, of
the Metropolitan Club, proposes to start training classes for young base ball
players, with the idea of bringing out new material. It is his purpose to
organize three classes – one in New York, one in Jersey and one in Connecticut –
and to give one or two morning lessons a week at each place. In this way he
could continue to play ball and teach as well.” (Sporting Life, April 17,
1889)
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