Spalding's base ball guide, and official league book for ..: a complete hand book of the national game of base ball .. . e reconstruction of its circuit in 1902. It was during this long period of its history that theLeague found itself antagonized by the worst elements ofprofessional base ball playing. At first downright crooked-ness raised its hideous head, then came that other phase ofprofessional dishonesty—contract-breaking—the door towhich was opened by the rivalry with the opposition Amer-ican Association; while drunkenness prevailed in the ranksto an extent which made it an obstacle to
Spalding's base ball guide, and official league book for ..: a complete hand book of the national game of base ball .. . e reconstruction of its circuit in 1902. It was during this long period of its history that theLeague found itself antagonized by the worst elements ofprofessional base ball playing. At first downright crooked-ness raised its hideous head, then came that other phase ofprofessional dishonesty—contract-breaking—the door towhich was opened by the rivalry with the opposition Amer-ican Association; while drunkenness prevailed in the ranksto an extent which made it an obstacle to financial these elements of opposition to playing the game in itsintegrity were, of necessity, obliged to be met and con-quered by arbitrary enactments and strong coercive meas-ures, which would naturally be objectionable under a bettercondition of things. Experience, in fact, taught the Leaguethat nothing short of the ungloved hand would be able tocope successfully against the evils that that organizationhad to encounter during the era of the rule of the roughelement in the professional SPALDINGS OFFICIAL BASE BALL GUIDE. * THE NEW ERA OF THEDECADE OF THE 90S % The advent of the twelve-club circuit of the NationalLeague in 1892 led to the inauguration of a new era inprofessional base ball history, as it began the reign of astrong major league as the leading organization in thegovernment of the whole professional base ball to 1892 the eight clubs of the National League circuitcomprised the Boston, New York, Brooklyn and Phila-delphia clubs, representing the eastern section, and theChicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland and Pittsburg clubs thewestern. In 1892, however, the Baltimore and Washingtonclubs were added to the eastern branch and the St. Louisand Louisville clubs to the western, and then began thetwelve-club pennant race in the National League for that3^ear. Then, too, a new experiment in pennant racmg wascommenced and that was the
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1870, bookidspald, booksubjectbaseball
