The League That Lasted: 1876 and the Founding of the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs

ISBN-13: 9780786417551 / Angielski / Miękka / 2004 / 255 str.

Neil W. MacDonald

Opis

In the early 1870s, baseball was chaos, mired in mismanagement and corruption. William Hulbert, the owner of Chicagos National Association team, believed that a league run efficiently with honest competition wouldsurvive and flourish. Hulbert, relying on his pragmatic philosophy of molasses now, vinegar later and working with his prize recruit Albert Spalding, founded the National League in 1876.

That inaugural season of the National League is chronicled in this heavily documented work. The league fell far short of Hulberts dreams in its first season, but he stuck to his belief that integrity would win out in the end. He not only prohibited Sunday baseball and the sale and consumption of alcohol within the leagues ballparks, but ousted two teamsNew York and Philadelphiafrom the league because they failed to meet their obligation to finish out the season. Despite the setbacks, scandals, and considerable opposition, all of which are thoroughly coveredhere, the National League survived its first year.