Читать книгу Spalding's Baseball Guide and Official League Book for 1889 - Various - Страница 7

The season of 1888, in the professional arena, was marked by several events which placed it on record as the most noteworthy, known in the thirteen years' history of the National League. In the first place it was the inaugural year of the grand movement made by the President of the Chicago Club, to extend the popularity of our national game beyond the American continent; an event which exhibited the characteristic energy, pluck, liberality and business enterprise of Mr. Spalding, in a very marked manner; the grand success which the venture met with being a well merited reward for the large financial outlay which he incurred in the experiment. Secondly, the struggle for the championship of the League, resulting as it did in the success of the New York club, gave to the East a lead in the pennant races which they had not held since 1884, when the Providence club won the championship, Chicago having held the honors in 1885 and 1886, and Detroit in 1887. The past season, too, excelled all previous years in the vast assemblages of spectators who were gathered at the grounds of the prominent clubs on holiday occasions; as also in the immense aggregate of people who patronized the professional contests of the year. It was also an exceptional year in regard to the close and exciting contest for the League pennant, between the four leading clubs of that organization; and at the end of the championship season the sequel of the contest for the base ball championship of the world finished off the campaign of 1888, in a manner that greatly added to the honors won by the victorious League club from New York. The contest for the American Association championship was also one of the interesting events of the season, and one, too, which taught aspiring clubs a lesson which they can well profit by; and that is, that success in championship contests is due far more to able management, competent captaining, and thorough team work, than to the gathering together of the strongest of star players in a club team. In the League, in this respect, while the Boston club had invested, at great financial cost, in securing the services of noted star players, the Chicago club, though weakened by the release of players from their team who had done yeoman service in their ranks for years, were yet able to excel the picked team of star players of the Boston club, simply by superiority in handling those they had left to them. In the Association arena, too, a similar condition of things prevailed in the case of the St. Louis and Brooklyn clubs, the costly investment of the Brooklyn club for new players, only enabling them to reach second place in the pennant race, while the "weakened"(?) St. Louis team, by better conceited work together were enabled to break the record by capturing the Association pennant for the fourth successive season, something only equaled by the Boston club under the reign of the old National Association in 1872, '73, '74, and '75.

An event of the season of 1888, also, was the widening the sphere of professional club operations in the United States, by the inauguration of the Texas League, which, though not as successful as desired in its first year, nevertheless opened up a new and large territory for the occupation of the professional clubs. Closing too, as the year did with a commendable movement on the part of the League legislators to regulate the salary system so as to get rid of several costly abuses; it may be justly said that in no year since professional ball playing was officially recognized, was there so much done to promote the welfare of the national game as during the season of 1888.

The summary record of the season's work of the several professional

Leagues and Association prominent during the season of 1888, is as follows:

|Champion |Games |Per Cent. of

Leagues |Club. |Played |Victories

—————————+——————+————+—————

National League |New York | 532 | .641

American | | |

Association |St. Louis | 540 | .681

International | | |

Association | Syracuse | 433 | .718

Western | | |

Association | Des Moines | 458 | .648

Central League | Newark | 4*6[A] | .783

Southern League | Birmingham | 101 | .620

New England League | Lowell | 209 | .566

California League | Stockton | 268 | .615

Texas League | Dallas | 146 | .660

Tri-State League | Lima | 538 | .701

[**Proofreaders note A: * indecipherable number**]

| Number of Clubs.

| Began the | Ended the

Leagues | Season. | Season.

—————————————+——————+————

National League | 8 | 8

American Association | 8 | 8

International Association | 8 | 8

Western Association | 8 | 7

Central League | 8 | 7

Southern League | 4 | 4

New England League | 7 | 4

California League | 4 | 4

Texas League | 6 | 4

Tri-State League | 10 | 10