Baseball 1876-1900

[Wolf Hopper]

What are the most significant baseball stories - on the field and off - regular season, post-season, and off-season - for this period, in your opinion?

[sweaver]

1. The formation of the National League
2. The Player's League battle of 1890.
3. Segregation takes form.
4. King Kelly

[SmedIndy]

Go back to 1871 - Wolfie - with the establishment of the first professional "league", the National Association (unjustly not called a major league).

To add to Sweavers list - the rule changes for pitching and hitting (which subsided in 1892 (Wolfie, pay attention to that date!!))

The establishment of the American Association as a viable alternate major league, and then the collapse of the AA into a 12-team behemoth.

Syndicate ball and how it almost ruined the game.

The development of many strategies we take for granted now (stolen bases, sac bunts, platooning).

The establishment of gambling - which forced the expulsion of four Louisville players (and ultimately the team) and also tainted squads in New York (the Mutuals) and other large cities.

The onerous rules of the NL, which caused Cincinnati to flee and excluded some players from the NL (like Charley Jones) because they just wanted to make a living.

[KCBOOMER]

1. The Rise of Organized Baseball

[Wolf Hopper]

Smed's right - you have to go back before 1876 here.
Here's my list:

Elysian Fields
National Association of Baseball Players
1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings
National Association of Professional Baseball Players
National League of Professional Baseball Clubs
American Association
The National Agreement
Union Association
Player's League
The Temple Cup
1899 Cleveland Spiders

[Throwback]

1884...Hoss Radbourn's 59 (or 60) wins. For those of you not familiar, he was the 2nd best pitcher on the Providence Grays (out of 2), but when main guy Charlie Sweeney jumped to the Union Association, Radbourn volunteered to pitch all the remaining games if they would release him from his contract. He came close to doing just that, only being spelled rarely by a position player, and led the failing Grays organization to the NL Championship.