Clipping:Early word of the IA

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19C Clippings
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Date Thursday, October 19, 1876
Text

The St. Louis Red Stockings have sent out circulars to the semi-professional clubs, proposing a non-League association, and inviting an expression of opinion upon the subject. The author of the circular suggests that under no circumstances should the clubs of the association play League clubs, and that only twenty-five cents admission to games be charges. Philadelphia Sunday Mercury October 19, 1876

The Centennial year for base ball has about closed. The period, therefor, has arrived for making the necessary arrangements to secure for next season more favorable results than those attending the League series which have filled the public eye for the past six months. It was a close corporation from the beginning, and could not reasonably have expected to become popular. If the clubs forming the League had been composed of the only base ball talent in this country, their exclusiveness might have been excusable, but such was so far from being the fact that every club in the League was beaten, at some time or other during the season, by a club which was excluded from that association. The League was composed of eight clubs, drawn together in this tight circle, to the exclusion of all others, for the purpose ro reaping into their treasuries all the money which those who admire the game would be likely to expend during the season–certainly not an unselfish expectation. In this connection, and in this view of the case, it is a pleasure to be able to announce the fact that some of the managers of the League clubs admitted that they made more money, and had much larger audiences when a League-club played with a club outside of their charmed ring than when two of their League clubs played each other, with, perhaps, one or two exceptions. There are some thirty clubs recognized as semi-professionals scattered all over the country, who could form a very strong association. These clubs ought to correspond with each other at an early day. There is no reason why first-class clubs, as these are, should retire from the general arena. The few clubs of the League have no pre-emption right to cover the whole ground. In this, as in most sports, “The more, the merrier” is the rule. There is room enough for all to be accommodated who desire to take an active part in the healthy and invigorating exercise. These semi-professional clubs have men possessing sufficient vim and talent to form an organization, with its own well-matured rules, similar in character to the old National Association. If this shall be promptly accomplished and the rules provide for a reasonable gate fee, next season may prove one of the most prosperous base ball years. Philadelphia Sunday Mercury October 29, 1876

Source Philadelphia Sunday Mercury
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Submitted by Richard Hershberger
Origin Initial Hershberger Clippings

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