elected to places of influence and importance that they were not qualified to fill, and this in order that they might manipulate the game to selfish ends. Thus the legitimate purpose of the sport, which was to provide entertainment for the public and healthful exercise for its participants, was prostituted to ends of graft and greed. The question prompting these mischief-makers was not "How may we perpetuate the game of Base Ball in its integrity and perfection?" but, "How may we secure the largest personal advantage while in office?" I do not make this charge of officers of the Association as a rule, but that there were present in power at this time officials who wrought havoc with the game will not be disputed.
Mutterings, loud and deep, showing the dissatisfaction that was present in the minds of the press and public, were heard everywhere from those who had any interest whatever for the welfare of Base Ball in America. It was quite apparent to everybody that something must soon occur to change the existing order of things—and in this one case it was the "expected" that happened.
The leading Base Ball club of Cincinnati, seeing the inevitable, unwilling to be bound by rules which nobody respected or obeyed, holding in utter contempt an organization that had failed to uphold the dignity and integrity of a game of which it was the nominal executive head, threw down the gauntlet of defiance to the National Association of Base Ball Players—not by a flaming pronunciamento, but by manly declaration that henceforth it would be known as a professional organization.
It required a great deal of moral courage on the part
