In “The Great Baseball Revolt,” Robert B. Ross examines the environment in the early days of professional baseball in the United States that led to the formation of the Brotherhood of Professional Baseball Players organizing the Players’ League in 1890. The new league formed to counter National League’s and American Association’s control of the players, offering them to play in a league void of the dreaded reserve clause, and giving ballplayers shared ownership of their team.
The author does a fantastic job of summarizing the control mechanisms employed by the owners to keep the players under their thumbs. The owners maintained local monopolies, territorial rights to exclude competition. The owners controlled player movement with the reserve clause, and buying and selling talent. As noted in the book, owners would require players to purchase, clean, and replace their uniforms. Teams charged players fifty cents per day for travel expenses on road trips. Often times, players were fined for profanity and even blacklisted for trivial offenses. Chicago owner Albert Spalding even hired Pinkerton agents to spy on his own players.
Led by the versatile John Montgomery Ward, the Players’ League outdrew the Nation League in 1890. However, Ross documents the reasons why the league only survived one season. The Pittsburgh franchise was so financially strapped, and turned to amateur players as replacements to cut costs and finish out the season. In the end, only the Boston franchise turned a marginal profit, leaving the league in the red. The stronger teams would merge with their National League counterparts. As Ross points out, in the coming years, the average player’s salaries declined.
Ross does a superb job establishing the Players’ League’s legacy in baseball history, and describing the aftermath of its demise. In my humble opinion, Ross hits a home run with “The Great Baseball Revolt.”
The book is published by The University of Nebraska Press.
By: Robert B. Ross
Narrated by: Gary Galone
Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
Release date: 08-12-19
