William Hulbert.
I looked for photos of the teams' operators,
William Cammeyer of New York and Al Wright of Philadelphia,
but it appears none of either survive.
December 10, 1876: The teams representing New York, the biggest city in the country, and Philadelphia, the 3rd-biggest, are kicked out of the National League, the only major league in the sport, or in any sport in North America, at the time.
The NL had begun play in 1876, with 8 teams. Going east to west, they were: The Boston Red Caps, the Hartford Dark Blues, the New York Mutuals, the Philadelphia Athletics, the Cincinnati Reds, the Louisville Grays, the Chicago White Stockings and the St. Louis Brown Stockings. (At this point, coming up with a clever name for your team was not necessary.)
The 1st game was played on April 22, at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia. Boston beat Philadelphia, 6-5. There was a decent Pennant race, with Chicago finishing 6 games ahead of both Hartford and St. Louis, 15 ahead of Boston (who had won the last 4 titles in the National Association, and would win the next 2 titles in the NL), 22 ahead of Louisville, 26 ahead of New York, and 34 1/2 ahead of Philadelphia.
It was not treated as odd that the top 2 teams were Chicago, owned by NL founder William Hulbert; and Hartford, owned by the NL's President, Morgan Bulkeley, a Hartford banker who would later be elected Mayor of Hartford, and as Connecticut's Governor and U.S. Senator. But it was a bit odd that New York and Philadelphia hadn't done well.
The New York Mutuals had been founded in 1857, and won more games recognized as "official" than any other team in 1863 and 1864. While the Boston Red Stockings (who became the Red Caps, and went through several name changes before settling in 1912 on "Braves") dominated the National Association, the "Mutes" finished 3rd in 1872 and 2nd in 1874.
They played their home games not in Manhattan, but in Brooklyn, which would be a separate city until 1898. Their owner, William Cammeyer, had built the first enclosed baseball facility, the Union Grounds, in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn, in 1862, and the Mutes continued to play there.
Like the Mutes, the Philadelphia Athletics were considered one of the top teams in baseball's amateur era, before professionalism came in 1869. They had been founded in 1860, won more games than any other team in 1867, and finished 2nd in 1865, 1866 and 1868. In 1871, they won the NA's 1st Pennant.
But the depression that began with the Panic of 1873 hit baseball hard. NA teams couldn't afford to complete their schedules by going on roadtrips. This was a major reason that Hulbert founded the NL: He wanted teams to stick to their schedules, to make the Pennant race more honest. Chicago beat Hartford at home, 7-6, on September 26, to clinch the Pennant. (As early as 1858, the team with the best overall record would be permitted to fly a flag, or "pennant," reading, "CHAMPIONS" at their ballpark, and the name stuck.)
On September 11, 1876, Al Wright, manager of the Athletics, informed the NL office that they could not afford to make their last Western roadtrip, to Chicago and St. Louis. He did, however, have a backup officer: The White Stockings and Brown Stockings could come east, play additional games in Philadelphia, and take a larger than normal portion of the gate receipts, so they could raise enough money to finish their schedule. The NL denied this reasonable suggestion. On September 16, the Mutuals announced that they couldn't afford to make their last roadtrip, either.
And so, on December 10, the NL held its Winter Meetings in Cleveland. After Bulkeley declined to run for re-election, Hulbert was elected President. He immediately moved for the expulsion of the Mutuals and the Athletics from the League. In spite of the role each already had in baseball's relatively short history, the other team owners did Hulbert's bidding.
It would be 1883 before both cities returned to the NL, with the teams that would become known as the New York Giants and the Philadelphia Phillies. By the start of the 1878 season, only 2 of the original 8 teams would be left: Boston and Chicago. But those 2 teams still exist, as the Atlanta Braves and the Chicago Cubs.
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December 10, 1876 was a Sunday. The NL forbid games on Sundays, but, apparently, they were more than willing to make decisions affecting any and all League teams on the day. Since basketball did not yet exist, hockey barely did, and college football, itself in its early days, did not play on Sundays, there were no scores on this historic day.
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