December 23, 1975: The Reserve Clause Is Killed

Peter Seitz

December 23, 1975: The reserve clause is struck down, changing baseball forever.

The clause -- nothing Christmassy about this -- began in 1879, when the National League instituted it, allowing teams to reserve players for each season, unless a player opted out of his contract and did not play in the league for a year. This allowed the team owners to control salaries, since the players could not play one team owner off another and get higher bids for their salaries.

In 1890, the Sherman Antitrust Act was passed. To some people in baseball, the reserve clause sounded like a violation of that act. In 1922, in Federal Baseball Club v. National League, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled otherwise, saying, in a 9-0 unanimous vote, baseball was an "amusement," therefore did not constitute "interstate commerce," and therefore antitrust laws did not to apply to it. That ruling has never been overturned by a later Supreme Court ruling.

So opponents of the reserve clause had to find another way to get it struck down. In 1969, the St. Louis Cardinals traded Curt Flood to the Philadelphia Phillies, and, having a home and a business in St. Louis, and believing Philadelphia to be a racist city, he didn't want to go. He contacted the Chairman of the Major League Baseball Players' Association, Marvin Miller, to see what could be done about it.

Curt Flood

Miller decided that the reserve clause was a legitimate basis for negotiation in collective bargaining between players and owners. The case of Flood v. Kuhn went to the Supreme Court in 1972, and the decision was 5-3 in favor of the owners.

Finally, Miller got the team owners to agree to impartial arbitration. What he needed was two players to challenge the clause, by playing the 1975 season without signing a contract. This was because Miller realized that the clause only reserved the player for one year. The owners had always interpreted it to mean the player was reserved until he was released: Even if traded, his new team assumed the reservation.

Marvin Miller

It had to be two players, so that it wouldn't look like one embittered player, as Flood, fairly or not, seemed to be. Both players turned out to be pitchers. Dave McNally had been traded from the Baltimore Orioles to the Montreal Expos, and had determined that 1975 would be his last season, as he planned to retire to his ranch in Montana. So he had nothing to lose.

Andy Messersmith had much to lose. Born on the Jersey Shore in Toms River, and raised in the Orange County suburbs of Los Angeles, the righthander was 29, and had gone 20-6 in helping the Los Angeles Dodgers win the National League Pennant in 1974. He was in position to make a great deal of money if he could put his skills up for bid. But Miller convinced him that striking the reserve clause down was more important. So he played the '75 season with the Dodgers, without a contract, turned 30, and went 19-14.

Andy Messersmith

In an interview with The Sporting News for the 10th Anniversary of the decision, Messersmith said, "It was less of an economic issue at the time than a fight for the right to have control over your own destiny. It was a matter of being tired of going in to negotiate a contract and hearing the owners say, 'OK, here's what you're getting. Tough luck.'"

The owners were terrified. There is one thing that a sports team owner values more than money, and that is control. If the clause were struck down, the owners would have to pay more in salaries, but, from their perspective, the bigger problem was that they would lose some measure of control over the players' fates. They could have compromised, but were too stubborn and set in their ways to do so.

So the decision went to arbitration. A three-man panel was chosen. Miller represented the players. John Gaherin, the chief negotiator of the MLB Player Relations Committee, argued on behalf of the team owners. Together, they found an arbitrator acceptable to both of them: Peter Seitz, a 67-year-old lawyer who had negotiated New York City's labor relations law a decade earlier.

On December 23, the ruling was handed down. Surprising no one, Miller sided with the players, and Gaherin sided with the owners. Seitz had the deciding vote, and he sided with the players, saying:

The grievances of Messersmith and McNally are sustained. There is no contractual bond between these players and the Los Angeles and the Montreal clubs, respectively. Absent such a contract, their clubs had no right or power, under the Basic Agreement, the Uniform Player Contract or the Major League Rules to reserve their services for their exclusive use for any period beyond the renewal year in the contracts which these players had heretofore signed with their clubs...

The leagues involved in these proceedings, without delay, shall take such steps as may be necessary to inform and instruct their member clubs that the provisions of Major League Rules 4-A(a) and 3(g) do not inhibit, prohibit or prevent such clubs from negotiating or dealing with respect to employment with the grievants in this case; also, that Messersmith shall be removed from the reserve list of the Los Angeles Club and McNally from the reserve or disqualified lists of the Montreal Club.

The next day, the owners fired Seitz as arbitrator. But that did nothing to change the official result of his decision: The reserve clause was mortally wounded. It wasn't quite dead, as the owners had the right to appeal. On February 4, 1976, the Seitz decision was upheld in a federal district court. On March 10, it was upheld in a federal appeals court.

Finally, rather than take the apparently inevitable beatdown from the U.S. Supreme Court, the owners decided to make a deal. On July 12, an agreement was reached on a 4-year labor deal, giving players with at least 6 years' play in the major leagues the right to free agency. (This would later be reduced to 5 years.) Finally, on August 2, 1976, the players voted on ratification, and the reserve clause was formally buried.

A few years later, Cardinals owner and Anheuser-Busch beer magnate Gussie Busch met with the man he had traded to unwittingly set all this in motion, Curt Flood. No owner had been more vehement than Busch that the reserve clause had to be maintained, or else baseball would be "destroyed." But Busch told Flood he was right, and the owners were wrong, and apologized to him.

Flood had sacrificed his career for Messersmith and all the players who came after him. Messersmith signed with the Atlanta Braves, for $1 million over 3 years. But he didn't pan out with them, due to injuries. He went 11-11 in 1976, and only 5-4 in 1977. He was traded to the Yankees for 1978, but made only 7 appearances, going 0-3.

The Yankees released him, and, with some irony, he signed as a free agent with the Dodgers. This was possible because their owner, Walter O'Malley, champion of the cheap, had died, and his son, Peter O'Malley, was one of the owners willing to pay big money if he thought it would bring big results. In Messersmith's case, it didn't: He made just 11 appearances, going 2-4, and was done at age 34.

Messersmith later coached at a community college in Northern California, while McNally worked on his ranch and ran a car dealership. Neither worked in professional baseball again.

Seitz died in 1983, Flood in 1997, McNally in 2002, Miller in 2012. As of December 23, 2022, Messersmith is still alive, age 76.

*

December 23, 1975 was a Tuesday. Baseball was out of season. Football was in midweek. There were 7 games played in the NBA:

* The New York Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks, 110-108 at the Milwaukee Exposition, Convention Center and Arena, or "The MECCA." Since 2014, it has been named the UW-Panther Arena.

* The Buffalo Braves beat the Boston Celtics, 101-92 at the Buffalo Memorial Auditorium.

* The Washington Bullets beat the Detroit Pistons, 120-102 at Cobo Hall in Detroit.

* The Houston Rockets beat the Chicago Bulls, 103-94 at The Summit in Houston. (The arena has since been converted into the Central Campus of the Lakewood Church, Dr. Joel Osteen's "megachurch.")

* The Los Angeles Lakers beat the Kansas City Kings, 111-97 at The Forum outside Los Angeles in Inglewood, California.

* The Golden State Warriors beat the New Orleans Jazz, 105-97 at the Oakland Coliseum Arena.

* And the Portland Trail Blazers beat their arch-rivals, the Seattle SuperSonics, 125-100 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum.

There were 3 games played in the American Basketball Association:

* The New York Nets beat the Kentucky Colonels, 107-102 at Freedom Hall in Louisville. Julius "Dr. J" Erving scored 31 points.

* The Spirits of St. Louis (that was their official name, not "The St. Louis Spirits") beat the Virginia Squires, 115-103 at The Scope in Norfolk.

* And the Indiana Pacers beat the San Antonio Spurs, 111-106 at the HemisFair Arena in San Antonio.

There were 5 games played in the NHL:

* The New York Rangers beat the Pittsburgh Penguins, 4-3 at Madison Square Garden.

* The Los Angeles Kings beat the Boston Celtics, 4-3 at the Boston Garden.

* The Philadelphia Flyers and the Atlanta Flames played to a tie, 2-2 at The Omni in Atlanta.

* The Chicago Black Hawks beat the St. Louis Blues, 4-1 at the Chicago Stadium.

* And the Buffalo Sabres beat the Kansas City Scouts, 5-1 at the Kemper Arena in Kansas City. It's now named the Hy-Vee Arena, and the Scouts became the Colorado Rockies in 1976, and the New Jersey Devils in 1982.

And there were 5 games played in the World Hockey Association:

* The Phoenix Roadrunners beat the Cincinnati Stingers, 5-3 at the Riverfront Coliseum in Cincinnati. (The arena is now the Heritage Bank Center.)

* The Minnesota Fighting Saints beat the Denver Spurs, 5-4 at the McNichols Arena in Denver.

* The Calgary Cowboys beat the Toronto Tors, 10-1 at the Stampede Corral in Calgary.

* The Winnipeg Jets beat the Edmonton Oilers, 6-2 at the Northlands Coliseum in Edmonton.

* And the San Diego Mariners beat the Quebec Nordiques, 10-4 at the San Diego Sports Arena. (The arena is now the Pechanga Arena.) 

October 9, 1890: The End of the Players' League War

John Montgomery Ward

October 9, 1890: The National League, the American Association, and the insurgent Players' League, all hit hard financially by their 3-way "war" for players and fans, reach a truce. The PL folds, and their players are welcomed back to their former teams at their former salaries.

The PL was formed by the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players in November 1889, after a dispute over pay with the NL and the AA. The NL had implemented a reserve clause in 1879, which limited the ability of players to negotiate across teams for their salaries. Both the AA and NL had passed a salary cap of $2,000 per player in 1885, equivalent to about $60,300 in 2022. The owners of the NL teams had agreed to remove the salary cap in 1887, but broke their word.

The Brotherhood included most of the best players of the NL. Brotherhood members, led by John Montgomery Ward -- who could play just about any position, including pitcher, and was also a practicing attorney -- left the NL and formed the PL after failing to change the NL's lopsided player–management relationship.

The PL had 8 teams. The New York Giants were named after their NL counterparts. The PL also directly challenged the NL with the Boston Reds, the Brooklyn Ward's Wonders ("Monte" Ward's team), the Philadelphia Athletics (no connection to the later American League team of that name), the Chicago Pirates, the Pittsburgh Burghers (the NL's Pittsburgh team was still called the Alleghenys, not the Pirates), and the Cleveland Infants.

The Cincinnati Reds were the only NL team that did not have a direct PL competitor, and the Buffalo Bisons were the only PL team not directly competing with an NL team. The AA had teams in Brooklyn and Philadelphia, and those were the 2 least-attended teams in their league -- directly leading to their being the 2 worst. The AA also had teams in Baltimore, Syracuse, Rochester, Columbus, Toledo, Louisville and St. Louis.

The Pennants were won by Brooklyn in the NL, by Louisville in the AA, and by Boston in the PL. The PL was well-attended, at least in some cities, but was underfunded, and its owners lacked the confidence to continue beyond the one season.

After the PL folded, the Boston and Philadelphia franchises joined the AA, and both folded together with the AA after the 1891 season. The PL franchises in Brooklyn, New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh each merged with their NL counterparts after the 1890 season, as the rebel players were welcomed back.

Although the league was started by the players themselves, essentially as an elaborate job-action to improve their lot, the venture proved to be a setback for them in the longer term. The hated reserve clause remained intact, and would remain thus for the next 85. The already-shaky AA had been further weakened by the presence of the PL.

One benefit of the league, from the management standpoint, was the construction of new facilities, several of which were used for a while by the established major league clubs. The most prominent of these was a new Polo Grounds, originally constructed as Brotherhood Park for the New York Giants of the PL. The NL's Giants moved in for the 1891 season, and stayed until a fire burned it down in 1911. A new Polo Grounds was built on the site, and the Giants stayed until moving to San Francisco after the 1957 season. This would be paralleled by one Federal League ballpark entering the remaining major leagues for 1916: The Chicago park that was later renamed Wrigley Field.

The NL survives to this day. The AA, however, was mortally wounded, and folded after one more season. That brought a vacuum that was filled by the American League in 1901. In 1902, a new American Association was formed, at the highest minor-league level.

*

October 9, 1890 was a Thursday. There were 4 baseball games played that day, all in the American Association:

* The Rochester Broncos beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 10-4 at the Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia.

* The Baltimore Orioles beat the Syracuse Stars, 6-3 at Oriole Park in Baltimore.

* The Toledo Maumees beat the Louisville Colonels, 7-0 at Eclipse Park in Louisville.

* And the Columbus Solons beat the St. Louis Browns, 7-5 at an early version of Sportsman's Park in St. Louis.

October 7, 1969: The Trade That Changed Everything

October 7, 1969: The St. Louis Cardinals trade Curt Flood, Byron Browne, Joe Hoerner and Tim McCarver to the Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Richie Allen, Jerry Johnson and Cookie Rojas.

Essentially, this was a "my headache for your headache" trade. Flood and McCarver had been complaining about how they were being treated by Cardinal owner Gussie Busch. And Allen was a lightning rod, who stayed out late, arrived to games late, drank too much, bet on horse races, and (however unintentionally) stirred up the racial resentments of "the City of Brotherly Love."

He had also begun to insist upon being called "Dick," saying that "Richie" was "a little boy's name." On this, Phillies broadcaster and center field legend Richie Ashburn (who usually preferred "Rich," and, unlike many white men in this uneasy time, didn't mind being called "Whitey") backed him up on it.

As could be expected, Allen, who so badly wanted out of Philadelphia, is involved in a trade that also becomes controversial -- except, ironically, his part in it isn't the controversial part. He reports to St. Louis without complaint; is received warmly by teammates, management and fans; has a good 1970 season for the Cards; and, on his return to Philadelphia with his new team, is cheered by the Philly fans, and hits a home run.

The controversial part involves Flood: Like Allen, he believes (with some reason) that Philadelphia is a racist city, and refuses to report to the Phillies. He writes to Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, telling him he has the right to ply his trade wherever he likes under American labor laws, and that the reserve clause, which binds a player to a single team in perpetuity unless he is released, or traded (in which case, he becomes the property of the new team, as was the case here), is unconstitutional.

Since Kuhn is a lawyer, he should respect that. Since he is essentially employed by the 24 MLB team owners, he doesn't respect it. Flood sues, and the case will go all the way to the Supreme Court, where Flood will lose in 1972. A later case gets the reserve clause struck down, but that comes too late to help Flood, or any other previous challenger, none of whom even got as close as Flood did. Still, this trade, which Flood did not ask for, ended up changing everything in baseball.

The Cardinals sent Willie Montañez and a minor leaguer to complete the trade, but Flood's courageous challenge to the reserve clause had a dramatic impact on the game. Flood died in 1997, just past his 59th birthday, his health compromised by years of drinking.

The Phillies eventually got Dick Allen back, and, having been transplanted across town to Veterans Stadium, faced cheers as in 1964 instead of boos as in 1965 to 1969, and helped the Phils win the National League Eastern Division title in 1976. He later beat his own drinking problem, was hired in the Phils' front office, and was thoroughly cheered whenever he was introduced at Citizens Bank Park. He died in 2020, at age 78.

Montañez is another interesting story. One of the first players to be called a "hot dog," he was one of those players whom teams kept trying to acquire, and eventually kept trying to dump. From 1966 to 1982, he batted .275 with 139 home runs, was a fine fielder at 1st base, and was an All-Star in 1977, as an Atlanta Brave. He was a New York Met in 1978 and '79. He never reached the postseason, though. 

He's now 74. I once saw an entire starting lineup, complete with designated hitter, of players who were traded for him. And it was a decent lineup:

1B John Milner

2B Tony Phillips

SS Marty Perez

3B Darrell Evans

LF Al Oliver

CF Garry Maddox

RF Ken Henderson

C Tim McCarver

DH Dick Allen

P Gaylord Perry or Bert Blyleven

*

October 7, 1969 was a Tuesday. Baseball's Pennants were won the day before, by the New York Mets and the Baltimore Orioles. The World Series started 4 days later. So did the NHL season. The NBA and the ABA both started their seasons 3 days after that. And football was in midweek. So there were no scores on this historic day. 

June 4, 1902: The Cleveland Naps

June 4, 1902: The case of Napoleon Lajoie is settled. He plays his 1st game for Cleveland.

Napoléon Lajoie (that's pronounced "LAH-zhoh-ay," and he had no middle name) was born on September 5, 1874, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He would be the 1st of 2 natives of that town to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, followed by 1930s Chicago Cubs catcher Charles "Gabby" Hartnett.

A son of French-Canadian immigrants, Napoléon dropped out of school to work in a textile mill, a major industry in late 19th Century New England. He joined a semi-professional baseball team, where a teammate, unable to pronounce his last name, started calling him "Larry." Others began calling him "Nap" for short.

He was playing for a team in nearby Fall River, Massachusetts when he was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League. They put him at 1st base, and he roomed with their biggest star, the hard-hitting Ed Delahanty. In 1897, he batted .363, had 127 RBIs, and led the NL in total bases and slugging percentage. In 1898, he was moved to 2nd base, again had 127 RBIs (which would remain a career high), and led the NL with 43 doubles.

Despite injuries that cost him significant playing time in 1899 and 1900, in the latter year, Ned Hanlon, manager of the Brooklyn Superbas, offered the Phillies $10,000 for Lajoie. At the time, it would have matched the record purchase for a ballplayer. Phillies owner John Rogers turned him down.

Rogers should have taken it. He had promised Lajoie the same salary as Delahanty, $2,600. When Lajoie found out that Delahanty was actually making $3,000, they both believed Rogers was untrustworthy. As the American League was ready to start play and raid NL rosters in 1901, Lajoie said, "Because I felt I had been cheated, I was determined to listen to any reasonable American League offer."

(Eventually, so was Delahanty: He stayed with the Phillies for 1901, but "jumped" to the Washington Senators in 1902. He was still with them in 1903, when he died under mysterious circumstances.)

Former Phillies part-owner Ben Shibe founded the AL's Philadelphia Athletics, borrowing the name from at least 2 previous professional teams. He hired Connie Mack, former Washington Senators (NL) and Pittsburgh Pirates catcher, and former Pirates manager, to be his team's manager and treasurer. Lajoie made $2,800 in 1900. He was offered $24,000, about 8 1/2 times what he was making. He said, "You can bet I signed in a hurry," adding, "The Phillies opened their season, and drew 6,000 fans. A week later, when we opened, there were 16,000 in the stands. The American League was here to stay."

Lajoie won the AL's 1st batting title, although his average was in dispute for many years. Until 1954, it was listed at .405. A transcription error was discovered, and it was revised to .422, making it the highest in AL history to this day. Later on, another error was found, and it was discovered that his average was actually .426, making it the 2nd-highest in major league history, trailing only the .440 of Hugh Duffy with the 1894 Boston Beaneaters.

That season, Lajoie also hit 14 home runs and had 125 RBIs. These also led the League, giving him the Triple Crown. He also led the AL with 232 hits, 48 doubles (which, through the 2021 season, remains an A's franchise record, in any city), 350 total bases, 145 runs, a .463 on-base percentage, a .643 slugging percentage, a 1.106 OPS, and a 198 OPS+. (He also had 14 triples, a fine total in any era, but it did not lead the League.)

Over the next 120 years, the American League would have multi-category-leading seasons produced by Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, George Brett, Ken Griffey Jr., Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Lajoie's performance in the AL's 1st season stands alongside the best of these.

Mack said of Lajoie, "He plays so naturally and so easily, it looks like lack of effort." Ed Walsh, Hall of Fame pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, once said, "Did you ever see Larry Lajoie bat? No. Then you missed something. I want to tell you that there was one of the greatest hitters, and fielders, too, ever in baseball. There's no telling the records he'd have made if he'd hit against the lively ball."

But the next season, the Phillies sought an injunction to prevent Lajoie from playing in the American League. On April 21, 1902, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania upheld the reserve clause in contracts between players and NL teams -- but also said that the injunction was only enforceable in Pennsylvania. That is, he could only play in the Keystone State if it was for the Phillies. This meant that he could play for the A's in away games.

Since he could only play away games -- and there was no health risk as there would be over a century later, as with Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets -- the A's let him go. To return the favor of Charles Somers, owner of the Cleveland Bronchos (the H was silent), lending the A's money to help them get started, on May 31, Mack traded Lajoie and pitcher Bill Bernhard, who had also jumped from the Phillies to the A's and to whom the injunction also applied, to the Bronchos.

Lajoie made his debut with the Bronchos on June 4. They beat the Boston Americans, 4-3 at League Park in Cleveland. Lajoie went 1-for-3 with an RBI. He completed the 1902 season with a .378 batting average, leading the AL again.

In 1903, Somers made Lajoie his manager, and even changed the name of the team to the Cleveland Naps, to capitalize on his popularity. He batted .344 in 1903 and .376 in 1904. The American League had been in business for 4 years, and only 1 man had ever led it in batting average: Nap Lajoie.

In the middle of the 1905 season, Lajoie contracted sepsis from an untreated spike injury. Dye from his stockings entered his bloodstream, and led to blood poisoning. As a result, a rule was put into place requiring white socks to be worn underneath a player's colored socks. Doctors considered amputating the leg, but he recovered. The Naps were 52-29 on July 24 when he was hurt, but only went 24-47 the rest of the way. Lajoie's Cleveland teammate, right fielder Elmer Flick, who had been their best player before Lajoie arrived, won the batting title.

Lajoie bounced back in 1906, batting .355 (which did not lead the League), and collecting 214 hits including 48 doubles (both of which did). That same year, he married Myrtle Smith, but they never had children. He tailed off a bit in 1907, and did not have a great season in 1908, but the team did, finishing just half a game behind the Detroit Tigers, led by Ty Cobb. That would be his best performance as a manager. He had another good by not great season in 1909.

In 1910, the Chalmers auto company promised a new car to the AL's batting champion. Lajoie, turning 36 late in the season, and Cobb, just 23, both wanted it. With 3 games left in the season, Cobb was batting .383, and stayed out of the lineup to preserve that average. On the last day, Lajoie went 8-for-8 in a doubleheader in which the St. Louis Browns, hating Cobb for his seemingly dirty play, played their infield back. Of Lajoie's 8 hits, 6 were bunt singles. Lajoie finished at .384, but few thought that was legitimate. Chalmers settled it by giving each man a car.

Lajoie batted .365 in 1911, .368 in 1912, and .335 in 1913. But with Cobb at his peak, Lajoie never won another batting title. He dropped to .258 in 1914, although he collected his 3,000th career hit. With the injunction long gone, he returned to the A's for the 1915 and 1916 seasons, and retired with a lifetime batting average of .338; 3,243 hits (at the time, 2nd all-time behind Honus Wagner) including 657 doubles, 153 triples and 82 home runs; 380 stolen bases; and an OPS+ of 150.

Had the Phillies paid Lajoie what he was worth, who knows? Most likely, they wouldn't have won a Pennant, either, as one man could only have done so much.

In 1917, he was player-manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League, for whom the hockey team would later be named. At age 43, he batted .380, won the IL batting title, and managed them to the Pennant. He played for the American Association's Indianapolis Indians in the war-shortened 1918 season, and then retired.

In 1937, he was among the 2nd class of players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1939, he attended the Hall's opening ceremony. In 1958, living in Daytona Beach, Florida, he had a fall and broke his arm. He never recovered, and died on February 7, 1959, at the age of 84.

In 1949, Ogden Nash, my grandmother's favorite poet, wrote "Line-Up for Yesterday" for Sport magazine, an alphabetical list of star players. For the letter L, he wrote: 

L is for Lajoie
Whom Clevelanders love,
Napoleon himself,
With glue in his glove.

In 1999, despite his not having played in a major league game in 83 years, The Sporting News ranked him 29th on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, 3rd among 2nd basemen behind Rogers Hornsby and Eddie Collins. In 2022, ESPN ranked him 48th, 4th among 2nd basemen behind Hornsby, Joe Morgan and Jackie Robinson. (Hornsby fell from 9th to 20th, Collins all the way from 24th to 82nd.)

The Cleveland team kept the name Naps until he left them after the 1914 season. They then became the Indians, and the Guardians in 2022. (The Boston Americans became the Red Sox in 1908.)

*

June 4, 1902 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Orphans, 4-3 in 10 innings at the Polo Grounds. The Chicago team, formerly known as the White Stockings and, for their youth, as the Colts, had long been led by 1st baseman and manager Adrian Constantine Anson. He was known as "Cap," for "Captain," until he got older, and became known as "Pop." He retired after the 1897 season, and the team became known as the "Orphans," because "they missed their Pop." They were renamed the Chicago Cubs in 1903.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Beaneaters went through some name changes, and became the Braves in 1912.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0 at South Side Park in Chicago. Roy Patterson pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-2 at Oriole Park in Baltimore. The Orioles would fold at the end of the season, and a new franchise would take their place, eventually becoming the New York Yankees.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4 at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia. Honus Wagner went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* And the Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 13-6 at Boundary Field in Washington.

January 10, 1903: The American League and the National League Make Peace

January 10, 1903: After 2 years of "war," baseball's American League and National League make "peace" with each other.

All that Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson, founder and President of the AL, wanted was for the NL to recognize his League as "major."  Had they done so when his League began play in 1901, he was willing to play by the same rules as the NL, and to respect its teams' contracts. But the NL wasn't willing to give up their monopoly on the concept.

So the AL raided NL teams, pulling away such stars as Cy Young, Napoleon "Nap" Lajoie, Willie Keeler, Ed Delahanty, Elmer Flick and Sam Crawford. After 2 years of their players threatening to "jump" to the AL, and then doing so if their salary demands were not met, the NL surrendered.

The AL was magnanimous in victory. They agreed to accept all NL contracts still in place as binding, and to abide by the reserve clause. They established a National Commission, consisting of each League's President and a neutral third party.

They accepted the NL's 140-game schedule as a model for their own. Each League had 8 teams, and played 20 games against each of the other 7 teams in their League. The next season, both agreed to make it 22 games against each of the other 7 teams, for a total of 154. This would remain in place in the AL until 1960, and in the NL until 1961. In each case, in the following season, there was an expansion from 8 teams to 10, and a 162-game schedule, 18 games against each of the other 9 teams.

The AL adopted a rule that the NL had in 1901: Foul balls are to count as strikes, unless there are already 2 strikes. The pitcher's mound was limited to 15 inches, which would also remain until 1968, after which it was dropped to 10 inches. And, as the NL had in 1900, the AL adopted the pentagonal, "house-shaped" home plate.

And the Leagues agreed to let their respective Champions play each other in a best-5-out-of-9-games World Series, for the overall championship of the sport. The Boston Americans, forerunners of the Red Sox, beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 5 games to 3.

And so, for the next 50 seasons, the 2 Leagues would, effectively, be 1, with the same teams, listed here with the names they would have for most of that time, in alphabetical order:

* American League: Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, Detroit Tigers, New York Yankees, Philadelphia Athletics, St. Louis Browns, Washington Senators.

* National League: Boston Braves, Brooklyn Dodgers, Chicago Cubs, Cincinnati Reds, New York Giants, Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Cardinals.

*

January 10, 1903 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball and professional hockey barely existed. But there were scores in English soccer. Among them: Woolwich Arsenal, the Kent-based team that would one day become North London-based Arsenal, traveled to Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire, and played Burslem Port Vale (eventually just Port Vale) to a 1-1 draw at the Athletic Ground.