A New Era for Base Ball: The Fall of the Old Order and the Rise of the Union League

Published in The American Sporting Chronicle, April 1896

It has been scarcely three years since the tragic collapse of organized professional base ball cast a pall over the national pastime. The bitter warfare among the National League, the American Association, and the Players' Brotherhood; each striving for supremacy, each reckless in their spending and promises, led to the ruin of them all.

The Panic of '93 delivered the fatal blow. Attendance dwindled to a trickle; club treasuries, once flush with the spoils of rivalry, were emptied. Teams folded midseason, players scattered to semi-professional nines, and the public's faith in the professional game was gravely wounded.

What had been a grand edifice of American sport crumbled into dust.

For two long years, the professional game languished, sustained only by independent clubs and regional matches of uneven quality. Many declared base ball dead.

Yet from the ruins, a new vision has taken form.

In the autumn of 1895, representatives from twelve cities (New York, Brooklyn, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington, Chicago, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Louisville, and Buffalo) met in Philadelphia under the auspices of the newly formed Federal Base Ball Union. With prudence and caution absent from the old leagues, these men laid down the principles of a new and better order: the Union League.

The Union League promises sound governance, reasonable wages, and a commitment to financial sobriety. Gone are the reckless bidding wars for players; gone are the speculators who bled clubs dry. Each member club posts a substantial bond ensuring its ability to fulfill its obligations, to players, to supporters, and to the sport itself.

The public, wearied of scandal and collapse, has embraced the return of organized professional base ball with cautious optimism.
The Union League clubs, proudly bearing names such as the Titans, the Resolutes, the Blue Caps, the Vulcans, and the Satraps, now take to the field to renew the sacred contest.

May this new Union be more enduring than those that fell before it.

1896 Union League Membership: