And Here's The Suspension

At a meeting of the Directors of the St. Louis Base Ball Club last evening Messrs. Von der Ahe, Walker, Williams and Reid were present.  It was decided to suspend Fred Lewis for the season of 1884, which disbars him from playing with any club under the tripartite agreement.  Jim O'Neill claims that he had no connection with the trouble on Tuesday night, and that the reports regarding him were unfounded.  Tom Deasley was also fined heavily for insubordination and enthusiasm.  Mr. Von der Ahe gave the other men a quiet sensible talk and desired them to do their best and work in harmony and keep up their present good record.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, July 3, 1884


This is so good that I'm going to have to go with the bullet points to cover it all quickly:

-Well, of course, Lewis gets suspended.  You can't get all drunk and tear up a whorehouse and not expect to get suspended.

-I imagine Tip O'Neill standing with his hands up and saying "It wasn't me."

-Was Tom Deasley involved in all of this or was his fine a separate incident.  And how does one get fined for "enthusiasm"?  Have to assume they meant a lack of enthusiasm, or a general piss-poor attitude.

-I laughed out loud when I read that VdA gave the players "a quiet sensible talk."  Compare this treatment of VdA with the coverage from the 1890s.  If this was being reported in 1895, we'd get a made up quote from VdA's speech.  Something along the lines of "Now boys youse canks goes to de horse's house und mistreats de horse.  Dats bad far de horse's bisniss und de baseball bissniss."