tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post2616080311604529199..comments2024-01-24T05:19:09.805-06:00Comments on This Game Of Games: Exaggerated In Nearly Every InstanceJeffrey Kittelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02367989375750209078noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post-91264654468656409212011-04-19T06:54:18.607-05:002011-04-19T06:54:18.607-05:00I think it's kind of a no-brainer for someone ...I think it's kind of a no-brainer for someone in Lucas' position that opposition to the reserve rule was an opportunity to do well by doing good. Its objectionable features from an objective point of view were obvious, and any league with pretensions to major league status could not accept it.<br /><br />On the other hand, the NL had defined its original limited version of the reserve as a business agreement binding only the signatory clubs, so that even new clubs entering the League were allowed to sign reserved players. Once a really credible league willing to pay high salaries appeared, however, the League really had no choice to coopt it into the reserve system. as the League had done with the AA, or declare total war, as it did with the UA. These posts have illustrated the point very well: just about all the cost-containment advantages of the reserve would be lost for everybody if some teams honored each others' reserve rights, but others did not.David Ballnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post-83256206301735227552011-04-18T17:09:58.720-05:002011-04-18T17:09:58.720-05:00I did like the part about VdA swooping in and tryi...I did like the part about VdA swooping in and trying to get Mansell. That was a nice little ploy on his part. <br /><br />Lucas' motivation in all of this is really beginning to interest me. In the press, he's talking up the injustice of the reserve clause and mentioning the inevitable possibility of a players' revolt. Now that all may be smoke and Lucas may have been more interested in making a buck, seizing control of the StL baseball market and/or forcing his way into the NL. And I always figured that the talk about the injustice of the reserve clause and players' rights was just an excuse to circumvent the National Agreement and get players.<br /><br />But I'm not so sure now. Lucas was a baseball fan, a former player and operated an amateur club prior to all of this. Events would prove that he wasn't a particularly great businessman so maybe it's possible that he was doing this out of love of the game. Maybe he truly believed that the players were getting mistreated and decided to doing something that benefited them. As you say, one of the results of the UA was to increase players' salaries. So in that, at least for a short time, Lucas did improve the lot of the players.<br /><br />The Brotherhood and the Players' Revolt rightly gets a great deal of attention as far as attempting to improve the lot of the players is concerned. I'm beginning to think that maybe Lucas and the UA should be mentioned in the same conversation.Jeffrey Kittelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02367989375750209078noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post-83473531051549774322011-04-18T09:21:12.294-05:002011-04-18T09:21:12.294-05:00It's a very interesting item, to me at least, ...It's a very interesting item, to me at least, and I'm glad you did post it. <br /><br />It demonstrates in detail that why one shouldn't underestimate the impact of the Union Association, which put upward pressure on salaries even of players they wound up failing to sign. <br /><br />It shows the Allegheny club already threatening to blacklist a player who violated the reserve agreement, although that policy was not yet official with the established leagues, and it would be reasonable enough to hold that a private business agreement made by the established clubs to respect one another's reserve rights could not be binding on parties who were not participants in the agreement, such as Lucas and Mansell.<br /><br />It indicates what appears to be a standard practice of Lucas' for dealing with players concerning the threat of blacklisting, in that he made the same promises he made to Mullane: $250 to onduct a lawsuit on his own behalf, with Lucas to open a second legal front against the Alleghenys by conducting his own suit for damages.<br /><br />Finally, it shows Von der Ahe making a bargain basement offer of $100 for Mansell's rights, and suggests that he may have been systematically trying to keep as many well known players as possible out of the hands of his new local rivals (although he may well have felt the Browns did need another outfielder)David Ballnoreply@blogger.com