tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post5173921517474013985..comments2024-01-24T05:19:09.805-06:00Comments on This Game Of Games: The 1884 Maroons: The St. Louis SchemeJeffrey Kittelhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02367989375750209078noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5985668569918053928.post-29733761985948661732011-03-29T08:18:23.383-05:002011-03-29T08:18:23.383-05:00Deasley eventually signed to stay with the Browns,...Deasley eventually signed to stay with the Browns, on condition that he not be reserved after the season. The leagues refused to enforce pledges of this sort, even if they were written into contracts, so Deasley was frced to pay Von der Ahe for his release after the season so he could sign with New York. However, Buffalo and Louisville did honor similar promises to Jim O'Rourke and Joe Gerhardt respectively, and the Giants signed both of them as free agents.<br /><br />As long as the Union Association was in the field (which proved not to be very long, but no one could be sure of that in the fall of 1883), Deasley could walk away from the Browns any time he was not under contract; and as long as that was the case, the right to reserve him had little value anyway. This explains why Von der Ahe made the no-reserve promise in the first place.<br /><br />The same goes for every other player and any other league that didn't participate in the reserve system. Looking at the matter more broadly, it is the dynamic that explains why the NL and AA had no choice but to compel a league such as the Union Association to participate in the reserve system or else give up reserving players, which they were not willing to do. <br /><br />On the other hand, a startup league with major pretensions like the Unions could not afford to accept the reserve system, not necessarily out of principled conviction, but because they would gain the right to reserve their own players (of whom they started out with none at all) only at the cost of respecting the reserve rights of the old leagues (which had all the established players worth reserving).David Ballnoreply@blogger.com