Summer 2003: The Centennial of Modern Organized Baseball

The Centennial of Modern Organized Baseball

Numerous books published this year have proclaimed the centennial of the World Series. This is misleading at best, incorrect at worst. Similar championship series between the champions of the National League and American Association were played during the 1880s. Moreover, the 1903 postseason series between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Boston Americans was arranged directly between the club owners, not by the leagues. Not until 1905 did the major leagues adopt rules governing postseason championship series.

Meanwhile, the real centennial story has received no attention at all. September 11, 2003 will mark the hundredth anniversary of the National Agreement between the AL, NL and National Association, the document which established the structure of Organized Baseball.

In late 1901, with hostilities between the AL and NL at their peak, minor leagues which recognized the reserve system formed the National Association of Professional Baseball Leagues. The AL-NL war ended in January 1903 with the signing of the AL-NL Peace Agreement, which reaffirmed the reserve system and resolved all conflicting claims to players. Paragraph 8 of the AL-NL Peace Agreement appointed AL president Ban Johnson and NL president Harry Pulliam to draft the National Agreement in consultation with National Association President P.T. Powers.

Article I of the National Agreement declared that it could be dissolved only by the unanimous consent of the three signatory organizations, warning that “if any of said parties withdraws from it, or violates any of its fundamental principles the party so withdrawing or offending shall be treated as the enemy of organized base ball.” Article II recognized the right of each party to adopt and enforce its own constitution and bylaws, while Article III established a six-member rules committee composed of representatives from the AL and NL.

Article IV established Organized Baseball’s new supreme governing body, the National Commission. The three-member Commission consisted of the presidents of the American and National Leagues, together with a chairman elected jointly by the two league presidents. The first – and only – man ever to serve as chairman was Garry Herrmann, president of the Cincinnati Reds. Notwithstanding his NL ties, Herrmann was also a close friend of Ban Johnson, who was generally happier than the NL owners with Herrmann’s service.

Few were less happy than Pittsburgh owner Barney Dreyfuss, who soon focused on the fundamental conflict of interest in having an owner chair the Commission. The problem was especially acute because under the National Agreement, the chairman’s power was near-total in disputes over rights to a particular player. When an AL and NL club both claimed the same player, the chairman alone decided the grievance. In disputes between a major league club and a minor league club, the chairman and the president of the other major league heard the grievance – but if their views differed, the chairman’s vote prevailed.

Making matters worse, Herrmann was even less sensitive than Bud Selig to potential conflicts. In 1906 Herrmann, as president of the Reds, asked waivers on an obscure player named Ed Phelps. Before the 10-day waiver period had expired, Herrmann sold Phelps to the Red Sox...but on the 10th day Phelps signed with the Pirates. Under the Commission’s rules, the dispute was to be resolved by the chairman, which put Herrmann in the position of reviewing his own conduct.

Herrmann claimed that he had obtained Phelps' permission to sell his contract so long as the Reds paid Phelps half the sale price. Phelps denied ever giving Herrmann the right to sell his contract. In upholding the sale, Herrmann credited his own version of the dispute over Phelps's, to the frustration of both the player and the Pirates.

Pittsburgh owner Barney Dreyfuss was not satisfied. A week later, he was stunned to learn that Herrmann had also bet $6,000 that Pittsburgh would not win the NL pennant! Herrmann admitted making the wager, which he termed a "serious mistake" and promptly called off, but added, "You know that I did not solicit the wager -- in fact, it was brought about after a good deal of jesting."

For "jesting," read "drinking." The friendship between Herrmann and Ban Johnson, a fellow Cincinnatian, had been cemented in saloons across the Queen City. In 1909, after losing yet another dispute, Barney Dreyfuss fumed to The Sporting News: "The Commission is a joke, just as anybody in baseball knows. Its members do too much drinking."

Dreyfuss and Herrmann clashed again in 1916. This time the stakes were higher: rights to future Hall of Famer George Sisler, the decade's best college prospect. Sisler had signed a professional contract at age 17, while still underage, then repudiated it a year later to preserve his college eligibility. Pittsburgh acquired that contract, but Sisler signed with the St. Louis Browns to play for his former college coach, Branch Rickey.

The dispute between the Pirates and Browns went to the National Commission, where Herrmann had to decide whether to award Sisler to one of his own rivals or ship him off to the other league. Although his decision in favor of the Browns was legally correct, Dreyfuss and other NL owners soon tried to force Herrmann to choose between the Reds and the Commission.

Article V of the National Agreement set forth the map of major league baseball that would remain in place until 1953. Clubs in the five two-club cities were specifically forbidden from consolidating into a single, stronger franchise, but were allowed to relocate to another city with the consent of a majority of clubs in each league. The National Association agreed not to locate any of its clubs (except for Jersey City) within five miles of any major league city except with the consent of the affected major league team. In an early dispute over these provisions, the Commission rejected the New York Highlanders’ proposal to play Sunday games at Ridgewood, Queens, holding that the club’s “New York” territory was limited to Manhattan Island.

Article VI contained the economic centerpiece of the Agreement, the rules governing the acquisition, release and reserve of players. Through Section 1 of this Article, all major and minor league clubs recognized one another’s reserve rights as well as contract rights. They agreed that any club or league which harbored a contract or reserve jumper “shall be considered an outlaw organization, and its claim to contractual and territorial rights ignored.”

Section 3 declared: “The right and title of a major league club to its players shall be absolute, and can be only terminated by release or failure to reserve under the terms of this Agreement by the club to which a player has been under contract.” Once released, a major league player was subject to claim by any other club in his league for 10 days; only after that was he free to sign with the club of his choice. Section 4 outlawed the practice of farming players to minor league clubs, forbidding the loaning of players and proclaiming that any transfer of a major league player to a minor league club must be absolute.

Section 6 established rules for the drafting of minor league players by major league clubs. Between September 1 and October 15, major league teams could draft up to two players from each Class A minor league club, an unlimited number from those in the lower classes, for a selection price of $750 for Class A players, $500 for Class B, $300 from Class C and $200 from Class D. Similar drafts existed within the National Association itself, allowing clubs in the high minors to acquire players from the lower minors for relatively nominal sums.

But the mere existence of such a draft was more important than its terms. Class A clubs realized that rather than lose their two best players for $750 each, they were better off selling the highest-quality prospects to the highest major league bidder before the draft, when these players could command a market price. This system both rewarded minor league owners with talented rosters and ensured a steady flow of talent upward through the system, to the high minors and then the majors.

Although the entire reserve system was clearly designed to limit player mobility and reduce player salaries, the Commission was not entirely unsympathetic to players. In a 1905 ruling, the Commission reinstated James Wiggs, who had refused to report to Brooklyn after the club bought his contract, then offered him less money than he was earning in the minors. Chairman Herrmann explained: “While there is no rule on the subject, it has been and should be the custom than when a player advances from a Minor to a Major League, he is to receive a reasonable increase in salary; and a Major League Club that does not conform to this custom, is not deserving of much recognition at the hands of the Commission. In my judgment, the player was forced into his position by the actions of the Brooklyn Club.”

Another key provision of the National Agreement addressed the recurring problem of informal contract tenders and purported acceptances. The Agreement directed the use of a standard form contract for major league players. It bound a player to the terms of any agreement which he had accepted by letter or telegram, or had acknowledged receipt of an advance paid thereunder. If such a player subsequently failed to sign a formal contract, he would be ruled ineligible after ten days, unable to play for any club in Organized Baseball unless released.

The National Agreement did not require clubs to include the reserve clause in all player contracts. In December 1903, however, the National Commission made clear that even if a player’s contract did not expressly contain a reserve clause, the club could still reserve the player unless the player could prove, by a preponderance of the evidence, that he was not to be reserved. The Commission also decreed that in the future, all waivers of a club’s reserve rights must be contained in the player’s contract itself, not in any side agreements.

In 1907 the Commission amended the National Agreement to forbid outright the use of non-reserve contracts without the express approval of the Commission (for major league players) or the National Association (for minor leaguers). One loophole remained, however: in March 1909 the Commission granted free agency to Charles A. Fallon, who had played the previous season in the minors without ever signing any contract. The Commission explained, “Club owners have every opportunity in protecting their rights to players by reservation or suspension, if they refuse to sign contracts. On the other hand the rules are plain that if players do not sign contracts they cannot be reserved.”

Although the National Agreement survived World War I, the National Commission it created effectively collapsed in 1918. The breaking point was a dispute between the Boston Braves and Philadelphia Athletics over the rights to pitcher Scott Perry. When the Commission awarded Perry to the Braves, Ban Johnson declared that the AL was not bound by its decisions and encouraged Connie Mack to defy the Commission. After the season the NL directed league president John Heydler not to approve another term for Garry Herrmann as chairman, then allowed Herrmann to remain on a temporary basis until a neutral outsider acceptable to both leagues could be found.

This was the situation during the 1919 World Series. When Charles Comiskey heard rumors that some of his players might be throwing the Series, he refused to talk to Ban Johnson, with whom he was feuding. He couldn’t bring the matter to chairman Herrmann, who was president of the opposing club. That left NL president Heydler, who couldn’t do anything to help.

Herrmann finally resigned as chairman effective February 11, 1920. Ban Johnson, already fighting the White Sox, Red Sox and Yankees for control of the American League, spent the next nine months fighting with the National League over Herrmann’s replacement. When the Black Sox scandal broke in September, Organized Baseball was leaderless and incapable of addressing the problem.

The National Commission era came to an end in November 1920 with the selection of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis as Organized Baseball’s first Commissioner. Landis demanded and received dictatorial authority over the game. But the structure created by the National Agreement survived – and survives today in the form of the Major League Agreement, Major League Constitution, and the Professional Baseball Agreement between the majors and the minors.

Portions of this article were previously published in the September 2002 issue of Boston Baseball.

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