In an amateur era, Cincinnati Red Stockings field first all-salaried team.
Pros form National Association of Professional Base Ball Players (NAPBBP).
Chicago promoter WILLIAM A. HULBERT and financiers start eight-team National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (NL).
To keep stars from leaving, NL owners institute “reserve clauses” in contracts.
Reserve Clause becomes part of all contracts.
NL players create Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players.
Brotherhood collapses and owners impose $2,400 “salary limit.”
American League (AL) rises from ashes of abandoned NL cities. Players organize for reform of Reserve Clause and salaries only to be quashed by the owners.
AL and NL meet for their first World Series.
RUBE FOSTER launches Negro National League.
St. Louis’s BRANCH RICKEY invents revenue-building farm system.
BABE RUTH’S $80,000 salary dwarfs average player’s $7,000 income.
As black activists invoke federal laws to demand desegregation of the game, Brooklyn Dodgers president BRANCH RICKEY forces owners’ hand by signing the majors’ first black player, JACKIE ROBINSON.
