Last Saturday afternoon, several witnesses reported a meeting near Madigan House, Manhattan, where several distinguished legacy league ballplayers held conference in the basement of The Headwaters Hotel. Rumors report household names like Danny Edgerton (Philadelphia) and Ricky McCoy (Detroit) in attendance. The rumor of the player gathering drew a small crowd to the event, where longtime Chicago Packers hurler Tommy Hershey offered brief comments.
“The owners of the Legacy League already walk the fated haunt of the National League,” Hershey told reporters in front of the hotel, dressed in a dapper suit and tie. “We applaud the massive increase in contracts to new talent–but to deny fair arbitration to the longtime stars of this league is a grievous injustice to the sport.”
Mr. Hershey spoke to the rumors, unconfirmed by Madigan House, that a long-brooding bidding war has at last begun for new talent in the Legacy Baseball League. No one can deny the incredible profits pouring into many franchises in America’s new baseball experiment; League Auditors published an annual report to the public that detailed gains in over $110,000 to some owners—so much that even the United States Congress is unsure how to properly tax such unprecedented sporting monies.
For several years, a gentleman’s agreement of low contracts for new players was the status quo across the league. However, in 1900, with competition fierce across the league, it seems that unspoken agreement is gone.
“In a free and fair market, it is only natural for General Managers to expend available capital on new talent,” Hershey told the Times. “Our complaint is not with Franchise management. However, an unproven shortstop from Catskill landing a Rockefeller fortune while five-time Most Valuable Player Leo MacKenzie is chained to twelve-hundred dollars is a downright travesty, and the Commissioner should be ashamed.”
Meanwhile, Madigan House has not altered course from their anti-union policy.
“There is no Player’s Union in the Legacy Baseball League, nor shall there ever be,” Commissioner Andrew Madigan told the press this week. “This administration will not tolerate greed-laden threats from a hodgepodge of penny-pinching rascabouts.”
Commissioner Madigan threatened harsh consequences for any players who chose to organize or form demands outside of their contracts.
Meanwhile, some franchises have already postured for unionization threats. New York Kings owner Alexander Bingley posted a notice on his clubhouse door claiming “Any fool who attempts to organize in this organization will never work in Manhattan again.”
Technically speaking, the Constitution of the Legacy Baseball League allows for General Managers of the League to propose changes to the bylaws of the organization—to include player contracts. This key separation in power from the Owners of previous leagues is essential, some say, to the balance of baseball in America. However, would any General Manager dare defy their Owners, who are very much vested in the status quo?
Commissioner Madigan answers the question for them: “Any General Manager who attempts to capitulate to the unwashed sin of union pressurization will find themselves suspended from this league.”
This bold statement generates critical questions in reprisal protection under New York State Law, where the LBL is chartered. Mr. Hershey, for his part, claimed that such a penalty would itself violate the LBL Constitution—and irony not lost, perhaps, on Madigan House.
Perhaps the Commissioner—who is appointed by the Owners—maintains a staunch anti-organization stance due to the fundamental shift in finances any sort of independent arbitration would have on the LBL. If every player’s value was arbitrated against a league baseline, some experts fear that the wealthiest teams in the league would drown out smaller organizations like Richmond and Pittsburgh. Not to mention, such rules would inevitably take tens—even hundreds of thousands out of the pockets of the owners.
No official declaration is currently published by Mr. Hershey or the other ballplayers who gathered last week at the Headwaters Hotel, but the baseball world is watching closely.