Thursday, November 11, 1894
Manhattan, New York
Since the collapse of the National League in 1891, the future of organized baseball in America lies cowled in most agitating uncertainty. Several herculean obstacles lay before the feet of many organizations vying for control of a “national” baseball organization—the greatest of which is organizing the funds and vast horde of independent ball clubs across the nation.
In the Bronx, New York, an inter-city organization of affiliated ball clubs formed a tentative “national” caliber team, comprised of those downtown ballplayers voted best of the association by their peers. This new club of Bronx stars dubbed “The Kings,” led by seasoned former National-leauger Dan Creighton.
The Kings recently enjoyed a three-month exhibition campaign across the city, proving their sporting mettle in city parks and fields. While the exhibition tour was profitable for this new ball club, it is far from the National organization required to support the foundation of America’s game.
Rumors of business proposals from a collection of New York business magnates, along with a clandestine meeting between a wealth of former National League associates and potential investors, was said to occur at Number Seventy-Three, Burling Slip, just one month ago on the fifth of October. Our source tells the Times that multiple known millionaires, including the Richmond tobacco magnate Michael Monroe and the eccentric, expatriated British earl, Lord William Patrick Downing, were said to be in attendance. Both are known supporters of a national base ball organization and have expressed previous interest in a modern replacement for the beleaguered National League.
If there is to be a new national league in America, the foibles and follies that doomed her previous attempt at a national league must be swiftly addressed, lest the cycle of devastation continue. American rooters everywhere look with eager eyes to New York, where perhaps the dying embers of base ball in America can be fanned once again into roaring fire.