Jump to content

Page:America's National Game (1911).djvu/273

From Wikisource
This page has been validated.
AMERICA'S NATIONAL GAME
243

were Altoona, Boston, Baltimore, Chicago, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, St. Louis and Washington.

Mr. Lucas succeeded in securing promises and contracts from a number of prominent players; but most of them betrayed his confidence in one way or another. The season was a humiliating failure. Only the Washington Nationals, of all the clubs in the Union Association, made enough money to pay expenses. Frequent changes, caused by clubs dropping out, characterized the season and kept Mr. Lucas busy finding teams to fill their places. The Union Association finally disbanded in January, 1885, only two clubs being willing to enter a second contest. Mr. Lucas then retired, with his fortune dissipated and his combativeness destroyed. All players in the Union Association who had deserted the National League were expelled.

The following gentlemen are of record as having been prominent in the Union Association: W. Rilz, Altoona; I. W. Lowe and B. F. Matthews, Baltimore; Frank E. Winslow, George Wright and T. H. Murnane, Boston; A. H. Henderson and E. S. Hengle, Chicago; Justus Thorner, Cincinnati; Thomas J. Pratt, Philadelphia; Henry Lucas and Theodore Benoist, St. Louis; H. B. Bennett and M. B. Scanlon, Washington.

Most fortunate, indeed, was the National League that, when William A. Hulbert was suddenly removed by death from heart failure in 1882, one so eminently qualified as A. G. Mills was found to take his place. It needed just such a man to carry on the work of the League so ably begun. At the annual meeting of the League, held in