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The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (sometimes rendered as Players League), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
 league of the 19th century. It emerged from the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players, the sport's first players' union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
.

The Brotherhood included most of the best players of the National League
National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest existent professional team sports league....
.






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The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (sometimes rendered as Players League), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball
Baseball

Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport of nine players each. The goal of baseball is to score run by hitting a thrown Baseball with a baseball bat and touching a series of four markers called base arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot square, or diamond. Players on one team take turns hitting against...
 league of the 19th century. It emerged from the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players, the sport's first players' union
Trade union

A trade union or labor union is an organization run by and for workers who have banded together to achieve common goals in key areas such as wages, hours, and working conditions....
.

The Brotherhood included most of the best players of the National League
National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest existent professional team sports league....
. Brotherhood members, led by John Montgomery Ward
John Montgomery Ward

John Montgomery Ward was a 19th century Major League Baseball star starting pitcher, shortstop and manager . Ward was born in Bellefonte, Pennsylvania, and grew up in Renovo, Pennsylvania....
, left the National League and formed the Players' League after failing to change the lopsided player-management relationship of the National League.

The PL lasted just the one season of 1890
1890 in baseball

Champions*1890 World Series: Los Angeles Dodgers 3, Louisville Colonels 3, 1 tie*National League: Los Angeles Dodgers*American Association : Louisville Colonels...
, and the Boston franchise won the championship. Although known to historians as the Players' League, newspapers often reported the standings with the shorthand titles of "League", "Association" and "Brotherhood". The PL was well-attended, at least in some cities, but was underfunded and its owners lacked the confidence to continue beyond the one season.

In 1968, a committee appointed by Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of play in American professional baseball. Specifically, Major League Baseball refers to the organization that operates the National League and the American League, by means of a joint organizational structure that has developed gradually between them since 1903 ....
 Commissioner
Baseball Commissioner

The Commissioner of Baseball is the chief executive of Major League Baseball. Under the direction of the commissioner, the Office of the Commissioner of Baseball hires and maintains the sport's Umpire crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and Major League Baseball television contracts....
 William Eckert
William Eckert

William Dole "Spike" Eckert was a lieutenant general in the United States Air Force, and later the 4th Baseball Commissioner of Major League Baseball from 1965 in baseball to 1968 in baseball....
 ruled that the Players' League was a major league
Major League

Major League or major league, first coined by Major League Baseball, can refer to a number of things....
.

Players' League franchises and final standings


Highlights

The Players League Triple Crown
Triple crown (baseball)

In baseball, the Triple Crown refers to:#A batter who leads the league in three major categories -- home runs, runs batted in, and batting average....
 leaders were Hall-of-Famer Roger Connor
Roger Connor

Roger Connor was a 19th century Major League Baseball player, born in Waterbury, Connecticut. Connor is known for being the player whom Babe Ruth passed when Ruth became the all-time home run champion....
 with 14 home runs, Pete Browning
Pete Browning

Louis Rogers "Pete" Browning was an United States center fielder and left fielder in Major League Baseball from 1882 to 1894 who played primarily for the Louisville Colonels, becoming one of the sport's most accomplished batting of the 1880s....
 with a .373 batting average, and Hardy Richardson
Hardy Richardson

Hardy Richardson was a second basemen and outfielder mostly, who played in the Major League Baseball for a number of teams throughout the 19th century....
 with 146 RBI. For pitchers, Mark Baldwin had 34 wins, Silver King
Silver King

*Silver King was a professional baseball player from the 19th century.*A "silver king" is another name for the species of fish better known as the Atlantic Tarpon....
 had a 2.69 ERA, and Mark Baldwin struck out 211 batters.

On June 21 King threw an unofficial eight-inning no-hitter.

Oddly, in its one season of operation, the Players League saw seven triple plays
Triple Play

A triple play is a baseball play in which three outs are made as a result of continuous action without any intervening errors between outs.Triple play may also refer to:...
: the Giants on June 14, the Red Stockings on June 30, the Pirates on July 15, the Pirates again on July 30, the Burghers on August 15, Ward's Wonders on September 6, and the Bisons on September 29.

Legacy

The Boston and Philadelphia franchises joined the American Association
American Association (19th century)

This article refers to the former Baseball major league that existed from 1882 to 1891. For the minor league, which existed from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997, see American Association ....
 after the Players' League folded. The Brooklyn, New York, Chicago and Pittsburgh franchises each merged with their National League counterparts after the season.

Although the league was started by the players themselves, essentially as an elaborate job-action to improve their lot, the venture proved to be a setback for them in the longer term. The infamous reserve clause
Reserve clause

The reserve clause is a term formerly employed in North American professional sports contracts. The reserve clause, contained in all standard player contracts, stated that, upon the contract's expiration the rights to the player were to be retained by the team to which he had been signed....
 remained intact, and would remain thus for the next 85 years or so. The already-shaky AA had been further weakened by the presence of the PL. The Lou Bierbauer
Lou Bierbauer

Louis W. Bierbauer of Erie, Pennsylvania, was considered a top-notch second baseman in Major League Baseball during the late 1880s and 1890s....
 incident caused a schism between the NL and the AA, and the AA failed a year later, reducing the total number of major league teams (and players) significantly, giving the remaining owners much greater leverage against the players.

One benefit of the league, from the management standpoint, was the construction of new facilities, several of which were used for a while by the established major league clubs. The most prominent of these was a new Polo Grounds
Polo Grounds

The Polo Grounds was the name given to four different stadiums in Upper Manhattan, New York City used by baseball's San Francisco Giants from 1883 in sports until 1957 in sports, New York Metropolitans from 1880 in sports until 1885 in sports, the New York Yankees from 1912 in sports until 1922 in sports, and by the New York Mets in their fir...
, originally constructed for the New York Giants of the Players League, which served afterwards as the home of the National League's New York Giants
San Francisco Giants

The San Francisco Giants are a Major League Baseball team based in , that currently play in the National League West. One of the oldest of the MLB teams, the Giants hold the distinction of having won the most games of any team in the history of organized sports....
 from 1891 to 1957 (it was rebuilt in steel and concrete in 1911) and of the New York Mets
New York Mets

The New York Mets are a professional baseball based in Flushing, Queens, New York City, New York. The Mets are a member of the National League East of Major League Baseball's National League....
 in their first two seasons. It was also the site of many other famous sporting events through its 75 years of existence.

Chicago's still-standing Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field

Wrigley Field is a baseball stadium in Chicago, Illinois, United States that has served as the home ballpark of the Chicago Cubs since 1916. It was built in 1914 as Weeghman Park for the Chicago Federal League baseball team, the Chicago Whales....
 has been called a "silent monument" to the Federal League
Federal League

The Federal League was the last major attempt to establish an independent major professional baseball league in the United States in direct competition with the established National League and American Leagues in and ....
 experiment of 1914-1915, and it was likewise with the Polo Grounds and the Players' League. Once the demolition of the Polo Grounds began in 1964, the game's historians realized that this was not only the end of an era in general, but also in a sense it was the final chapter of the Players' League.

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