[legendsport]

March 17, 1871 - Hotel Metropolitan, New York:

"OK, fellas, let's settle down and get this meeting started," said Ernie Biscan. The 32-year-old Biscan, star outfielder of the Cincinnati Red Stockings had called this meeting of top pros. It was time to leave the amateur association behind and strike out on their own. The fact that the Cincinnati club's backers, after turning a profit of a mere two dollars over the 1869 and 1870 seasons, had folded the club, had only spurred Biscan and his mates on.

He caught the eye of Rube Pitman and nodded. Pitman, the best-known and most popular of the professional base ballers, stood up. "Gentlemen, as you all know, the National Association has been making noises about the 'stain' of professionalism in its ranks. Since we here represent the cream of the crop of base ballers, the time has come to leave the Association to die on the vine."

There were some grumbles - the Association had been good to many of the men in this room. Biscan waved a hand. "Fellas, we haven't brought you here on a splendid St. Patty's Day to bicker about whether the Association is going to ban us for accepting payment. The simple fact is that we need a structure that is built for professionalism, and the Association is not it."

A third Red Stocking - Rit Withers - stood up. "Ernie's right. And I'm not just saying that because the Cincinnati club folded. We need to band together and form an organization that is completely professional - no more dealing with amateurs - except on our conditions."

Several heads were nodding. Biscan smiled. "I've got a telegraph here," he waved the paper in the air, "from some financiers in Boston. They are willing to back a Red Stocking club in that city." Withers and Pitman grinned. "The Red Stockings - the first avowed professional Club - will go on. The question is: how many of you will join us?"

In the end, ten clubs signed on to form the new 'National Association of Professional Base Ball Players' - which not only co-opted the name of the amateur Association, but also most of its rules (the old rules excluded were the ones dealing with amateurism). The ten clubs who signed up were:

The Philadelphia Athletics
The Washington Olympics
The Washington Nationals
The New York Mutuals
The Chicago White Stockings
The Cleveland Forest Citys
The Fort Wayne Kekiongas
The Troy Haymakers (nee Unions)
The Rockford Forest Citys
The Boston Red Stockings

The clubs agreed on a championship setup whereby the members would play each of the other clubs five times per season, the dates to be decided by the competing clubs. The membership dues were a mere $10, guaranteeing that enlarging the Association would not be difficult. Teams would still be permitted to play games against amateur clubs, but these matches would not count in the championship standings.

The NA (as it would become known) had been born.