Events were spiraling out of control - again - so Ben Harrell was forced to again do things he didn't want to do. First the Hartford Dark Blues, who had played half their 1877 home schedule in Brooklyn, could not escape the red ink they were bathing in and had to fold. The Brown Stockings of St. Louis, despite the presence of one of the league's best young stars in Fred 'Mutton' Morton, did likewise in late November.
Suddenly, the League was down to four members. And then the lightning bolt struck. Louisville's owner, Gerald Phillips, revealed that he had discovered that four members of his club had made deals with gamblers and actively "thrown" games during the championship season. Phillips informed Harrell that he would suspend the players. Harrell agreed - and went one better - expelling the players from the National League. The term of sentence: life. The so-called "Louisville Four" - Orrin Ratley, Orland Pankovits, Yo-Yo Lattimer and David Trivett were banned for life. They protested: loudly, publically and frequently, but to no avail. Harrell's ban would stick.
The signal was strong and clear - there could be no doubt about the legitimacy of League contests. The moment the paying customers began to have even one iota of doubt as to whether the games were "on the level" was the moment they stopped paying their hard-earned 50 cents admission. And with all the teams except his own Chicago club losing money on a yearly basis, that was something that could never be countenanced.
The final blow of the disastrous end of the year 1877 came when Phillips informed Harrell that the Louisville club, now bereft of four of its best players, would no longer be able to operate. And then there were three (clubs, that is)...
So what to do? Granted the League Alliance clubs were slavering for admittance to the League, but what of their quality - both morally and athletically?
In the end, Harrell and the remaining pair of owners - both newcomers, Cincinnati's Jonah Usher and Boston's Uriah Kittridge, elected to elevate three formerly "minor" clubs to the League: the Cream City Club of Milwaukee, the Grays of Providence, and the Blues of Indianapolis. The new trio, all representing fairly small cities, were at least clean. Whether they could compete with Chicago or Boston (with Kittridge greedily snapping up the leavings of Louisville and St. Louis - Morton among them), would remain to be seen. Few thought they could, but they could pay the $100 entrance fee, and all promised to complete their schedules and obey all League rules and regulations.
THE "LOUISVILLE FOUR" (l. to r. Ratley, Pankovits, Lattimer, Trivett)
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