The National's "wait & see" attitude didn't result in too much waiting before they got to see what the American League was going to do. As he had intimated, Byron Standish removed the leashes on his club presidents (most of whom had been involved in some manner with the National League before hooking up with Standish and the Westerners). It was open season on any player whose contract was merely "reserved."
About 15 players took immediate advantage of the situation, led by Harvey Cart of Brooklyn. Cart was a batting champion and an excellent all-around player at second base. It didn't take long for him to ditch Brooklyn for a doubling of his salary with Washington's new AL club. Other players, many of them young, up & coming stars also jumped ship to the new league - names such as Fred Johnson, Tavis Petticrew, Maurice Foley and Sean McGonigle were soon signing their names to contracts with American League clubs.
The National League was bleeding and it didn't take long for the magnates to take notice. The question was: how to stop the bleeding? The apparent - and for the magnates, distasteful - answer was simple: pay their players more or see them walk away for Standish's loop.
Harvey Cart of Washington