Over the winter of 1888-’89, John Montgomery Ward managed and played for a special team of major league baseball players on a worldwide tour. During a game in Italy against the powerful Chicago White Stockings, later nicknamed the Cubs, Ward’s All Americas scored seven runs in the fifth inning. The locals stormed the field, thinking the game was over, and the White Stockings panicked and fled. But Ward, who understood Italian, told his players to stay put and notched a forfeit win.
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In 1885 the two major leagues–the National League and the American Association–slashed players’ salaries to a maximum of $2,000 and increased the number of games in a season from 112 to 132. In reaction, Ward and eight of his New York Giants teammates formed the Brotherhood of Professional Ball Players, the first sports union. Ward was elected president. But four years later the owners adopted another salary cap and a payment scale that allowed them to shrink a player’s salary based on his game performance and conduct off the field. The brotherhood then founded the Players’ League in the spring of 1890, attracting athletes from both the NL and the AA. The new league, which established its offices in the Chicago Opera House, near the site of the infamous Haymarket riot, tried to create a more harmonious relationship between players and owners. Investors, some of whom were also players, were called “backers” instead of “owners”; all players shared decision-making power; and home and visiting teams split the gate receipts evenly, which helped teams from small markets.
In December Spalding knew he’d won the fight and set up a peace meeting with Ward. Ward gave Spalding a warning: “Baseball would amount to very little when stripped of its sentimental features. The patrons of the PL must be satisfied or you will have to depend upon a new generation for the support of the game. You may replace myself or any of the players . . . but you can’t replace the patrons of the game so quickly.”
After his playing days were over, Ward did practice law, working as an attorney for the National League and occasionally representing players battling their teams. He briefly owned part of the Boston Braves and served as team president. He died in 1925 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame 39 years later.
