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1890 Syracuse Stars Large Format Imperial Cabinet: The Players League Rebellion
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Description
In 1890, the very best baseball played in America was not played in the "major" leagues, but by a league of renegade ball players who were branded "outlaws" and "no accounts". These players banded together that year to stun the baseball community, announcing that the new "Players League" would be formed. Unlike the current league, players would not be tied to the reserve clause or an owner's whims.
The roll call of players who bolted the major leagues to form the Players League sported fourteen future Hall of Famers including Monte Ward, King Kelly, Connie Mack, Charlie Comiskey, Hugh Duffy, Pud Galvin and Hoss Radbourne. Most of the teams organized were from established cities with large populations like New York City , Boston and Chicago. However, Syracuse, from upstate New York, a city with deep baseball pedigree and a minor league powerhouse that, only a year earlier featured Moses Fleetwood Walker (who sadly was forced out off the team just a few months earlier because of the color of his skin) also chomped at the bit to play in the new league. The team owners plunked down their $10,000 fee, allowing the Syracuse Stars to tackle baseball at the major league level.
This original large format Imperial Cabinet photograph of the 1890 Syracuse Stars features eleven members of the players who represented their city in the Players League. The Players League outdrew the majors that season, but still only lasted a single season. Ultimately, the baseball wars proved to be financially disastrous for the game at all levels and within a year, deals were made, the Players League folded, baseball was back on track in a single major league and Syracuse lost its franchise.
Featured in this original studio photograph are the Syracuse Stars Mike Dorgan; Dan Casey, the veteran fine hitting pitcher who won 19 games that year for the Stars and who later in life claimed to be the inspiration for Mudville's famous "Mighty Casey", the batter in the wildly popular poem "Casey At The Bat" written in 1888 by Ernest Lawrence Thayer: Mike McCabe; the centerfield standout Ratsy Wright; Max McQuery who along with Ratsy batted over .300 for the Stars that year; the "skinny as a rail" centerfielder Bones Ely; one gent identified as Ramsey; catcher Grant Briggs; pitcher Mike Morrison; nimble shortstop Barney McGlaughlin, and pitcher Toby Lyons.
The cabinet has been cut down from its original size to its current dimensions of 14 by 15 1/2 in. In very good to excellent condition. Framed.
The roll call of players who bolted the major leagues to form the Players League sported fourteen future Hall of Famers including Monte Ward, King Kelly, Connie Mack, Charlie Comiskey, Hugh Duffy, Pud Galvin and Hoss Radbourne. Most of the teams organized were from established cities with large populations like New York City , Boston and Chicago. However, Syracuse, from upstate New York, a city with deep baseball pedigree and a minor league powerhouse that, only a year earlier featured Moses Fleetwood Walker (who sadly was forced out off the team just a few months earlier because of the color of his skin) also chomped at the bit to play in the new league. The team owners plunked down their $10,000 fee, allowing the Syracuse Stars to tackle baseball at the major league level.
This original large format Imperial Cabinet photograph of the 1890 Syracuse Stars features eleven members of the players who represented their city in the Players League. The Players League outdrew the majors that season, but still only lasted a single season. Ultimately, the baseball wars proved to be financially disastrous for the game at all levels and within a year, deals were made, the Players League folded, baseball was back on track in a single major league and Syracuse lost its franchise.
Featured in this original studio photograph are the Syracuse Stars Mike Dorgan; Dan Casey, the veteran fine hitting pitcher who won 19 games that year for the Stars and who later in life claimed to be the inspiration for Mudville's famous "Mighty Casey", the batter in the wildly popular poem "Casey At The Bat" written in 1888 by Ernest Lawrence Thayer: Mike McCabe; the centerfield standout Ratsy Wright; Max McQuery who along with Ratsy batted over .300 for the Stars that year; the "skinny as a rail" centerfielder Bones Ely; one gent identified as Ramsey; catcher Grant Briggs; pitcher Mike Morrison; nimble shortstop Barney McGlaughlin, and pitcher Toby Lyons.
The cabinet has been cut down from its original size to its current dimensions of 14 by 15 1/2 in. In very good to excellent condition. Framed.