adbourne, that marvel of twirling
skill.

By 1880 the National League had earned its place as the premier baseball
organization in the country. Its policy had become settled, and changes in
its circuit were less frequent. In that year Worcester replaced Syracuse.
The pennant went to Chicago. In the National Association Washington
finished first.

Cincinnati retired from the league in 1881, Detroit being admitted.
Chicago again won the championship. This year marked the advent of modern
professional baseball in New York City. The Eastern Association was formed
April 11, with the Metropolitan, New Yorks, Athletics, of Philadelphia;
Quick Steps, Atlantics, of Brooklyn, and Nationals, of Washington. The
American Association, a formidable rival of the National League, was
organized at a meeting held in Cincinnati on November 2, and started the
following season with the Athletics, of Philadelphia, and Baltimore in the
East; Alleghany, of Pittsburgh; Cincinnati, Eclipse, of Louisville, and
St. Louis in the West.

There were no changes in the make-up of the National League in 1882, but
in 1883 Troy and Worcester dropped out, and New York and Philadelphia were
admitted. With the advent of the National League in New York, the
Metropolitans joined the American Association. Brooklyn signalized its
first year in the Interstate League by winning the championship of the
organization.

The season of 1884 proved a memorable one in the history of the National
game, inasmuch as the Union Association was organized in opposition to
the National Agreement. The league's rival placed clubs in Altoona,
Baltimore, Boston, Philadelphia, and Washington in the East; and Chicago,
Cincinnati, and St. Louis in the West. Only five of the original clubs
finished the season. Altoona disbanded, and was replaced by Kansas City.
Later Milwaukee and St. Paul helped finish the schedule.

The season, which had opened so bright, was one of the most disastrous,
financially, in the game's history. Club after club and league after
league suspended. Players became panic-stricken at the outlook, and for a
time the popularity of the game was threatened. It weathered the storm,
however, and then followed a period of unexampled prosperity that lasted
until the outbreak of the Brotherhood trouble, which resulted in the war
of 1890, the hardest fight the National League ever had.

The War of League and Brotherhood.

The reserve clause in contracts was the direc