Thus, while it is always probable that some players may receive more than others, based upon their preponderance of skill, it is now a fact that two-thirds of the major league ball players of the present day owe their handsome salaries to the system which John T. Brush so earnestly urged and for which he fought against odds which would have daunted a man with less fixity of purpose.
Having brought forth this new condition in Base Ball, which was so just that its results almost immediately began to make themselves manifest, the owner of the Cincinnati club devoted his time and his energies to the endeavor to place a championship club in Cincinnati. He never was successful in that purpose, although his ill fortune was no greater than that of his predecessors.
The time came that Mr. Brush learned that the New York Base Ball Club could be purchased. He obtained the stock necessary to make him owner of the New York organization from Mr. Andrew Freedman, but before he did so another Base Ball war had begun between the National League and the American League, a disagreement starting from the simplest of causes, but which, like many another such disagreement, resulted in the most damaging of conditions to the prosperity of the pastime.
As had been the case in the prior war brought about by the organization of the Brotherhood League, Mr. Brush fought staunchly for his rights. Prominent National League players were taken by the American League clubs, and this brought retaliation.
At length the National League opened negotiations to obtain certain American League players and succeeded in doing so. Among these were the manager of the Baltimore club, John J. McGraw, who felt that he was acting perfectly within his rights in joining the New York National League club. Directly upon his acceptance of the management of the New York club Mr. Brush became its owner and the era of prosperity was inaugurated in New York, which was soon enjoyed by every club throughout the United States.
In its first year under the new management the team was not in condition to make a good fight, but the next year it was ready and since then has won four National League championships and one World's Championship.
In the spring of 1911, at the very dawn of the National League season, the grand stand of the New York National League club burned to the ground. A man less determined would have been overcome by such a blow. Nothing daunted and while the flames were not yet quenched, Mr. Brush sent for engineers to devise plans for the magnificent stadium which bears his name and which, on the Polo Grounds in New York, is one of the greatest and the most massive monument to professional Base Ball in the world.
In connection with this wonderful new edifice of steel and stone, which is one of the wonders of the new world, it is appropriate to add that two world's series have been played on the field of the Polo Grounds since it has been erected.
The rules for these world's series were formulated and adopted upon the suggestion and by the advice of Mr. Brush and since a regular world's series season has been a feature of Base Ball the national game has progressed with even greater strides than was the case in the past.
At a meeting of the National League the following resolutions were adopted: