View Single Post
Old 07-24-2011, 11:08 PM   #12
David Ball
Minors (Triple A)
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Posts: 281
Did anybody play for two Philadelphia teams other than Bechtel and Craver? I actually published an article about those two some years ago. They are generally considered to have been the subjects of the first player sale in history. Actually, sales were nearly impossible under the NA's rules, because a player had to wait sixty days between playing for one club and playing for another. However, that requirement would be waived if a team disbanded.

What probably happened is that the Athletics paid the Centennials not directly for Bechtel and Craver, but rather they paid the Centennials' debts as an incentive for the Centennials to disband, and once that happened they stepped in and signed the two players they wanted. In this way they were able to get the men they needed for immediate use.

Of course, the real purpose of the payment was to acquire Craver and Bechtel, not just to get rid of the Centennials, so it's reasonable to consider this the first trade. But the peculiar form of the deal indicates how rare player purchases were at the time, because the circumstances had to line up just right. If the Centennials had done better financially, they wouldn't have wanted to quit. And if they had been doing worse financially, they would have quite without any payment from the Athletics.
David Ball is offline   Reply With Quote