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THE NATIONAL BASE BALL ORGANIZATION REACTS QUICKLY

On the face of it, one would think that losing ten clubs might be devastating for the NBBO. However, given developments in recent seasons the organization was nothing but happy to see a professional league develop so they could go back to focusing on what they did best: developing regional, amateur baseball. They also hoped that the exit of ten economically powerful clubs would put a damper on the illicit cash arms race that had turned the NBBO's six championships into lop-sided affairs during the 1870 season.

The NBBO's Fall Meetings went on at the same time the Gang of Seven chose three other clubs and started the APBL, so executives were quick to invite ten replacement clubs. They were well-known amateur clubs from the coastal and northeastern United States, and they were happy to accept the invitations and take the step up to the highest level of the amateur ranks:








Members of the ten clubs were granted NBBO seniority based on the amount of time they'd been with their clubs in order to make things fair, and the ten were direct replacements for the departures in their respective regional championships.

Brooklyn: Star BBC (for Kings County)
New York City: Baltic BBC (for Orange), New York Athletic Club (for Knickerbocker)
Upstate NY: Auburn BBC (for Niagara), Frontier BBC (for Flour City)
Coastal: Diamond State BC (for Newark), Maryland BC (for Shamrock), National BC (for American), Philadelphia Tigers Social Club (for Quaker St.)
Inland: Lancastra Britannia BC (for Alleghany)

From there, the NBBO had one major decision left at the time: what to do about Konrad Jensen, who was still registered to the Excelsior club that was not offered a place in the APBL. In the end, Jensen was given a choice between going pro and joining an APBL club or going home to Providence and playing for St. John's, with no cash changing hands should he remain in the NBBO. No longer would he be paid a New York judge's or doctor's going rate to play baseball as a supposed amateur. Jensen made the obvious choice and went pro, joining the newly rebranded Manhattan Orangemen and immediately becoming the APBL's highest-paid player at just north of $1,300 a season. Corner outfield was a particularly deep spot among the APBL's ten founding clubs but Manhattan just happened to have a hole at RF, where Timothy Bates was a fine defender but a mediocre batsman.

In addition, the NBBO passed a resolution barring APBL players from re-joining the competition via the reasoning that it was highly unlikely a full-time professional would go back to unpaid amateur baseball unless there were under-the-table payments going on.

With everything decided, it was now just a matter of moving on to the baseball itself.