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A.P.B.L. REDEFINES GREENHORNS AT MEETINGS
UNDER PAST DEFINITION, ONLY FIVE GREENHORNS PLAYED REGULARLY IN 1874

NEW YORK CITY (Mar. 10-14, 1875) - Last season the A.P.B.L. had three finalists for Greenhorn of the Year: Lane Garvin (C, Mass. Bay), Tomoharu Mukai (P, Niagara), & Eamonn Todd (3B, St. John’s). It’s a good thing that the list of finalists didn’t go much further, because in the end only five regular batsmen or pitchers in the league last year qualified as Greenhorns.

The above is not because only five regulars were in their first season in the A.P.B.L. The current definition of Greenhorn in all three competitions states that a Greenhorn is a player in their first year on a Senior Roster. Had players purchased from N.B.B.O. teams who were spending their first season at the game’s highest level counted, then surely players like Excelsior All-Stars 3B Elijah Hill & LF Troy Oberst would have finished 1-2, or vice versa, for the GotY honor.

That is what part of the Spring Executive Committee Meetings was dedicated to: the question “What is a Greenhorn with respect to the highest level of baseball?” Those present didn’t want another season with only five Greenhorn regulars, leaving open the chance of someone taking the award almost by default. They also believed that more experienced players, usually in their 30’s, who freely came in from one of the other two competitions shouldn’t be called Greenhorns, and furthermore that those men would be insulted with such a label. Still, there was a middle ground.

Younger prospects and stars in their early-to-mid-20’s could have their services “transferred” from a team in the N.B.B.O. and presumably a team in the P.C.B.L., even though none had been offered up yet, to any team in the A.P.B.L. for the right price, typically in the range of $1,000-1,500. Those players would have to make a sizeable adjustment to the quality of play, and at the same time they’d still be young men yet to reach the peak of their skills.

And thus, it was agreed that starting in the 1875 season the definition of an A.P.B.L. Greenhorn would now have two parts:

1. Any player that is in the midst of his first full season as part of a team’s Senior Roster.
2. Any player purchased from another league playing his debut season in the A.P.B.L.

Would the change have an impact on the number of Greenhorns playing regularly in the league? Hopefully. Would the change have an impact on the long-term status of players purchased from other teams? Not likely, because most purchased to date have been signed to contracts that last through the four-year probationary period before they hit Free Agency.

It might seem like a cosmetic change on the face of it, but for the members of the Executive Committee they felt this was another way to signify that the American Professional Baseball League was the highest level of the sport.