A Structure To Last Forever

"In late June 1889, John M. Ward was faced with the biggest problem of his life. The talented shortstop of the New York Giants was playing typically stellar ball, and was on his way to the World's Championship that season. Off the field, however, the man who was also president of the Brotherhood of Professional Base Ball Players (a protective association which was the first union of professional athletes in the United States) had to deal with a crisis unprecedented in American sports. Faced with a new plan meant to severely limit their salaries, the members of the Brotherhood--virtually every player in the National League--were preparing to go on strike on July 4th. How John Ward dealt with this situation, and the results of his solution, make up the basis for this paper. In late June, 1889 word came out of New York that National League players, led by the Brotherhood, were planning, "a strike which will be the biggest thing ever heard of in the baseball world." The Sporting News cited unnamed sources who said that the players were preparing to go on strike July 2, which would jeopardize the lucrative July 4 doubleheaders which all teams then played." 
"A Structure To Last Forever: The Players' League And The Brotherhood War of 1890"

Charlie Comiskey

"The Players' National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs, popularly known as the Players' League (sometimes rendered as Players League), was a short-lived but star-studded professional American baseball league of the 19th century. It emerged from the Brotherhood of Professional Base-Ball Players, the sport's first players' union. The Brotherhood included most of the best players of the National League. Brotherhood members, led by John Montgomery Ward, left the National League and formed the Players' League after failing to change the lopsided player-management relationship of the National League. The PL lasted just the one season of 1890, and the Boston franchise won the championship. Although known to historians as the Players' League, newspapers often reported the standings with the shorthand titles of 'League', 'Association' and 'Brotherhood'. The PL was well-attended, at least in some cities, but was underfunded and its owners lacked the confidence to continue beyond the one season."
Wikipedia

During The Brotherhood Revolt The Mood In Baseball Wasn't Fraternal
"Not one fan in a thousand, I'd bet, has heard of baseball's Brotherhood War of 1890, and the vast majority of today's players, agents and club officials don't know anything about it, either. Yet out of this rebellion by the best baseball players of the era came attitudes that determined how team spectator sports would develop over the ensuing 50 years. If you think that public resentment of highly paid athletes and the feeling that sports are becoming too commercialized are new phenomena, consider the following quote: 'There was a time when the League stood for integrity and fair dealing. Today it stands for dollars and cents. Once it looked to the elevation of the game and an honest exhibition of the sport; today its eyes are on the turnstile. Men have come into the business for no other motive than to exploit it for every dollar in sight.'"
SI

Albert Spalding

A History of Major League Baseball, Part VI: The American League
"In 1893, a Cincinnati newspaper editor named Byron 'Ban' Johnson ascended to the presidency of the minor Midwest-based Western League. He was aided by Charlie Comiskey, a former American Association star who was managing the NL’s Cincinnati Reds at the time. After the 1894 season, Comiskey would purchase the WL’s Sioux City (Iowa) franchise and transfer it to St. Paul, Minnesota. Comiskey’s St. Paul Apostles would see franchises from other cities abandoned by the NL—Indianapolis, Kansas City, Milwaukee. They would also play the only future American League team to carry its name and history from the WL—the Detroit Tigers. Over the next several years, Johnson and Comiskey would successfully clean up the league and make it attractive to former NLers such as Connie Mack. And in 1900, the WL scored a coup d’état of their own by swiftly moving smaller market clubs from locales such as Grand Rapids (Michigan) and Kansas City into the cities vacated by the NL. They renamed the circuit American League for the 1900 season, and set themselves up for the future by obtaining permission from the NL to move the St. Paul Apostles to Chicago."
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