Thread: Reserve clause
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Old 01-21-2014, 05:38 PM   #24
joefromchicago
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David Watts View Post
Okay dumb question time. Weren't a lot of players sold to opposing teams back then or was most of the movement the result of trades.
Both. In the very earliest days, player transactions were entirely done by sale. I just finished re-reading Harold Seymour's history of early baseball, and I recall him writing that the idea of trading contracts didn't receive official sanction until the 1880s or so.
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