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Throughout the 1860s, interest in baseball was burgeoning. In 1858, members of a New York City amateur club had called a convention of all similarly organized clubs in the metropolitan area. Twenty-two clubs were represented. They formed themselves into a permanent body: The National Association of Base Ball Players. This National Association governed baseball for next 17 years.

The post-Civil War period saw tremendous growth in baseball. From an organization of clubs in the New York metropolitan area, the National Association became truly national in scope. At the convention of 1865, ninety-one clubs from across the country were represented. And as America became more urban and more industrial, the demand for leisure activities increased. A demand that was increasingly met by attending baseball matches. This lead to the clubs beginning to charge for attendance. And since the National Association was an amateur association, prohibitions were in place against paying the players. But this of course just meant that the players were being paid underneath the table. Charles Bigsby--a backer of the New York Knights club--would lure players to the Knights by providing jobs on the city payroll.

By 1869, the Cincinnati Monarchs had rejected the amateur tenets of the National Association and became the first openly professional team. The total payroll for the season of 1869, which in those days lasted from March 15 to November 15, was $9300. The team took on all comers, and they finished the season with a record of 56 victories, 1 tie, and 0 defeats. Professionalism in baseball had arrived.

By the end of 1875, the professionals were in virtual control of the Association convention and were bitterly attacked by last-ditch amateur supporters. At the 1875 convention, about twenty professional clubs were able to dominate the amateurs, who gave way under the pressure and adjourned.

So on January 11th, 1876, Chicago fruit magnet William Whitney invited a group of men to a meeting at the Chicago Grand Pacific Hotel. The group consisted of men who had backed the touring, professional clubs of the Association: Whitney (representing Chicago), Jason Kirkham (Boston), Charles Bigsby (New York) and his brother Miles (Brooklyn), Jefferson Edgerton (Philadelphia), James Tice (Cincinnati), Hans Fuchs (St. Louis) and Nicholas Welch (Detroit). Invited to attend, but declining, were three others: Percival Upton (Baltimore), John Q. Miller (Cleveland) and Henry Pulver (Buffalo).

By the end of the meeting the men had agreed to form the Century League. The clubs would play a series of championship matches with one another in a schedule provided by the league office. Half of a club's games would be at a park the club designated a "home" park and the other half would be on the road. The one winning the greatest number of games during the season would be declared champion by the championship committee at the convention following the close of the season. The club could then fly the championship "whip pennant" at its park the following season.


The initial members of theCentury League:

* Brooklyn Unions
* St. Louis Brewers
* Chicago Chiefs
* Cincinnati Monarchs
* New York Knights
* Detroit Woodwards
* Boston Pilgrims
* Philadelphia Centennials