Al Spink

"The Derby Winner," in charge of Al Spink and George Munson, will start out next season with an improved cast and new specialties and accessories.  The season opens Aug. 18, at the Grand Opera House, in [St. Louis.]  The company goes North from here.  Three State fair weeks are booked at Minneapolis, Minn., Topeka, Kan., and Kansas City, Mo.  Mr Spink has engaged Edward Giguere to play Arthur Dunn's old part of the Sport, and Blanche Bayer as soubrette...

-New York Clipper, May 18, 1895

 [In 1890,] Al's interest in the paper waned as he turned to his other passion, the theater. He wrote and produced a play, The Derby Winner, which required a cast of 42 persons and six horses. It was a success in St. Louis, but on the road, the play flopped, and Al was wiped out financially. He used his Sporting News stock as collateral for loans he could not repay. Charles bought the stock, and the two brothers feuded, reconciling just before Charles died in 1914.

"The Derby Winner" was played by the St. Louis company at the Lansing last night. The audience was large, enthusiastic and political. There have been several plays by illiterate playwrights brought out this year and of them all "The Derby Winner" is certainly the worst. "On the Bowery," the play written and now being acted in New York by Steve Brodie, the noted Bowery bartender and all around tough, is a classic compared to this. The author of this perpetration is one Mr. Al Spinks, editor of a St. Louis sporting paper. Of course the play comes from St. Louis; there is no other spot on the globe that could produce quite such a play. The dialogue was fearful and wonderful, consisting of all the old gags shaken up in a hat and poured out at random. The characters utterly lacked consistency. The racing scene made one long to lay aside the tabernacle of clay. Beside this play the "Police Patrol" and the "Heroes of the Hook and Ladder" loom up as Shakespearean masterpieces. The play is not worthy of criticism and produces no impression except "that tired feeling." As for the actors, for their own sake we will not mention who they were.

-Nebraska State Journal, October 5, 1894

About thirty gentlemen, interested in base ball matters-most of them shareholders in the St. Louis Base Ball Club-met yesterday evening in parlor No. 22 of the Lindell Hotel. The chair was taken by Mr. J.B.C. Lucas, President of the club, who, after calling the meeting to order, stated that, though the fact was generally well known, he would remind those present that for the past years base ball ventures in St. Louis had not proved financially successful. This season the club found itself considerably in arrears, and the meeting had been called in order to start an effort to raise the necessary amount with which the salaries of players might be paid. Individual Directors had, at their own expense, carried the club through the season, and they wanted now to see if they could not get assistance from shareholders and others. Out of $20,000 of stock only $17,000 had been subscribed, and on this some stockholders had not fully paid up.

After a brief discussion of the situation and the best means of improving it, a motion by Mr. Charles A. Fowle was carried, calling upon the Chair to appoint a committee of six gentlemen to collect subscriptions from stockholders and others to make up the deficiency. 

The Chair appointed as such committee Messrs. W.C. Little, P.C. Butler, W.A. Stickney, W.C. Steigers, Aug. Solari and E.S. Brooks.

Subscription lists were opened at the meeting, when the sum of $400 was immediately subscribed. 

In answer to a query, the Chair stated that upon the raising of the amount necessary to pay the deficiency, the question of whether there would be a St. Louis nine next year or no virtually depended. At the same time he did not like to say that, if the amount was raised, there would be a club, as this season closed his connection with the club. He believed that $2,500 had already been subscribed by parties towards next year's team.

After a discusion on general base ball topics, the meeting adjourned.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 1, 1877

William Spink

The base ball season is virtually at an end, although it does not officially close until November 15, and a few remarks pertaining to the year and its work may not be out of place, especially as numerous rumors have been afloat for some time past to the effect that "crooked" dealing has been indulged in to a great extent. To those who keep thoroughly posted concerning the national game, it has been evident that several screws have been loose in at least three of the leading clubs of the country-the St. Louis, Louisville and Chicago. To this same class of persons it has also been evident that pool sellers and players, instead of club organizers and managers, are alone responsible for the dirty tricks which have been practiced. Ever since pool selling became an established institution of the land a small number of strictly first-class ball players have been suspected of co-operating with the gamblers and throwing games to suit the "box." They were merely suspected, however. So cunningly did they carry out their part in the various swindling schemes, that it was an utter impossibility to obtain sufficient proof on which to base a charge which would terminate in their expulsion from the fraternity. These men have been "marked" for years and will be readily recognized by the patrons of base ball, although no names are given. In the face of innumerable hints thrown out as to their character, the various club managers of the country seem to have thought that by giving them a chance to reform they might be induced to cut loose from the gambling fraternity and remove the odium which, by their conduct, had become attached to the base ball profession. As a result of this mistaken idea, when the season opened the names of one or more of these scoundrels appeared in each of the lists of players furnished by the Louisville, St. Louis, and Chicago clubs. For this reason Chicago dropped from the head to the tail of the League, Louisville did not win the championship, and St. Louis, after opening the season in magnificent style, closed it by pressing Chicago closely for last place. The root of the evil in the St. Louis club was not reached until the season was so far advanced that it was impossible to remedy it, and even then proof necessary to make out a case in a court of justice was not obtainable, although sufficient evidence of a conclusive nature had reached the officers of the St. Louis club to demonstrate that at least two of their men were playing into the hands of Mike McDonald, the notorious Chicago gambler, who carries out a system of pool-selling on an extensive scale.

The nature of the proof against these men will be found below. It will probably be remembered that on August 24 the St. Louis and Chicago clubs played a game in this city, the home club being beaten by a score of 4 to 3. Two or three days previous a certain St. Louis sharp visited Chicago and was seen to spend a good deal of his time in Mike McDonald's company. He returned to St. Louis in time to witness the game referred to, and on the day on which it was played received a considerable sum of money from McDonald by means of telegraphic orders. These orders were received under an assumed name, but as the Telegraph Company refused to pay them, the address was changed by the sender in Chicago, and the money was paid over to the party referred to. On the same day this individual backed the Chicago club heavily to win and telegraphed McDonald, in substance, as follows: "Buy wheat. Smith is all right. Jones will assist."  This game, as previously mentioned was won by Chicago and it was lost to St. Louis by two members of the Brown Stocking nine, who committed the errors which gave Chicago the game at precisely the right moment. To ascertain whether they were "Smith" and "Jones" was now the problem which the officers of the club determined to solve, and a detective was employed to work up the case. That night McDonald's agent and the two men who lost the game for St. Louis met in the back room of a saloon in the northwestern part of the city, held a long and secret interview, and money was seen to change hands. When the conference broke up, the middleman was heard to remark: "For God's sake, don't lose your nerve to-morrow."  To still further strengthen the case against these men, it should be stated that on the same day, and before the game, one of them telegraphed to a friend in Philadelphia, "We'll go to Chicago, but don't know when," and as the St. Louis Club had, as was then supposed, paid its last visit to Chicago for the season, and the sender had no business to transact in that city, the idea naturally suggested itself that the word "Chicago" in the dispatch meant a good deal more to the recipient than it would have done to an outsider. The next day the dame clubs again met, and McDonald's miserable tool again telegraphed his employer to dabble in grain, although he was never known to handle anything except the implements of the gambling fraternity. On this occasion, however, the pool-sellers were neatly "whip-sawed," for the suspected men were closely watched, and the instant that one of them attempted to duplicate his errors of the previous day, Capt. McGeary made a judicious change, sending him to a position where, as luck happened, he had little to do, and the result justified the act, for St. Louis won and the gamblers "went broke."

In view of the above, was it not natural that the friends of the club gave up all hope of winning the championship? It must be remembered that the officers did not have sufficient proof to convict these men, nor could they cancel their contracts, and the only punishment in their power to inflict was to make them play on through the season. Otherwise they could have drawn their salary and enjoyed a term of idleness. A similar state of affairs existed in the Chicago and Louisville clubs, and the question has arisen how can these swindlers be driven from the fraternity. The managers of the League are at present busily engaged in devising a plan of action to be adopted at the annual meeting in December, and it is probable that about a dozen men will be "black-listed," and the League clubs will invite the co-operation of all other organizations in weeding these "crooks" out of the profession. It is also highly probable that the League will refuse to play any organization including among its employees any one whose name appears on the list of black sheep.

-St. Louis Globe-Democrat, November 1, 1877

The fourth and last hearing in the suit of the Mississippi Valley Trust Company to foreclose on a mortgage of $20,000 held against Sportsman's Park and Club was heard in Judge Spencer's Court in St. Louis on Wednesday, Jan. 18.

Al Spink The Organizer.

Alfred H. Spink, formerly secretary of the Browns, was the first witness called.  He testified to the organization of the St. Louis Base Ball Association by himself, his brother, the late William Spink, and William Pennoyer, now a theatrical manager.  This organization, according to Mr. Spink, formed the St. Louis Browns during the season of 1881, and their games were played on the grounds of Sportsman's Park and Club on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.  The St. Louis Base Ball Association, said Mr. Spink later on, had a contract with Sportsman's Park and Club, whereby the former got 90 per cent. of the gross gate receipts, the corporation getting 10 per cent. of the gate, whatever reserved seats were sold and all other privileges, such as sale of score cards, etc.  When the season of 1881 had been completed he and his associates turned over their base ball interests to Von der Ahe, who continued the arrangements with Sportsman's Park and Club.

The Boss On The Rack.

Chris Von der Ahe succeded Mr. Spink on the witness stand.  He went over his first connection with the national game on much the same lines as Mr. Spink had done in his testimony.  Von der Ahe recounted the trials which he underwent in forming the American Association in 1882, six clubs constituting the original circuit.  The franchise for a club in St. Louis had been awarded to him as an individual, and he had conducted his base ball affairs as such.  The money it cost to secure it came out of his pockets, and he also put up to keep some of the weak members alive during the early days of adversity which some of them experienced.  When the Brotherhood was organized in 1890, the owners of Association clubs, as well as those in the National League, lost considerable money in protecting their interests, the competition for players being waged on extravagant lines.

The Consolidation.

Von der Ahe, recited how he had been visited by John T. Brush, Frank DeHaas Robison and the late Charles H. Byrne, representatives of the National League, and George and J. Earl Wagner, owners of the Athletics, the Brotherhood team of Philadelphia, and Editor Richter, of "Sporting Life," and an attorney from Philadelphia named Frank S. Elliott, in the fall of 1891, they making overtures to secure his co-operation in settling the base ball troubles by a consolidation of the League and Association.  This meeting was held in the rear of a saloon conducted by him near his old base ball park at Grand and Sullivan avenues.  Three days were consumed in the preliminaries, and then a final meeting in the nature of a ratification followed at the Southern Hotel.  The parties present had arrived at an 

Amicable Agreement,

but to carry it out it was necessary to secure the signatures of the other club owners and to purchase the franchises of the retiring Association members.  The "peace" conference, as it has ever since been called, met again at the Bates House, in Indianapolis, in December, that year, and the consolidation of the American Association with the National League was finally consummated...The twelve-club agreement was subscribed to by all the parties interested.  "Der Boss" acquired the St. Louis franchise as the "St. Louis Base Ball Association; Chris Von der Ahe, president."

Von Der Ahe's Personality.  

Two years later he moved his club from the old Grand avenue grounds to its present home, at Vandeventer avenue and Natural Bridge road, costing him $59,550 to complete all the expenses.  His share of the receipts had always been paid to him in checks made out to him personally.  Some few seasons later the League discontinued an emergency fund, which originally had been formed, and when the balance on hand was divided the check of President N.E. Young for the amount due the St. Louis Club was to "Christ Von der Ahe."  The witness then went on to say that trapshooting and foot races were features of sport that were conducted at the old park.

-Sporting Life, January 28, 1899