Monte Ward is remembered for his integrity, but he was also a talented player. As
a pitcher for Providence, he won 47 games in 1879 and 40 the next year, including
the second perfect game in NL history.
When his arm gave out he switched to shortstop
and helped the New York Giants win pennants in 1888-89. He was a top basestealer
and solid hitter. When he wasn't winning games with his skills on the field, he was
planning the strategy as team captain and manager. His instinct for administration
and his magnetic personality made him a natural leader.
At the time, the reserve
rule, binding a player to a team by self-renewing contracts, was the main source
of friction between the owners and players. Ward, assisted by Ned Hanlon, organized
the Brotherhood of National League Players and they succeeded in negotiating a compromise
with the league: The reserve clause could not be used to bind a player while his
salary was being cut. It worked for a year.
Then, while Ward and most of the Brotherhood
leaders were on a world tour in 1888, playing as all-stars against the Chicago team
in exhibition games arranged by A.G. Spalding, the National League owners met. They
adopted a classification system grading the players and established a fixed scale
of salaries. The most a player could make, regardless of ability or the team's success,
was $2,500 a season.
When Ward and the others learned the league had discarded
its agreement with the Brotherhood, they were given no opportunity to appeal. Denied
a meeting until the 1889 season was over, Ward and others lined up financial backing
for a new league, to be called the Players' League, which the ballplayers would control.
The
new league lasted one season, 1890. Ward managed and played for the Brooklyn entry
and other teams went into head-on competition with the established franchises. The
competition created a financial disaster for both leagues.
The more stable National
League won out and Ward joined the new Brooklyn team of the reorganized National
League. That team won the pennant in its first season. The next year Ward organized
an early all-star game, raising nearly $3,000 for the widow of teammate Hub Collins.
New York welcomed Ward back in 1893 as a player/manager to overcome box office and
on-field disaster. Within two seasons, the Giants led in attendance, rising
from eighth place to win the 1894 postseason championship. Though only 34, Ward
immediately retired to enter a profitable law career.
Montgomery never managed again, but his
concern for ballplayers and loathing for imperious management continued. When the
very unpopular Andrew Freedman, who then owned the Giants, discharged Fred Pfeffer,
a veteran player, as "a played out old stiff," Ward took the case to court and won
Pfeffer his salary. The Giants' owner paid the court costs, appealed the case, and
lost again. When Freedman's next legal tangle was a libel suit against the New York
Sun, the newspaper retained Ward, and Freedman withdrew his suit. As a lawyer, Ward was described as "shrewd, quick-witted and humorous; smiling and sarcastic."Ward returned
to baseball twice. He was president of the Boston Braves in 1911, and when the Federal
League arose to challenge the major leagues in 1914, he joined their cause. He became
business manager for the Brooklyn Tip Tops, the team backed by the Ward brothers
and their baking company. Ward, unrelated to his new associates, became a spokesman
for the league. Disappointed with the objectives of the owners and feeling the players
were merely pawns in an attempt to force the granting of franchises in the established
leagues, he later withdrew.
Ward's legal practice in New York City flourished and
he almost became the president of the National League, lacking one vote for confirmation.
Too many old enemies still remained among the owners.
(JK)
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FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
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| » June 4, 1880: Larry Corcoran of Chicago and John Ward of Providence battle to a 1–1 tie in 16 innings, called because of darkness. Sixteen innings would remain the longest game in big-league history until August 17, 1882, when Ward would win 1–0 over Detroit in 18 innings.
» June 17, 1880: John Montgomery Ward pitches a perfect game in Providence against Buffalo, winning 5–0. Losing P Pud Galvin makes the last out. This is the 2nd perfect game in the National League in six days. The 3rd will not be pitched until 1964, when Jim Bunning turns the trick.
» February 20, 1887: New York SS and captain John Ward thinks that the open sale of players has gone too far. "I wouldn't play in Kansas City under any circumstances," he says, but a club could force him to play there or not play at all. » November 17, 1887: The National League meets and officially recognizes the Brotherhood by meeting with a committee of three players, John Ward, Ned Hanlon, and Dan Brouthers.
» November 23, 1888: New York announces the sale of John Montgomery Ward to Washington for a record price of $12,000. But Ward, who is on tour, will eventually cancel the deal by refusing to play for the Senators.
» March 23, 1889: John Ward arrives in New York, having left the world tour early, and states that he might consent to play with Washington if he receives a major portion of the $12,000 sale price. On April two he will kill the deal with NY by refusing to play for Washington. » January 28, 1890: In the first of many lawsuits filed against PL players by their former teams, the judge refuses to grant an injunction against John Ward, president of the Brotherhood. His decision, echoed frequently by other judges, states that the "want of fairness and mutuality" in the standard National League contract, specifically the clauses relating to the reserve rule, "[is] apparent."
» January 18, 1896: John Ward, who has not played or managed for the last two seasons, objects to being reserved by New York. At the National League meeting in February his appeal is upheld, and Ward is a free agent.
» April 14, 1906:
At Hilltop Park, former player John Montgomery Ward throws out the first ball before the start of the Highlanders-Pilgrims opener. Veterans Jack Chesbro and Cy Young struggle to a 1-1 standoff through eleven innings before New York pushes across an unearned run in the 12th. » November 25, 1911: William Russell, head of the syndicate that owns the Boston Nationals, dies. No doubt helping his demise was watching his team finish the season with a winning percentage of .291. John Montgomery Ward, along with New Yorkers James Gaffney and John Carroll, will purchase 945 of the 1000 shares for $177,000. The team, known as the Rustlers after William Russell, will start next season as the Braves.
» December 13, 1911:
The Boston Rustlers (formerly the Doves) are bought by New York politician James E. Gaffney and former player, now attorney, John Montgomery Ward. The team will be called the Braves because of Gaffney's Tammany Hall connections.
» February 2, 1964: The Hall of Fame Special Veterans Committee tabs Red Faber, Burleigh Grimes, Tim Keefe, Heinie Manush, John Montgomery Ward, and Miller Huggins for induction, the biggest veterans class ever. Keefe and Ward were teammates and brothers-in-law, with Ward married to the famous actress Helen Dauvrey and Keefe married to her sister Clara Gibson. |
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