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FEBRUARY
1887
IN THE NEWS: At Hot Springs, Arkansas, Albert Spalding meets with the Chicago players and exacts from each man a pledge of total abstinence from drinking during the coming season. With the entire outfield gone from last year's team and P Jim McCormick holding out at home in NJ, the champion White Stockings will have to rely on young players.
IN THE NEWS: Mike "King" Kelly meets with Chicago owner Albert Spalding for contract talks. Kelly, who won the National League batting championship for the pennant-winning White Stockings, wants the bonus of $375 that Spalding promised for good behavior last year. Spalding refuses to give him the bonus or to rescind the additional $225 withheld from Kelly's salary as fines for drinking.
The NL franchise in St. Louis is sold to a group from Indianapolis for $12,000, including players. The Maroons will now become the Hoosiers.
IN THE NEWS: The Kansas City Cowboys go out of business with the sale of its players to the league for $6,000. The clubs spot in the league has already been taken by Pittsburgh.
IN THE NEWS: James B. Billings, one of the Boston (National League) club owners, agrees to pay Kelly a $2,000 salary and a $3,000 signing bonus if Boston can buy his reserve rights from Chicago.
The National Colored League is organized at a meeting in Baltimore. Six clubs are represented: Lord Baltimore, Pythians (Philadelphia), Keystones (Pittsburgh), Gorhams (NY), Falls City (Louisville), and Resolutes (Boston).
IN THE NEWS: Chicago announces the sale of King Kelly to Boston for $10,000, more than twice the amount ever paid for a player before. With the contract and bonus, Kelly is dubbed a "$15,000 Beauty."
IN THE NEWS: 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.
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