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HE decade which opened with the year 1871 saw several very important events in the history of Base Ball, the first being the formal organization into a national association of the professional ball players. Heretofore professionals not only had been without an organized status, but until recently they had been under the ban of disapproval by the only recognized national association. It may be well at this point, in order to avoid confusion, to note the difference between the titles of the new and the old bodies. The earlier and first organization of Base Ball clubs was known as "The National Association of Base Ball Players." The one now organized was "The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players," with the accent on the word "professional."

The meteoric career of the Cincinnati Red Stockings had wrought a very great change in public sentiment, and in the minds of players as well, regarding professionalism. Genuine lovers of the sport, who admired the game for its real worth as an entertaining pastime and invigorating form of exercise, saw in the triumphs of the Reds the dawn of a new era in Base Ball; for they were forced, nolens volens, to recognize that professionalism had come 159