The Spokane Baseball Mutiny
When two ballplayers demanded early payment fearing the league was going bust, the team left them behind in the dust.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
SPOKANE, Aug. 2.—When the Spokane baseball team left the city tonight for the Sound, center fielder Cline and second baseman Strauss were left behind. They wanted their pay, and refused to leave until they got it. The regular payday is the 15th of the month, but it has been customary to pay the boys half their salaries on the first as an act of courtesy. Cline and Strauss got an idea that the league was going to pieces, and demanded their pay up to date. They will be released. Third baseman Raymond was also left, but accidentally, and will leave for the Sound on the first train.
“Cline and Strauss got an idea that the league was going to pieces, and demanded their pay up to date.”
Player strikes and anxieties over team financial stability are as old as the sport itself. This 1891 incident reflects the precarious nature of early minor league baseball in the Pacific Northwest, where teams often operated on the edge of bankruptcy.
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