The Collapse of the Pacific Northwest League
A post-mortem on the professional baseball association in Tacoma and Seattle highlights the 'salary evil' that led to its ruin.
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.
The future of professional baseball in the Pacific Northwest is the subject of a considerable amount of discussion. It is certain that the game cannot be supported in this section on such an expensive scale as was attempted this season. Towns averaging less than 50,000 in population cannot maintain teams with a salary list too big for towns of three or four times their size. The history of the Pacific Northwest League is a splendid example of what the growth in salaries brings upon baseball associations. In its first season, 1890, this country was on a 'boom,' salaries were kept within reasonable bounds, and the clubs prospered. This season the salaries took a big jump upward. The scramble grew hotter and hotter, until the salary lists grew to ruinous proportions, and the collapse came. John S. Barnes, in a letter to Sporting Life, suggested an epitaph for the league: 'Sacred to the memory of the Pacific Northwest league. Born at Tacoma, Wash., March 15, 1890. Died at Tacoma August 21, 1892. If her salaries had been $1,000 per month instead of $2,000, she would have lived. She was all right in her way, but she didn't weigh enough.'
“She was all right in her way, but she didn't weigh enough.”
The 1892 struggle to balance the 'business' of baseball with the reality of smaller market populations mirrors modern debates over the sustainability of minor league sports and the hyper-commodification of entertainment. Just as the league struggled with the 'salary evil' in a growing boom-town economy, modern Seattle often wrestles with the high cost of supporting its professional sports identity.
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