This is the first book to examine in close detail the 1890 and 1891 major-league seasons, recapturing a colorful era in early baseball history when club owners quarreled, players berated umpires, sportswriters criticized and ridiculed both owners and players, and the National Game, as it was universally called, made halting progress toward the sport and business it became in the twentieth century. The two seasons saw the formation in 1890 of the Players League by the Brotherhood of Professional Ball Players, America's first sports union; the failure of the players' efforts to stand up to the owners; the collapse of a new National Agreement between the National League and the American Association; and the eventual amalgamation of four Association franchises into the National League, creating a decade of relative peace under the twelve-club "big league.