It was a fairly big deal for other sports, but affected baseball a bit less.
There was an attitude that sports were gentlemens games and playing for money sullied the purity of sport. Obviously a very big deal for stuff like track or any other olympic sport, a remnant of which remained with us into the 1980's and was still strongly held into the 1960's. It was fairly strong in football with a few articles decrying the rise of professionalism in the game and expressing dissappointment in those who played professionally.
One could say we still have a bit of it in the current NCAA rules.
Baseball didn't seem to have that taken so seriously, probably partly because it was more of sport for the masses, and partly because it had been played professionally for a few decades already.
Steve B
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mark
I suppose that must have been an unwritten rule for a while. Was that an actual rule of the nascent IAAUS (later NCAA), which came into being in March of 1906?
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