Posted By:
andy beckerwhile i collect baseball issues, i am more a football guy.
in football, town teams were very popular in the later 1800's. eventually the competition among those teams got so intense that the teams started to pay the better players to join their team (hiring "ringers").
this may not be as historically important to baseball where the town teams were not completing with the college game.
my question is: did professional baseball evolve in the same fashion? common sense would lead me to answer yes. if so, is there someone who was considered the first professional baseball player?
i've been curious for a while and i thought i throw it out there.....