I have undertaken briefly to touch upon the several epochs that impress me as of greatest importance; to consider abuses that crept into the game at the beginning; to note the inability of early Associations to control these evils; to dwell upon the nature of the struggle to eradicate wrongs and establish a form of government that would make for the integrity of Base Ball, and which has wrought the salvation of the game and made it the cleanest, most scientific and popular pastime known to the world of sport.
I have interspersed in this narrative some reminiscences in which the personal equation is conspicuously present. In the very nature of things that had to be the case. But here and now disclaim any desire to exploit my name, my views or my achievements. This book is simply my contribution to the story of the game. In it I have reviewed facts as they have been presented to me. That others have seen them from other view, points and received impressions altogether different I know; and I accord to such the same sincerity that I maintain for myself.
In this work I have aimed to present only the truth. If in so doing I have on occasion seemed to speak harshly of the actions of some men who have sought to embarrass the noble sport, I plead in extenuation of what I have here written that it is the truth itself—not the one who utters it—that offends the doer of wrong.
Point Loma, California, October. 1911.
