the teams closing the season as appears below: Boston, Louisville, Chicago, Hartford, St. Louis.
In the following year, 1878, the Louisville, New York and Hartford clubs withdrew, but as Cincinnati had made good its shortage and been reinstated, and as Providence, Indianapolis and Milwaukee had been admitted, the circuit was again composed of six clubs, the championship season closing with the clubs in the following order: Boston, Cincinnati, Providence, Chicago, Indianapolis, Milwaukee.
In 1879, Buffalo, Cleveland, Syracuse and Troy added clubs to the contest, but, as Indianapolis and Milwaukee had withdrawn, eight clubs were left to close the season as follows: Providence, Boston, Chicago, Buffalo, Cincinnati, Syracuse, Cleveland and Troy.
Thus ends the championship story of the decade of the seventies, a story which chronologically overlaps the period that saw the death of the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, and the birth of the National League of Base Ball Clubs, which must form the subject for another chapter.
