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Page 5 · column 4 of 7 · from the scan, no model involved
In spite of the fact that the season of 1871 had been the most prosperous In the history of baseball, there were many changes in the membership of the professional league. Some of the clubs had fallen by the wayside and there were several newcomers in the ranks. Conspicuous among the absentees was the Chicago club, which I had tried so hard to get into. The big fire of October, 1871, which nearly wiped the Queen of the Inland Seas off the map, left the city without a baseball organization. Had I succeeded in my attempt to break into the team I should have been stranded with the others. My old club, the Forest Citys of Rockford, was also among the missing, so that it seemed providential that I had gone to the City of Brotherly Love.
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