team. In the League, in this respect, while the Boston club had invested,
at great financial cost, in securing the services of noted star players,
the Chicago club, though weakened by the release of players from their
team who had done yeoman service in their ranks for years, were yet able
to excel the picked team of star players of the Boston club, simply by
superiority in handling those they had left to them. In the Association
arena, too, a similar condition of things prevailed in the case of the St.
Louis and Brooklyn clubs, the costly investment of the Brooklyn club for
new players, only enabling them to reach second place in the pennant race,
while the "weakened"(?) St Louis team, by better conceited work together
were enabled to break the record by capturing the Association pennant for
the fourth successive season, something only equaled by the Boston club
under the reign of the old National Association in 1872, '73, '74, and '75.

An event of the season of 1888, also, was the widening the sphere of
professional club operations in the United States, by the inauguration of
the Texas League, which, though not as successful as desired in its first
year, nevertheless opened up a new and large territory for the occupation
of the professional clubs. Closing too, as the year did with a
commendable movement on the part of the League legislators to regulate the
salary system so as to get rid of several costly abuses; it may be justly
said that in no year since professional ball playing was officially
recognized, was there so much done to promote the welfare of the national
game as during the season of 1888.

The summary record of the season's work of the several professional
Leagues and Association prominent during the season of 1888, is as follows:

|Champion |Games |Per Cent. of
Leagues |Club. |Played |Victories