I registered the American Baseball Guild
in Massachusetts in April 1946,
and decided the first election should be in Pittsburgh
I made a tactical error
by allowing the vote to be delayed two days,
which allowed management and pro-management players
to speak out strongly against the union
We lost the vote,
but the management committee,
to forestall further attempts at unionization,
agreed to implement a few of our demands,
one of which was a weekly allowance
for spring training expenses,
which the players soon called “Murphy money”
Who says there’s no irony in baseball?