NL constitution goes up for auction

LOS ANGELES — In 1876, a group of owners and team officials gathered to draft and sign the constitution that created the National League — and would ultimately have ramifications far beyond the diamond.

The principles the document laid out would provide the model for every major sports league in the world that followed.

The constitution is getting a public airing for the first time in more than a century when it is put up for sale Wednesday by SCP Auctions.

The NL’s immediate predepaid cessor was the National Association of Professional Baseball Players. It was plagued with problems in its short life, including weak central organization, teams constantly folding and East Coast teams refusing to travel west. Players just split up the gate receipts as though they were a small-time rock band playing a nightclub.

The league’s demise after the 1875 season led to the meeting on Feb. 2, 1876, that created the NL.

But it did something far more revolutionary in sports. It created a strict division between capital and labor. Owners and their officers ran the business end and wages to the players.

The documents themselves have been held privately for decades by the family of a former NL executive that is now putting them up for sale. The auction house is not making their names public.

“Everything is in great condition,” said Dan Imler, vice president of SCP Auctions. “It’s been preserved in a bound volume since 1925.”

Last year SCP Auctions sold a similar document, 1857’s “Laws of Base Ball,” which laid out the rules of the modern game. That went for $3.26 million. This prize could easily surpass it.