This Day in Reds History: Villone’s 16, the Reserve Clause, and the Fix is On

September 29, 1879: From baseball-reference.com’s bullpen: Baseball’s reserve clause is born. National League owners, seeking to limit player salaries, led by Boston’s Arthur Soden come to a secret agreement whereby five players on each team will be “reserved” – off limits to all other clubs. The reserve clause will be in effect for the 1880 season. The owners tell the newspapers that they have agreed upon a uniform contract with no salary advances. I don’t think they could get away with that today…. September 29, 1919: Also from baseball-reference.com’s bullpen: Arnold Rothstein decides to finance the World Series fix. The plan calls for Nat Evans to give a $40,000 advance to Sport Sullivan to give to the players with an additional $40,000 to be put in a safe at the Hotel Congress in Chicago, IL. Evans takes $29,000 and bets on the Cincinnati Reds, giving Chick Gandil only $10,000. The 1919 Reds were an incredible 96-44 duri...