John T. Brush

One of the organizers of the original NL franchise in Indianapolis, where he owned a large clothing store, Brush became president of the club in 1887 and decided to become a leader in the game. The next year he pushed through the salary-limit rule, which helped spark the Players’ League revolt in 1890. When his club dropped from the NL in 1889, Brush invested in the Giants, and in 1891 he was awarded the Cincinnati franchise in the reorganized, 12-team NL. He continued to own Indianapolis in the Western League. Ban Johnson, president of the league, accused him of using Cincinnati to draft players to send to Indianapolis. In 1902 he sold the Reds and bought control of the Giants. He tried to push through the idea of a trust holding all NL teams. The idea didn’t get anywhere, and Brush made many enemies in the game. A diehard opponent of Ban Johnson, he fought the AL’s attempts to put a team in New York and opposed the peace treaty between the AL and NL. Brush and his manager John McGraw refused to let the Giants play a WS in 1904. He won his fourth pennant with the Giants in 1912, then left for California to recuperate from ill health after losing the WS to the Red Sox in seven games. He died on the train as it was passing through Missouri.