He later called for the commission that investigated the origins of baseball and falsely credited Abner Doubleday with creating the game.

Spalding then coaxed teammates Deacon White, Ross Barnes and Cal McVey, as well as Philadelphia Athletics players Cap Anson and Bob Addy, to sign with Chicago.

News of the signings by the Boston and Philadelphia players leaked to the press before the season ended and all of them faced verbal abuse and physical threats from the fans of those cities.

[2] In 1876, Spalding won 47 games as the prime pitcher for the White Stockings and led them to win the first-ever National League pennant by a wide margin.

[3] Spalding retired from playing baseball in 1878 at the age of 27, although he continued as president and part owner of the White Stockings and a major influence on the National League.

Spalding's .796 career winning percentage (from an era when teams played about once or twice a week) is the highest ever by a baseball pitcher, .058 ahead of Negro league star Dave Brown's .738.

The location and the training concept was the brainchild of Spalding and his player/manager Cap Anson, who saw that the city and the natural springs created positives for their players.

After three years of searching, on December 30, 1907, Spalding received a letter that (erroneously) declared baseball to be the invention of Abner Doubleday.

The project, later called the Mills Commission, concluded that "Base Ball had its origins in the United States" and "the first scheme for playing baseball, according to the best evidence available to date, was devised by Abner Doubleday at Cooperstown, N.Y., in 1839."

Receiving the archives of Henry Chadwick in 1908, Spalding combined these records with his own memories (and biases) to write America's National Game (published 1911) which, despite its flaws, was probably the first scholarly account of the history of baseball.

Sports like soccer, rugby, and cricket had already been established in many other countries due to the presence of European imperialism so baseball had a difficult time gaining popularity in these regions.

While baseball did reach a wider global audience, it was due to a larger scale diffusion of the sport rather than the efforts of one magnate, like Spalding envisioned.

In 1900, Spalding moved to San Diego having recently married his second wife, Elizabeth[5] and became a prominent member and supporter of the Theosophical community Lomaland, which was being developed on Point Loma by Katherine Tingley.

He built an estate in the Sunset Cliffs area of Point Loma where he lived with Elizabeth for the rest of his life.

[14] He ran unsuccessfully for the United States Senate in 1911 as a Republican, but lost to eventual winner John D. Works by a vote of 92–21 in the California legislature.

[17][18] He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the Veterans Committee in 1939, as one of the first inductees from the 19th century at that summer's opening ceremonies.