Ward attended the Bellefonte Academy in the early 1870s, and at 13 years of age, he was sent to Pennsylvania State University.

[5] However, he was kicked out of school for pushing an upperclassman who attempted to haze him down a flight of stairs, and stealing chickens.

On June 17, 1880, Ward pitched the second perfect game in baseball history, defeating future Hall of Famer Pud Galvin and the Buffalo Bisons, 5–0.

[9] Ward also expanded his leadership role to include managing when he became a player-manager for the team's final 32 games, winning 18 of them, as the Grays finished in second place.

Ward then captained an All-Star team which, paired with Cap Anson's Chicago club, headed off on a barnstorming world tour organized by Albert Spalding that visited Australia, Egypt, and Europe.

The owners held their winter meetings, and created a classification system that would determine a player's salary.

He then demanded a meeting with the owners, and said he would refuse to play for Washington unless he received a large portion of his record sale price.

[4] The owners denied Ward's request for a meeting to discuss the new classification system, saying no talks would be held until after the upcoming season.

His 1888 book, Base-Ball: How to Become a Player, with the Origin, History and Explanation of the Game was the first published effort to explore baseball's development from its early roots.

The owners thought of it as nothing more than an idle threat but had failed to realize Ward's connections in the business community, and he began to launch the new league.

[2] While the Players' League drew well at the box office, the teams' owners grew nervous when the money did not come in as expected because of the profit sharing system.

He won several championships around New York, played all over Europe, and competed regularly in the United States Golf Association U.S.

Ward died in Augusta, Georgia, the day after his 65th birthday on March 4, 1925, after a bout of pneumonia,[14] and is interred in Greenfield Cemetery in Hempstead, Long Island, New York.

[16] He was inducted into the Suffolk Sports Hall of Fame on Long Island in the Baseball and Historic Recognition Categories with the Class of 2000.