National Association of Professional Base Ball Players

In 1876, wanting an even stronger central organization, six clubs from the NA and two independents established the National League: Boston Red Stockings, Hartford, Mutual, Athletic, Chicago, and the St. Louis Brown Stockings from the NA plus independent clubs Louisville and Cincinnati.

Several factors limited the lifespan of the National Association including dominance by a single team (Boston) for most of the league's existence, instability of franchises as several were placed in cities too small to financially support professional baseball, lack of central authority, and suspicions of the influence of gamblers.

[1] Whether to cover the NA as a major league is a recurring matter of difference in historical work on American baseball among historians, encyclopedists, database builders, and others.

Its players, managers, and umpires are included among the "major leaguers" who define the scope within baseball references such as Retrosheet.

[2] In 1969, Major League Baseball's newly formed Special Baseball Records Committee decided that the National Association should be excluded from major league status, citing the association's "erratic schedule and procedures" as well as a history of gambling and "poor newspaper coverage".

[3] Thus, when the landmark 1969 Macmillan Baseball Encyclopedia was published, National Association records were not included in totals for such early stars as Cap Anson.

In 1982, Sports Illustrated writer Marc Onigman argued that the NA should be included in the major leagues, despite its acknowledged flaws, pointing out the same flaws existed in other leagues as well, and called the Committee's decision "a modern-day value judgment that doesn't hold up".

This practice of using the singular form of the "nickname" as the team name faded with time, although as recently as the early 1900s the team generally known as "Philadelphia Athletics" was shown in the American League standings as the traditional way of "Athletic".