When the members of the first baseball players' union formed their own league in open revolt against the reserve clause and other restrictive practices of the National League, baseball journalism became less of a ""curiosity shop"" practice and moved into the mainstream of the newsroom. Baseball writers Henry Chadwick, T.H. Murnane, and Ella Black covered the labor struggle on the field and in the front offices--and took sides: one as a mouthpiece for the capitalist owners, one as a supporter of the cooperatively operated Players' League, and one as a voice for female journalists.