(LOT 13)
Buffalo Club Surety Bond
This lots offers a surety bond executed by the Buffalo Ball Club to provide, as specified in the Articles of Agreement (Lot#7), a fund insuring the payment of all player's salaries by the League in the event that a particular team or teams was unable to do so (Lot #'s 11 & 12 likewise offer surety bonds for the Cleveland and Pittsburgh team organizations, respectively). This auction's enclosed Articles of Agreement (lot#7) specified that each team would pay to the League Treasurer, by April 1, 1890, $5,000 to comprise this insurance fund. However, the Players' League Board of Directors must have amended the terms originally proposed in the Articles of Agreement because in lieu of an actual payment, it was decided that a $10,000 surety bond (that could be drawn upon if there was a player salary issue), would suffice.

Unlike the cases of Cleveland and Pittsburgh, the Buffalo team document was signed by four people including: Moses Shire (Buffalo team President), Charles R. Fitzgerald (Court Secretary), Henry Weill and G.E. Weill. Bold black fountain pen signatures are included for all four including multiple signatures for Henry and G.E. Weill with elaborate gold and orange/red period-style seals affixed to the signature pages. The Weill's were local businessmen, team president Moses Shire was a lawyer and Fitzgerald was the high secretary of the High Court of New York. It seems probable that the backers of Buffalo were not as wealthy as the owners of the other franchises, which may be why Buffalo ran into considerable financial difficulty and was going to be dropped by the Players' League after the 1890 season, with the entire League eventually folding after the 1890 season.

MIN BID $500
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