 He was a financial backer of the 1884 Union Association and its Philadelphia team.He declared the new league "the emancipator of enslaved players and the enemy of the reserve clause" (Voigt, 1966, p. 130).After the failure of the Players' League in 1890, Richter changed his allegiance, writing in the "Sporting News" that "Amidst all this noise and confusion the star ball player is the only one who can't lose, no matter which side wins" (Shaw, 2003).