Club owner Charles Comiskey was widely disliked by the players and was resented for his miserliness. Comiskey long had a reputation for underpaying his players, even though they were one of the top teams in the league and had already won the 1917 World Series. Because of baseball 's reserve clause, any player who refused to accept a contract was prohibited from playing baseball on any other professional team. Because of the clause, players were prevented from changing teams without permission from the owner of their team, and without a union the players had no bargaining power. Comiskey was probably no worse than most owners — in fact, Chicago had the largest team payroll in 1919. In the era of the reserve clause, gamblers could find players