Shortly after the Mexican league incident, Robert Murphy, a former negotiator for the National Labor Relations Board, attempted to organize the Pittsburgh Pirates into a guild for purposes of collective bargaining. Murphy decried the reserve clause in player contracts, which gave team owners unlimited control over the player's services, and he demanded more rights for players, including the right of contract and the right of salary arbitration. Chandler worked with Pirates officials to avoid a threatened strike by the players. Part of Chandler's intervention included organizing a team of replacement players as a contingency plan; the team would have included Honus Wagner, then 72.