The Federal League: Part One
March 14, 2008 by Brendan Macgranachan · Leave a Comment
The first part of my three part series focuses on the beginnings of the short-lived Federal League right up to the start of the 1914 season.
John T. Powers started the Federal League in 1913, although this wasn’t his first attempt at starting up a baseball league. Powers started up the Columbian League in 1912 but the league was not, however, recognized by the National Commission, Organized Baseball’s governing body, and was deemed an ‘outlaw’ league, which was the term to describe what we today call independent leagues. The Columbian League, though, never played an official game. Lack of interest in a few exhibition games scared off most of Powers’ investors and the league folded before it even started.
Two months later, Powers was back with more investors and had enough support and backing to start the Federal League, which would begin playing in 1913. The league respected major league players’ contracts and made no notion of becoming a major league. The six teams were placed in Indianapolis, Covington (Kentucky), Pittsburgh, Cleveland, St. Louis, and Chicago. Late in April, two weeks before the start of the season, the League made its first headline. Cy Young, who retired after the 1912 season, was named manager of the Cleveland Federals.
There were not too many more headlines in the 1913 Federal League season and part of it was because of Western Union’s refusal to carry the Federal League’s scores in it’s ‘ticker’ service, a service the telegraph company provided to carry headlines and sports scores across the nation. The league first tried to pay the company to carry its scores, which Western Union refused. In June, the league hired an attorney, E. E. Gates, who filed a complaint in court, saying that Western Union could not refuse to do business with the league. The complaint was dismissed and the Federal League’s exposure remained low.
Also in June, the Covington Blue Socks were relocated to Kansas City, due to low attendance. The team struggled after the move and then was forced to play the last month of the season on the road because of a flood that had covered Gordon & Koppel Field in Kansas. They finished 21 games behind the pennant winner, Indianapolis. Indianapolis led most of the season and finished with a 10.5 game lead over the Cy Young-led Cleveland Feds.
The league’s first season was a great financial success, leaving the hungry owners wanting more. Powers did not, though, and after the season, the five remaining teams (Cleveland had folded) voted the cautious Powers out of office and elected in one of the lead aggressors in Chicago backer John A. Gilmore. After Powers’ dismissal, rumors began to circulate that the reason he had been removed was because of his reluctance to declare the Feds a third major league, something the other owners, under the encouragement of Gilmore, wanted. The Feds then announced the first major leaguer to sign with the new circuit, George Stovall, the ex-St. Louis Browns manager, would manage the Kansas City Packers.
In late October, the rumors started to get stronger. The owners had convened in Indianapolis for a week long meeting and reports stated that the Feds were starting to sign away players from the National and American Leagues, surely starting a baseball war. Among the names mentioned was future Hall-of-Famer, Roger Bresnahan, who had his worst year of his storied career in 1913, but would surely be a big draw for the Federal League. On the 28th, it was announced that Baltimore would be the sixth team for the 1914 season, replacing Cleveland.
On the first day of November, it was official: The Federal League had declared war on the rest of professional baseball. They announced they would not attempt to sign anyone under contract to the AL and NL but would sign anyone who was under the reserve clause and was willing to jump to the newest major league, as they felt the reserve clause was illegal. So did the Baseball Players Fraternity as they announced the very next day that it would allow its players under the reserve clause to sign Federal League contracts.
The Feds stated they would take no further actions against the two major leagues unless they decided to retaliate. The Feds also announced that Buffalo was the seventh team in the league while Gilmore rejected Philadelphia’s request for a franchise. It was rumored that Gilmore had rejected Philadelphia’s request because he wanted to place the eighth and final franchise in New York.
Later in November, the Feds made a run at two well-known major leaguers. The Chicago Feds were close to signing Mordecai “Three Finger†Brown to manage the team but could not get reach terms with him. Two Federal League agents also approached Rube Marquard but he turned down the offer, stating he was going to re-sign with the New York Giants, which he did.
An eighth franchise was announced finally in late November, but it was not in New York, and surprising everyone, including most of his owners, President Gilmore announced that the final Federal League franchise would be placed in Toronto. Many owners were in disagreement over the placement of the franchise, they wanted the last team in a major league market where they would make more headlines, and that certainly did not fit Toronto’s bill.
After a month of silence after the Toronto announcement, President Gilmore released a statement regarding the Feds plans for next season. He stated that the Feds had signed thirty players from major league rosters and was in negotiation with several others, but refused to give names. He also mentioned that “one of the best known big league players†would be the manager of the Chicago team. That player was most likely to be Joe Tinker, who was in a dispute with Cincinnati management, the team he managed in 1913, over salary. Tinker guaranteed the Feds more major league players if they give him $40,000 in guaranteed money to be a player-manager, and on the 28th of December, the Chi-Feds, as the Chicago franchise was known, gave it to him. The St. Louis Terriers also found money, which Chicago couldn’t, for Three Finger Brown and he became manager of the Terriers for the 1914 season. Brown also said he himself would make a few appearances on the mound for St. Louis, where he started his career in 1903 with the Cardinals.
The signings of both Tinker and Brown shocked Organized Baseball and proved the Feds were succeeding in signing big league talent. Cincinnati Reds president August Herrmann was “surprised†to see Tinker and Brown desert his team and American League president Ban Johnson called them “foolish†but there was no doubt that the men in Organized Baseball were getting uncomfortable and a little worried about the outlaw league.
A few days later, another bombshell was dropped, as President Gilmore was in New York to discuss with local investors the idea of placing a Federal League franchise in “The Big Apple.” Adding New York would mean folding one of the eastern teams in Baltimore, Pittsburgh, Buffalo or Toronto, but it was something everyone in the league’s board of governors was on board with.
Another signing was announced in the first week of January as ex-Phillies second baseman Frank Knabe signed a $10,000 contract to manage the Baltimore club. Joe Tinker also made an attempt at signing Boston pitcher Joe Wood, but to no avail. Then word came out that a monster contract was put on the table by Tinker to sign the great Walter Johnson, but ‘The Big Train’ said no, as he just signed a one-year deal with Washington and would not jump his contract.
Finally, on January 17th, the American and National Leagues made its move on the Feds. Charles Weeghman, the owner of Chicago and one of the biggest financial backers of the Federal League, was offered by the American League the opportunity to buy the St. Louis Browns if he dropped his interests in the Federal League. If Weeghman were to withdraw from the Federal League, it would unquestionably kill the league. Weeghman admitted to the offer and gave the Federal League owners a list of financial requirements for the individual teams to meet if he were to keep backing the league. Every team met Weeghman’s standards, except for Toronto, which put them in even more hot water with the Federal League owners. Nonetheless, Weeghman stayed in the league and the Feds averted disaster.
It now appeared that the two major leagues, specifically the American League, were starting to worry and were now grasping at straws to try to fold the Federal League. They put out reports that players were “no longer being tempted to play for them†and Ban Johnson even said the Feds were “going to be dead by the end of the week from lack of player interest.†Gilmore hushed the rumors, saying he had just signed two more stars, but refused to name the players he had signed to date until he was ready to “show the strength of the league.†It was announced, however, that Yankee pitcher Russell Ford would be a member of the Buffalo Feds, and on January 26th, Gilmore announced it had signed 83 major league players and 44 more minor leaguers, almost double the amount that everyone in Organized Baseball had expected. John Tener, president of the National League, said that the players weren’t as big of stars as Gilmore was letting on and their clubs would not miss most of them.
Toronto’s future was beginning to be discussed in the Federal League’s February meetings. With New York now looking to be out of the equation, the owners now wanted to invade another big league city, Cincinnati, and place the Toronto franchise in Red-land. Cleveland, who had folded after the 1913 season, was looking like the back-up plan for the Toronto franchise, whose days in the Canadian city looked all but over. Then, on the 13th of February, the Feds got what they wanted: a team in New York. John Ward, the former Giant, agreed to finance a team in Brooklyn, which would take Toronto’s place in the circuit. Gilmore also announced the league had signed 200 players to contracts and a draft would take place in late February to assign players without teams to ball clubs. Several attempts by the Feds were made at signing unsigned Tris Speaker but the American League teams all pitched in money to make sure the centerfielder stayed in Boston, and more importantly, in their league. The Federals also threw a $65,000 contract, which would have been a record at the time, at Giant pitcher Christy Mathewson, but, after speaking to manager Joe McGraw, Mathewson decided to stay with the Giants.
After the draft, individual teams started to release their rosters. The first team to do so was Baltimore, whose roster included slick-fielding shortstop Mickey Doolan, who started for the Phillies for eight years, and former 18-game winner Jack Quinn. Brooklyn released their roster next and the Tip-Tops’, named after John Ward’s Tip-Top bakery, big acquisition was pitcher Tom Seaton, another ex-Phillie who led the National League in wins (27) and strikeouts (168) in the previous season. The Chi-Feds had Tinker at shortstop and Fred Beck at first base on a team filled with lots of ex-big leaguers. Al Bridwell, the veteran shortstop, signed with the Terriers, and Cy Falkenberg, who won 23 with the Indians in 1913, signed with the defending champion Indianapolis club. The amount of talent on the Federal League teams did not disappoint the public, and the league was ready to break for spring training.
The first Federal League exhibition game took place in Shreveport, La. on March 14th where Chicago took care of St. Louis, 3-1. The Feds also announced their schedule for the upcoming season, which would provide 154 games for every team. The Federal League opener would be April 13th at Terrapin Park in Baltimore where the Baltimore club would host the Buffalo Feds. Brooklyn would visit Pittsburgh on the 14th and the other four teams would open their season on the 15th. Chicago would travel to Kansas City to play the Packers, and Indianapolis would go into St. Louis to play the Terriers. After a long off-season, the Federal League was finally ready to show off its highly publicized product on the field.
Part two will be published on March 21st and will be on the subject of the inaugural season of the Federal League.
