his first dynasty
The organized baseball magnates, never ones to take defeat lying down struck back. The National Commission rules were amended specified a three-year suspension for reserve rule jumpers and five-year suspension for contract breakers. The May 4th 1914 Boston Herald reported that American League boss Ban Johnson stated ...
“No player of the Federal League can ever play in the American League ... a man may be reinstated by the National Commission, but can never hope to get into the American League. The National and other leagues may accept him, but as for the American League, never.”
The Herald of June 21st of that same year reported that organized baseball were considering launching a third major league of their own within the National Commission to combat the Feds. The discussions went so far as to discuss how to handle the World Series with three participants, even to the point of perhaps holding a World Series round robin tournament.
Believe it or not, throughout all the action in the board rooms and in the press the Feds pressed on to their second campaign with Indianapolis again winning the pennant. Players were beginning to develop reputations and fan recognition. Benny Kauff of the pennant winning Hoofeds (Hoosiers+Federals get it?) “The Ty Cobb of the Federal League” won the batting title with a sparkling .370 average.
Yankee defector Russ Ford had a superlative
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his first dynasty |
Gene Packard, the only Federal League moundsman to have a pair of 20 win seasons going 20-14 despite an earned run mark of almost three (remember this is the “dead ball era”) ... he too logged 300+ innings. Another beneficiary of run support was Brooklyn Tip Top pitcher Tom Seaton, who despite a high-for-that-era earned run mark of 3.03 still managed a won loss mark of 25-14. He too logged over 300 frames, George Suggs also entered the 20 win circle, weighing in at 24-14 with a 2.90 ERA. He accomplished this despite allowing more hits than innings pitched (319 IP to 322 hits surrendered). The secret to his success? The same formula that holds true today, don’t beat yourself and others will have a tough time beating you. In 319 frames he only issued 57 free passes or about 1.5 walks per start.
Although Kauff was the headliner with the lumber, others gave notice as well. Ennis "Rebel" Oakes a player of no import in organized baseball batted .312 for Pittsburgh driving in 75. Edward Zwilling whose claim to fame is currently being the last entry in the “Baseball Encyclopedia” was unique in that he played out his four year baseball career with all three major league teams in Chicago.
While in organized baseball he was a nobody but with the Chifeds he was a star slugger. In the midst of the dead-ball era he slugged a mighty .485 in 1914 the result of batting .313 smacking 38 doubles, ripping 8 triples, and blasting a mighty (back then it was mighty) 16 home runs and driving in 95. He wasn’t a hulking slugger in anybody’s book -- he stood 5’ 6.5” and weighed 160 lbs.
At the conclusion of all three leagues respective seasons they secretly entered into negotiations to try and bring an end to the “war.” Although new money had come into the league when Sinclair, Weeghman, Ball and the Ward brothers acquired franchises, the Federal League was losing money. While the financial losses were not as great within organized baseball, there were still losses. On top of that the question “whether to jump or not” was causing dissension within many clubs and the National and American Leagues were tired of losing marquee names to the Feds. Nothing came to fruition from these talks because the Federal League wanted to be recognized as a major league by the other two bodies, a condition unacceptable to organized baseball.
Since peace was unachievable, the “war” continued. On January 5th the Feds filed a suit against organized baseball charging that they had broken anti trust laws. Gilmore contended that the monopoly enjoyed by the other two leagues which resulted in such “illegal acts” of farming out
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led to commissionership |
In what appeared to be another devastating blow inflicted by the Feds occurred when “The Big Train” Walter Johnson rejected Washington Senator’s owner Clark Griffith's contract offer in order to sign with the Chicago Whales er ... Chifeds, whatever. Initially Johnson had no real intention of signing with the Feds but was rather using it as leverage to get a better contract from Griffith. Johnson had asked for either a one year deal for $15000, a three year deal for $36000 or a five year offer of $50000. When Griffith curtly told Johnson that he didn’t want to purchase the whole state of Kansas, where Johnson hailed from, he signed to play in Chicago for Joe Tinker for $20000 a year for two years. Griffith wasn’t going to along with this, he stated in a newspaper interview that:
“There was a provision in the 1914 contract whereby I obtained an option on Johnson’s services for the 1915 season. Twenty five hundred dollars of the $12000 salary which he has received was given for the specific purpose of reserving an option in 1915 upon Johnson. I am convinced he has violated the agreement, and I will sue him to the end of the earth before I acknowledge his right to sign with the Federals.”
This was what was known as the “reserve clause” in the uniform players’ contract that remained there until Messersmith/McNally was decided by Peter Seitz.
However, Griffith, upon reflection, thought that litigation might not be the most prudent thing to do under the circumstances. He decided to try a little diplomacy instead. He traveled down to Kansas City to visit vis-à-vis with Johnson and convinced him that he had always acted in good faith toward his storied hurler and deserved better. Johnson agreed, but felt that it would hurt the Chifeds if he were to jump back. Griffith again reminded him that he would hurt Washington if he stayed in Chicago. Griffith went on to argue that because of Johnson’s defection he would ultimately hurt either Washington or Chicago and he’d have to choose which.