However, American League boss Ban Johnson was not fooled one bit. Johnson himself had made inquiries about that selfsame plot of land for his new league in 1903. What Johnson knew was that there was nothing he could do if the city ever decided to put a street right through the heart of the property so he rejected the land. Johnson tried in vain to convince the Senior Circuit to stand strong, that Sinclair and Gilmore were only bluffing, but they wouldn’t budge. When critics maintained that Sinclair didn’t have the revenue to launch such a project Sinclair issued a challenge ...
... “I’ll meet you people (the A.L and N.L. magnates) on the waterfront and we’ll toss dollar for dollar into the Hudson River. Then we’ll see who runs out of money first.”
This challenge shook up the Junior Circuit sufficiently to wish to settle as well. Thus the Feds received an excellent settlement from organized baseball.
In effect, organized baseball bought out the Feds. Terms of the agreement provided Charles Weeghman to buy the National League Cubs, which he promptly did. This is how the Cubs ended up in Wrigley Field.
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The anti trust suit that was before Judge Landis was to be dropped, which it was by seven of the eight teams, Baltimore choosing to fight it out instead. This was considered by organized baseball to be a breach of contract and went to court to have the settlement declared nul and void. National League president John Tener contended that:
“Each league understood that each of its clubs would carry out the terms of the agreement. The Baltimore club was at that time one of the eight parts of the Federal League. In making the peace agreement the Federal League spoke for it and undertook to see to it that Baltimore should comply with the terms of the peace agreement. As is well known the Baltimore Federal League club has not only refused to carry out the peace agreement, but has gone further and brought an action in the United States courts charging that the Federal League, by signing the peace agreement, conspired with organized ball to injure and destroy the Federal Baltimore club. It is apparent that the Federal League has not carried out the obligation it took in the peace agreement."
" The National and American Leagues naturally declines to pay for something that they have not received. Until the Federal League keeps its promises and secures from its constituent clubs an acceptance of the peace agreement, no payment will be made under the agreement.”
The court rejected his argument. Other provisions of the agreement was that all the Federal League players were to be granted amnesty and have the remaining parts of their Federal League contracts to be paid in full. The International League refused any part of the agreement due to the damage the Feds brought to their league. The Baltimore club wanted to be transferred to the International League. However Jack Dunn of the Richmond club was adamantly against this. They had to transfer his franchise from Baltimore to Richmond because of the Federal League’s incursion in that market.
Dunn was backed up by International League president Ed Barrow who rightly contended that the Feds had no right to drive them out of Baltimore and then reap the benefits of their actions after their league failed to make good. Initially, the Baltimore club had offered to sell Dunn their franchise for $100 000. This too, was rejected because Dunn felt that he would be paying for something that was already his, the rights to Baltimore.
A similar scenario unfolded in Buffalo, although the Buffalo International League franchise had remained there. As to the remaining Federal League franchises, they received little or no compensation.
The Federal League disbanded eighty years ago yet we shouldn’t dismiss it as simple history. What the Federal League did had seismic implications that are felt to this day. Baseball’s unique anti trust exemption sprang directly from the suit that was launched by the Baltimore Federal League club against organized baseball. The suit that was presented before the court of Kenesaw Mountain Landis between 1914 and 1915 was never decided. The Federal League dropped the suit as part of the “peace agreement.” Landis, for his part deliberately delayed ruling on the matter anyway. Landis was a baseball fan himself, in the trial transcripts, Landis said to the Federal League attorneys:
“Do you realize that a decision in this case may tear down the very foundations of this game so loved by thousands?”
He realized that baseball was in violation of anti trust laws and did not wish to issue a ruling on the matter. This was surprising and a huge break for organized baseball in view of Landis’ reputation as a “trust buster.” Baseball remembered the favor that Landis did for them and repaid it by making Judge Landis baseball’s first commissioner. Still, make no mistake, the owners took a gamble on Landis, in that they felt that since he sided with ownership in the matter involving the Federal League, that he would likely be an “owners’ Commissioner” siding with ownership whenever a controversy arose with the players or the courts. History reveals that they were very much mistaken in that particular assumption (the “Black Sox” players notwithstanding).
As we have already documented about Landis on race relations, in an indirect way the Federal League may have delayed the integration of baseball. If Landis had ruled against baseball he likely never would have been made Commissioner and baseball history may have had a different history too say the least. Whether it would have been a better history is highly speculative.
As to the player raids, in retrospect, there was “much ado about nothing” most of the marquee names that jumped were by and large, at the end of their careers and their only real value was in the marquee value. Philadelphia A’s and Hall-of-Fame pitcher Eddie Plank enjoyed his final quality season with the Feds when he went 21-11. Chief Bender's first campaign with the Feds went 4-16. Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown went 31-19 in his two years with the Feds, but he too, was at the end of the line. Jack Quinn, who won 247 games over his career went from hero to zero with the Feds. While pitching with Baltimore in 1914 he won 26 and lost 14, yet the following campaign he lost 22 games.