with the Feds
Despite a season that resulted in financial loss for the league, they nonetheless decided to expand for the 1914 campaign. Teams were added in Brooklyn, which was purchased by the bakery magnate Ward brothers who promptly christened the team the Tip Tops, in honor of their line of breads. This caused such a furor in the New York media that the Wards renamed their franchise the equally ridiculous Brookfeds. The Wards proposed to Superbas (as the Dodgers were known as then) owner Charlie Ebbets a series between their respective teams which was met with about as much enthusiasm as the Federal League/World Series championship tournament had.
Two other franchises were added in direct competition to International League teams in both Buffalo and Baltimore. This proved devastating to these teams because baseball fans in these markets
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with the Feds |
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star who jumped |
As a Canadian I found interesting that Toronto was one of the initial choices as a charter member of the league. Instead the franchise was located to Cleveland, then dropped. This shouldn’t come as any surprise due to the fact that before the Expos and Jays came north of the 49th parallel both Montreal and Toronto were thriving markets in the International League, which boasted such alumni as Jackie Robinson and Elston Howard.
It was in 1914 that the Federal League proclaimed itself a major league with its eight franchises challenging in four major and four minor league cities. The league also led all three circuits in innovations. The Federal League was organized as a single corporation with stock divided up among ownership. There were incentives for the players.
In order to maintain its hold on their players the Feds (as the Federal League came to be known as) in which a certain percentage of the profits generated by the league would be set aside to be divvied up among the players at the conclusion of each season. After ten years of Federal League service a player could opt for free agency and most intriguing was the notion that since the Federal League had inflated players’ salaries that a salary cap would be brought in ... free agency, salary caps, revenue sharing sound familiar? The Bible said it best when it said that: “there was nothing new under the sun.”
After the pre-emptive strike from organized baseball, the Federal League felt it was time to strike back and do a little player raiding of its own. This served to put the two leagues under pressure as well as add legitimacy to its “major league status.” The biggest prize from that initial foray was the landing of Joe Tinker of the immortal infield trio of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. Chance had just been sold from the Cincinnati Reds to the Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers).
To use the lingo of the underworld he was “given an offer he couldn’t refuse.” Whereas the Super ... oh what the heck, the Dodgers
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in HOF career |
This was a godsend to the players of the two leagues, in that it gave them leverage in re-negotiating new contracts with their clubs. This sent shock waves throughout baseball. It was the Federal League influence that caused venerable Connie Mack to dismantle his first great dynasty. He sold Hall-of-Fame bound second sacker Eddie Collins to cheapskate Charles Comiskey. He requested waivers on Hall-of-Fame hurlers Chief Bender and Eddie Plank, who then signed with the Feds. Mack sold Hall-of-Fame hot cornerman Frank "Home Run" Baker to the Yankees and effectively consigned the A’s to baseball purgatory for over a decade and a half ... heroes to zeroes courtesy of the Feds.
The uniform players contracts were called into question because the contract basically stipulated that a player was the property of the franchise for life, yet the team could release a player on ten days notice. This went to court in the case of pitcher-of-no particular- renown Chief Johnson, the 1910’s version of Andy Messersmith.
Like Messersmith, Johnson won out. This prompted the “man with the corkscrew brain” as Hall-of-Fame chronicler Fred Lieb described superb first sacker Hal Chase to give his club ten days notice and jump to the Feds. The court ruled that the contract lacked mutuality. This was already known to organized baseball. They didn’t say it in so many words, yet their actions spoke volumes. Here is an excerpt from the Sporting Life magazine from the May 30th 1914 edition:
“Safe in proceeding at once against the majors for the players they illegally claim. Indeed, some of our club presidents are so anxious to recruit from the big leagues that I may not be able to hold them in leash. Organized ball has gotten away with a lot of hot air about having all the best men sign contracts from which the ten days’ clause has been eliminated. Ty Cobb is a pretty good ballplayer isn’t he? Well, the ten days clause is in his contract. He can have a good many thousands of dollars from Frank Navin (Detroit Tiger owner) any time he consents to scratch out this feature of inequity. Detroit has tried in vain repeatedly to purchase Cobb’s consent to the change. If organized ball believed in the validity of this clause do you think it would be trying now to bribe its players to submit to the subtraction of this objectionable phrase from the contract? The Chicago Nationals (Cubs) paid Jimmy Lavender $3000 to strike out the clause from his document. I could name a dozen other big leaguers.”