‘The Federal Wars’ Might be the Baseball Story of the 20th Century
All Rise: The Game’s Original Judge Ruled the Sport with Unquestioned Authority
More than a century has passed since the upstart Federal League league folded — but baseball still grapples with its influence and legacy.
Launched in 1914 to compete against the American and National Leagues, the Federal League comprised eight franchises in established major league cities. While the Federals successfully poached a few high-profile stars of the day (including Chicago Cubs star Joe Tinker, of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance fame), the quality of play was probably closer to “AAAA” than to the majors (Japan’s major leagues might suggest a comparison). Given time, however, the level of play may have attained parity with the majors as the Federals were openly and aggressively recruiting talent away from the National and American Leagues.
In response, MLB owners were forced to essentially bid on their own talent; when that failed, they mounted legal campaigns, preventing players from taking the field by tying them up in court. Known as “The Federal Wars,” it generated 60-point headlines and high drama for the sporting populace.
The war quickly made its way to the courts, with the Federals filing an anti-trust lawsuit against Major League Baseball. The 1915 suit claimed that MLB had a monopolistic hold on professional players in the United States. The case threatened the viability of MLB (the suit asked the court nullify all existing player contracts on the basis that baseball’s “reserve clause” was unlawful), and the owners were terrified. Overseeing the proceedings was Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, who had earlier made his name presiding over the Standard Oil anti-trust suit (Landis levied the then-largest fine in U.S. history against a corporate offender: $29,240,000).
The Federals may have had a case, but they didn’t have money: The league was hemorrhaging cash (against the backdrop of World War I and a national recession, the continuing battles for major-league talent and mounting legal fees were doing serious damage to the bottom lines of both the Federals and MLB).
In fairly short order, the Federals agreed to drop the lawsuit and cease operations (they had little choice, as several clubs would have collapsed under the financial burden anyway) in exchange for a cash settlement after the 1915 season. Charles Weeghman, owner of the FL Chicago Whales, folded his franchise when he purchased the Chicago Cubs from the reviled Charles Murphy. Six other FL franchises accepted buyouts to fold their teams, with their best players sold at auction to MLB.
The Baltimore Terrapins refused to settle, filing their own anti-trust lawsuit against baseball. The case made it all the way to the Supreme Court, who granted baseball an exemption to federal anti-trust law — protecting their status as a “legal” monopoly.
The ruling ensured, among other things, that baseball’s infamous “reserve clause” would remain in place for decades. The reserve clause held that players were essentially the property of owners, bound to a team until the owner sold them, traded them, or released them (the clause granted the team the right to renew a player’s contract in perpetuity). Because players had no other options for employment, their leverage with regard to salary negotiations was practically nil. The owners made millions while paying their players a fraction of what they were worth. The owners — those unabashed, vocal paragons of free-market capitalism — had successfully defended a closed market of their own creation, and they would keep it locked up for another 50 years.[1]
Landis, who revealed himself a passionate fan of the game during the proceedings, went on to become the first commissioner of baseball in 1920 — on condition that he retained unchallenged and absolute authority on all matters related to the game.[2] His first act was to purge the game of the “Black Sox”– eight players who allegedly conspired with gamblers to fix the 1919 World Series.
Landis ruled the sport with an iron fist and a withering glare for 25 years. His impact on the game is immense, his legacy mixed. Among his accomplishments, he is credited with restoring public trust in the institution by eliminating any vestige of gambling interests; he established the modern MVP award when he endorsed stewardship of the process to the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1931; the first All-Star game was played under his steely glower in 1933; he brought transparency to minor-league transactions, ending the corrupt practice of indiscriminate, “under-the-table” signings.[3]
Landis also helped perpetuate baseball’s greatest shame by choosing not to exercise his authority to knock down — or at least push against — the color barrier. When asked about the subject, the bombastic, imperious commissioner parsed his words carefully, explaining that no formal rule existed prohibiting blacks from the game; owners were free to draft — and play — whomever they wanted. Given the entrenched, obvious, and institutionalized racism in the game, the statement, while accurate, is laughable. Many consider it no coincidence that baseball’s color line fell only after Landis’ death.[4]
Jeremy Lehrman is the author of Baseball’s Most Baffling MVP Ballots. For more baseball, click here.
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NOTES
[1] The reserve clause was eventually undone in a 1975 landmark arbitration case involving pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally. You can read more about the clause and its demise at baseball-reference.com.
[2] The owners have scaled back the power of the office with each subsequent commissioner. Today, major league sports commissioners are by-and-large de facto CEOs, responsible for growing and protecting the business interests of their respective leagues. They serve at the discretion of team owners.
[3] Landis failed, however, to restrict major league control over the minor leagues. Landis felt minor league baseball should operate independently of the big leagues. Branch Rickey, a bitter rival, took the opposite position: The minor leagues were talent pipelines for big league clubs, and should be managed accordingly. Rickey won this battle.
[4] It’s difficult to overstate Landis’ impact on the game — he is in many respects the sport’s central figure of the 20th century. David Pietrusza’s Judge and Jury: The Life and Times of Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis is regarded as the definitive account of the man and his times.
