Good morning, Uni Watchers. And a Happy Hump Day to one and all.
ICYMI, Uni Watch celebrated “Founder’s Day” yesterday, which included a really great post from our founder, Paul, on what he’s been up to since passing the baton to me. I also had a one-year update, and I did ask readers several site-related questions, so if you didn’t get a chance to read either, if you have a few extra minutes I’d appreciate it (and I’d love if you could give some feedback on the site related questions!). Thanks.
Now then.
I normally run Leo’s World on Tuesday mornings, but with yesterday’s “Founder’s Day (Observed)” special, I had to bump Mr. Strawn until today. As he has for the past month, this week Mr. Strawn continues his look at early 20th Century baseball. So far, Mr. Strawn graced us with the The Old Ball Game (Volume 1), Volume 2, Volume 3, and Volume 4. Today we’ll look at Volume 5. And it includes a look at the Federal League!
Enjoy!
The Old Ball Game (Volume 5)
by Leo Strawn, Jr.
I’m Leo…welcome to my world!
Before we begin, I received two answers to my question about Wee Willie Keeler in a 1912 Dodgers uniform. It’s harder to find info on coaches than managers, but UW reader James found a blurb from the New York Times of April 4, 1912 that stated, “The second team, with Willie Keeler in charge, went to Dayton, where they will work out to-morrow and Friday, playing the Central League there on Saturday and Sunday.” Also, Perry found an SABR article that quoted the Chicago Defender, “Willie Keeler, who is the Brooklyns’ [sic] coach and scout…” Thanks for that info! (Side note: I had never heard of the Central League of 1912, even though they had a team in Dayton. I looked it up and got a chuckle out of one of the team nicknames: Terre Haute Terre-iers.)
Jim brought up the possibility that the 1901 Orioles photo that I haven’t been able to find any info on might have been from a barnstorming tour. I did a little digging and found out there were a few clubs that did some barnstorming after the 1901 season, but the researcher didn’t mention the Orioles. Interestingly, the author of that book mentions the “All-Nationals” and two different teams known as the “All-Americans”. That led me to dig a little further and I ran across the photo below. An All-National squad and an All-American team went on a tour that took them to California in 1902-03. The Nationals wore mono-dark and one of the Americans was wearing a vertical striped cap! So, nothing down that rabbit hole about the ’01 Baltimore team, but it was well worth the dive for that one rare barnstorming photo which includes several Hall of Famers and Win Mercer, whose tragic end is tied to this barnstorming tour and worth a read if you’re not familiar.
One more note: If you read the Memorial Day ticker, you may have seen this intriguing photo…
From the ticker: Reader Jeff Hanner sends us a picture which he describes as “from the 1940s of what looks like a women’s baseball team in Chicago…” I doubt it’s from the 1940s or even close to that, though. Look at the person on the far right sitting in the front with the “Y” sweater. If those are Victorian Boots, that alone would likely date this photo as being taken in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The logo that stands out is the “B” in a diamond shape. It looks very derivative of Brooklyn’s logo from the early 1910s, which makes me think it was from that decade. Anyone have any info?
Back to our regularly scheduled program as we move on to the Federal League years of 1914-15…
But I’ll start with some National League photos, first. Some players have been using torpedo bats this season. Eleven decades ago, the big bat news revolved around Cincinnati’s Heinie Groh and his bottle bat.
These are two Brooklyn Robins, circa 1914-15. I love their “B”. The Robins loved Hall of Famers. On the left below is Zach Wheat and on the right is Casey Stengel.
The 1914 World Series featured the Boston Braves and the Philadelphia Athletics. Below are three (then) future Hall of Famers that played in that Series. Johnny Evers of “Tinker to Evers to Chance” fame and Eddie Plank of the Athletics are in the first photo. The pic on the right features Rabbit Maranville. Those Boston road unis were hard to see any details on, weren’t they? Thankfully, they only wore them twice in that series as the Braves swept Mack’s squad.
The ’14 World Series was played as it had been the previous ten times between the National and American pennant winners, while ignoring the Federal League, of course. This wasn’t really surprising because the established National League declined to play against the upstart AL until the third year of the Junior Circuit’s existence. Unfortunately, the Federal League didn’t make it to a third season as an outlaw major league. But it did give baseball the stadium known today as Wrigley Field, then called Weeghman Park, home of the Chicago Federals. The Boston Braves had Johnny Evers and the Chi-Feds had Joe Tinker, as seen below. (Obscure bit of baseball trivia: Frank Chance was a player-manager for the Yankees in 1914, though he only played in one game. That would be his last year in baseball until he managed the Red Sox for a single season in 1923. So, the most feared double play combo in the early days of baseball had one player in each of the three major leagues during the last season all three were still playing, 1914.)
Side note: I still have my Feds jersey from the 100th Anniversary game at Wrigley.
Meanwhile, on the South Side of Chicago, Ping Bodie and the Sox were wearing these uniforms on the road in 1914. Bodie played for the White Sox from 1911-14, but I don’t see that cap in Okkonen’s research.
Heading back to the Federal League, here is a glimpse of the St. Louis Terriers in 1914.
I mentioned “Three Finger” Mordecai Brown last week. He played with the Terriers in 1914 and with the Chicago Whales in 1915.
The Whales were the same club that competed in 1914 as the Federals. I’m not sure how many whales could be spotted in the south end of Lake Michigan in 1915, though. Anyway, the photo on the left is their opening day parade in ’15, with manager Joe Tinker riding in a float. Okkonen doesn’t show anything on the cap of the Whales. Tinker’s cap has an obvious white “C” while Ollie Zeider’s cap looks to have a dark “C” on front.
Returning to St. Louis, these are the 1915 Terriers.
Like many of the early National and American League teams (e.g., Forest City, Bridegrooms, Infants, Naps and Beaneaters), there were some unusual Federal League nicknames, as well. The Brooklyn Tip-Tops name might be the most notable.
Unfortunately, the 1915 Tip-Tops uniforms are washed out in this photo of the managers just prior to Brooklyn hosting the Blues, but thankfully those Buffalo road unis are clearly visible.
More views of those Buffalo Blues road beauties.
Here is the only shot I have of the Newark Peppers in 1915, after moving east from Indianapolis. Pictured is Rupert Mills.
Sadly, those are the only quality 1914-15 FL photos I have been able to collect over the years. However, the Federal League played as an outlaw league in its inaugural 1913 season, prior to declaring itself a major league, and had a franchise in Cleveland known as the Green Sox. They were managed by the legendary Cy Young that year, his last season in baseball. Upon hearing of the FL’s intention of playing as a major league, the AL Naps moved their farm team from Toledo to Cleveland for the next two seasons, giving the Green Sox two teams in the same city to compete with for the 1914 season and resulting in the Federal League abandoning the North Shore of Ohio.
One more edition looking back at the 1910s on deck.
Until then…
Cheers!
Thanks, Leo — yet another fun one. And thanks for even the small bit on the Federal League. So little photographic documentation exists, unfortunately, as I’ve wanted to do a uni history of the League for some time. But other than Okkonen’s sketches, there just isn’t a lot out there. So kudos to Leo for sharing his, a couple of which I’d definitely not seen before.
Readers? What say you?
GTGFTU:
June 12, 1997
The Ballpark in Arlington, TX
Giants 4, Rangers 3
First regular-season interleague game.
Correct!
Wearing the rare Interleague jersey patch.
Extremely rare. Only worn for two games by the Giants and Rangers.
That SF road uniform is miles better than the one they wear now.
Looks like a circa 2000s scoreboard. Nationals first game at RFK?
Agree that that photo of the women’s team is far earlier than the 1940s, and that the 1910s is more likely. That short “standing” collar style was all over the place in the 1910s and according to “Dressed to the Nines” was first worn in the majors by the 1909 Cubs. Also, “base ball” as two words was pretty rare even that late.
Man, that bottle bat looks like a round version of a cricket bat! Looks heavy, too. Probably not going to generate a lot of bat speed, but would be great for protecting your wicket…er, I mean bunting.
Thanks for sharing what you could of the Federal League. I hope more photos begin to surface someday.
That’s what I’ve always thought. It looks really heavy and it seems hard to believe he could generate much bat speed with it. I never considered it might have been used for doing a lot of bunting.
The article you linked to pretty much sums up what Heinie Groh was trying to do.
link
“The bottle bat, as it came to be known, was designed to enhance bat control. The thin handle allowed Groh to achieve a quicker, more compact swing, enabling him to react to pitches with exceptional speed and precision. This was particularly advantageous against pitchers with tricky deliveries or late movement. The wider barrel, conversely, provided a larger hitting surface, increasing his chances of making contact.
Groh’s bat was integral to his success as a hitter. He was a consistent contact hitter, known for his ability to hit for average and place the ball effectively.”
The Blues Buffalo looks like a cross between Sabres charging Buffalo and old Bills AFL standing Buffalo.
I have no confirmation of this, but I’m almost certain that the GTGFTS is not from the regular season. My best guess at what exactly it is is a spring training game from 3 Apr 2005, played at RFK stadium, whose existence I can only find attested by an extremely barebones gamelog from espn (link) that claims that the mets scored 3 in the 4th and 1 in the 5th, not 2 and 2. Nevertheless, this is the only game I think it could possibly be.
Seriously, this one was cursed. Well played, Roger.
Ding Ding Ding!
You are correct. Game was April 3, 2005.
This is not readable on a mobile device.
Not sure what’s wrong with it. I just checked it again on my phone and it works fine.