The end of the road finally came for Bill Temple in 1913. The once-dominant lefty's years of hard drinking had begun to catch up to him in 1909 when he wore out his welcome in Detroit and was shipped to Boston. Legendary manager George Theobald wasn't able to work much magic with Temple's increasingly tired arm and after a third straight 20-loss season in 1911, Temple was banished to the minor-league Worcester club. Even lower-level opposition didn't make him look any better and so at the end of the 1913 season he was released by Worcester and retired. His FABL resume was a strong one: a 284-230 record, 2.31 ERA and 3131 strikeouts, over 700 more than any other pitcher in history.
Bill Temple
While Temple was making his final appearances on a professional field, the FABL pennant races rolled on without him. And those races were both very good in both the Federal and Continental Associations. In the Fed, the defending-champion Boston Minutemen lost the pennant on the season's last weekend, dropping three straight to Washington and finishing two games behind the Eagles. Also right there were the New York Gothams and Detroit Dynamos with just 2.5 games separating the top three and Detroit just five back at the end.
Boston's offense was nearly as good as it had been the season before and again led the Feds in scoring (707) but the pitching was just sixth-best. Star outfielder Fred Huffman came back to earth a bit (.314-3-94) and that was also true of all the other Minutemen hitters. This opened the door for Washington, who won a lot of close ballgames. The Eagles were led by RF Buck Trujillo (.307-0-56), SS Mel Hancock, picked up from Brooklyn via trade (.304-1-59) and C Jim Smith (.301-1-67) on offense and the top pitcher was still Bill West (23-12, 2.66) a solid hurler who never seemed to get the respect he deserved.
Third-place New York was probably more talented than any other Federal club - certainly their best hitter (Ed Ziehl: .320-0-85) and pitcher (Ike Wetzel: 28-13, 2.47) were better than the other teams' top guns. But despite being 2nd in runs scored (693) and third in runs allowed (593), New York lost games they should have won. Detroit had arguably the Feds' best pitcher in Jim Golden (31-13, 2.50) and some decent hitters but their lineup didn't really click (they were 5th in scoring, 6th in average) while leading the league in fewest runs allowed (557). Pittsburgh was fifth with a 72-81 mark and got a great year out of LF Lem Rodgers (.350, tops in the FA) who they had acquired the year before from Montreal.
Sixth-place Chicago had a 27-year-old rookie become their ace (Rip Golden: 25-15, 2.03) but the poor season by former ace Tommy Woodlin (17-25, 3.05) pushed them to 2nd in runs allowed and their mediocre (to say the least) offense saw them finish with a 70-82 mark. St. Louis was seventh - they had one good player in RF Rudy Powell, whose .338 average was 2nd in the league. Philadelphia finished last again after rising to 7th the year before - they had added former NY Stars outfielder Bill Craigen, but he didn't make much difference (he hit .287), second-year 1B Ed Fisher still had good power (12 homers, tied for 2nd) but only had 64 RBIs as the team just didn't have a well-balanced lineup.
The Continental race was one by Baltimore, who finally broke out of their rut of second-place finishes to edge out Chicago by four games, a rising Montreal club by 5.5 and Brooklyn (the defending league champs) by seven. Powell Slocum hit .435 - a new career high (and 20th century record) with 257 hits (also a record) - amazingly those were the only categories in which he led the league. No other Clipper topped .300 with Jimmy Whipple's .296 coming closest. The pitching was solid - Mike Marner (26-18, 2.50) had a lot to do with that of course.
Second-place Chicago had their own tandem of stellar hitter/pitcher with CF John Dibblee hitting .382 (good for a distant 2nd in the batting race) and Isaac Meyer going 21-7 with 2.15 ERA in an injury-shortened campaign. Even better for the Cougars was the possible emergence of a second star pitcher as Tom Guarneri, a sophomore righty, went 24-14, 2.54 and had a lot to do with keeping the Cougs in the pennant race during Meyer's injury. Montreal was definitely (and finally) a team on the rise: they had a good young star in 3B Joe Ward (.352-2-99 - tops in the league in RBIs) a solid second banana in LF Lou Cobb (.296-6-95) and thanks to a trade with the Chicago Chiefs: a third star in 1B Conrad Gardner who wasn't quite as good as he had been for the Chiefs, but posted a respectable .292-5-88 season in his first season in Quebec. They also had the league's top winner in pitcher Charlie Firestone who went 31-13 with a 2.43 ERA and a league-best 312 strikeouts (he tied with Chicago's Guarneri).
Brooklyn dropped to fourth largely due to an offensive lag that saw them end up fourth in runs scored. The pitching was very good - the team acquired ace George Burger from Washington and he went 24-13 with a league-leading 2.06 ERA and won his 200th game on September 3rd. Toronto's Charlie Sis got his groove back and went 29-14, 2.10 as the lone bright spot for the fifth-place Wolves. New York was attempting to rebuild without a complete teardown as the crosstown Gothams' success had them looking to cut costs, trading Bill Craigen to the Keystones cutting ties with the last piece of their 1906 champions, and finishing sixth at 75-76. Philadelphia was still looking to get out of the basement as was Cleveland, both caught in a cycle of poor personnel decisions.
The World Series between the Baltimore Clippers and Washington Eagles was expected to go to the Clippers - they had the game's best hitter and probably it's best pitcher too. But even though Powell Slocum out-hit everyone to the tune of a .474 average, the Clips dropped the series in five games, winning only game two thanks to great pitching by Bill West and Al Bachman and good hitting by Harry Rowell who topped Washington with a .421 average, the series' lone homer and six RBIs. This was Washington's third trip to the Championship Series - and the first time they'd won it.
Unsurprisingly Powell Slocum won the Whitney Award as MVP of the Continental Association for a season that included a .435 average, 25 doubles, 28 triples, 90 RBIs and 110 runs scored. The Federal award went to Jim Golden of the Dynamos - the first pitcher to win the award (and first guy not named Ed Ziehl to win the award in the Federal Association). Golden's 31-13 record with a 2.50 ERA saw him throw 396.2 innings and hold opponents to a .228 average.
Federal Association
Code:
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Washington Eagles 88 66 .571 - 677 608
Boston Minutemen 84 66 .560 2 707 622
New York Gothams 85 68 .556 2½ 693 593
Detroit Dynamos 82 70 .539 5 603 557
Pittsburgh Miners 72 81 .471 15½ 608 593
Chicago Chiefs 70 82 .461 17 539 583
St. Louis Pioneers 65 88 .425 22½ 586 681
Philadelphia Keystones 63 88 .417 23½ 539 715
Continental Association
Code:
Team W L WPct GB R RA
Baltimore Clippers 88 63 .583 - 645 527
Chicago Cougars 85 68 .556 4 638 550
Montreal Saints 83 69 .546 5½ 654 629
Brooklyn Kings 80 69 .537 7 629 577
Toronto Wolves 75 75 .500 12½ 615 573
New York Stars 75 76 .497 13 603 618
Philadelphia Sailors 64 85 .430 23 521 644
Cleveland Foresters 54 99 .353 35 567 754