The Federal League: An Alternate History

[ArquimedezPozo]

This will be a recounting of the history of Major League Baseball from 1915 on, supposing that the Federal League survives the end of that year and successfully establishes itself as a third Major League. While the original Federal League sought to challenge the AL and NL by placing its teams in many of the same markets - Brooklyn, Chicago, St. Louis, and others, in this universe it went a different route, mostly trying to open new markets to Major League baseball. Aside from new teams in Chicago (the Whales) and the New York area (the Newark Peppers), this Federal League sought new frontiers... and it worked.

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The real history of the Federal League begins in the 1914 offseason. The league has settled into the alignment that it will keep for the next two decades:

Baltimore Terrapins
Buffalo Blues
Chicago Whales
Indianapolis Hoosiers
Louisville Colonels
Kansas City Packers
Milwaukee Brewers
Newark Peppers

The Indianapolis Hoosiers have just won their second straight Federal League championship, winning 88 games and finishing a game and a half ahead of the Chicago Whales. Louisville has finished in last, with a 62-89 record.

The hitting star of the year is OF/1B Steve Evans, who bats .348 and leads the league in Slugging, with 15 triples and 12 homers. On the pitching side, no one can top Canadian Russ Ford, whose 21-6 record was an FL-best .778 winning percentage; Ford also leads in walks and WHIP, with an outstanding 0.934 mark.

The League has also begun a concerted effort to woo established Major Leaguers in order to build up its cachet and draw fans to the league, and they meet with limited success: star pitchers Eddie Plank and Charles Bender, fresh off an AL championship and World Series defeat with the Philadelphia Athletics, both sign with FL teams - the Louisville Colonels and Baltimore Terrapins, respectively. But the big prize comes later in the offseason, when news breaks that Whales owner Charles Weeghman has inked Walter Johnson to a record-shattering three year, $52,500 deal with a $6,000 bonus.

Johnson's defection to the Federal League is national news, and it hits with seismic force. But the attempts by the AL and NL to stop the Federal League on legal grounds wither on the vine, with Judge Landis asking the two sides to negotiate; however, as the Federal League is largely staying out of existing markets (Chicago here being a glaring exception), there are no grounds for any real challenge.

And so the 1915 Federal League gets ready for play, with all eyes on the new talent - three future Hall of Fame pitchers suiting up, with new contracts, new uniforms, and a new future ahead of them.

[ArquimedezPozo]

The 1915 season opens with all eyes on Chicago's North Side, as the Whales welcome a familiar face to the three-year-old Weeghman Park: Walter Johnson. Johnson leaves the Senators after eight seasons during which he established himself as the undisputed best pitcher in baseball. His defection to the Federals leaves the established leagues uncertain as star players and role players alike see the chance at real money for the first time after struggling under the reserve clause.

On the Whales, Johnson joins aging veteran Mordecai "Three Finger" Brown, who has signed on with the Whales, spiting his old crosstown club the Cubs. Eddie Plank and Charles Bender have also fled, leaving the AL Champion Athletics and Connie Mack behind to sign with the Louisville Colonels and Baltimore Terrapins, respectively. Others who have hoped to strike it big, like pitchers Lefty Williams and Jim Bagby, 2B Lee Magee, C Art Wilson, are hopeful that the Federal League will provide real money and a path to a long career.

Things could have been even more promising for the Federals. At nearly the same moment as Johnson signed his contract with Chicago, star pitcher Rube Marquard of the New York Giants inked one with the Newark Peppers, across the Hudson River. While Clark Griffiths of the Senators failed in his efforts to reclaim Johnson, however, the Giants were able to retain Marquard for the two years he had left on his Polo Grounds contract. But despite that setback, the future appears bright for the new league.

Even with the newfound strength of 1914 runner-up Chicago, Federal League prognosticators are still eyeing Indianapolis to claim their third straight title behind the efforts of star RF Edd Roush and SP Cy Falkenberg. With the Peppers and Whales nipping at their heels, however, and a new league coming up behind them, who knows what surprises 1915 will bring?

[ArquimedezPozo]

The 1915 Season saw two great pennant races which came down to the wire.

Major League Baseball
The National League wasn't one of those great races, as the Phillies led most of the way over the second place Giants. Grover Cleveland Alexander's club won 94 games on their way to the franchise's first NL title. Alexander himself was sterling as usual, starting 39 games and putting up a 2.30 ERA while leading the NL in K/BB at 3.1 and Pitching WAR at 9.5. Philly SS Dave Bancroft was the top performer among position players, with 9.3 WAR between his bat and glove, while Cardinal Rogers Hornsby and Red Heinie Groh put up strong numbers. Chicago's Cubs wound up last, overshadowed during the season by the new North Side Whales and Walter Johnson. They won just 58 games.

In the American League, the powerhouse Red Sox underperformed all summer. Tris Speaker put up an all-time great season, posting 10.4 WAR while hitting .335/.436/.464 with an OPS 72% better than average, and Red Sox pitchers prevented fewer runs than any other team in the AL through the combined efforts of the game's best rotation - Smoky Joe Wood, Rube Foster, Dutch Leonard, and a 20 year old Babe Ruth (who also proved himself fairly adept with the bat, putting up a 130 OPS+ in limited opportunities). Despite that, the team won just 92 games, barely edging out the surging Chicago White Sox and their new addition, 2B Eddie Collins. In the AL it was the Highlanders who finished last, a full 31 games back of Boston.

The 1915 World Series
Exciting pennant races don't always lead to an exciting World Series, but they did this year, as the contest went the full seven.

Boston took Game 1 on the strength of Dutch Leonard's pitching - the youngster pitched a complete game, striking out six while scattering nine hits, and allowing two runs. Lots of days, two runs would be all Grover Cleveland Alexander would need, but that wasn't the case in Game 1, as Boston jumped on the Philly ace for four in the first inning, punctuated by a two run double from 3B Larry Gardner. Alexander settled down from there, allowing just a single run over the last seven frames, but the damage was done, and Boston took Game 1 5-2.

Philly came back in Game 2, however, paying Boston back by putting up two against Smoky Joe Wood in the first on a Dave Bancroft triple. Boston tied it up in the bottom of the sixth, led again by Speaker, but Philly put up two more in the next half inning, and Philly tied up the series with a 4-2 victory.

The action shifted to Philadelphia's Baker Bowl for Games 3-5, and though the Red Sox won Game 3 behind a great effort from rookie Carl Mays (who also homered), Philly won the next two. Alexander returned to form in Game 4, spinning a masterful four-hitter as the Phillies piled on Dutch Leonard to win 9-1, and in Game 5 Philly won 5-2, with much of the offense coming from 1B Frank Luderus, who was 3-4 with two doubles in the game.

The Red Sox tied it up back at Fenway, however, as Red Sox bats put up 7 runs against Philly to win 7-4. That put the ball back into the hands of Alexander, who wasn't dominant, but who was good enough to hold Boston to three while Philly put up 6 to win the first World Series in franchise history. 1B Frank Luderus, who went .393, with a home run, four doubles, and five RBI.

The Federal League
The Philadelphia Athletics managed a surprising third place AL finish despite the loss of three top talents to the Federal League. With Connie Mack trying to keep costs down, both Eddie Plank and Charles Bender had already left for the upstart Feds, but a bigger blow came at the end of April: Frank 'Home Run' Baker, who had refused to sign a contract he felt was too little before the season, finally gave up on Philly after being offered $10,000 a year by the Blues of Buffalo. Baker was an undeniable star in the Federal League, knocking 8 homers and posting a 5.7 WAR despite missing a full month of the season. His Blues, however, finished just fifth, at 74-80.

At the top of the standings, the Newark Peppers led almost the whole way, but were never comfortable. Walter Johnson's Whales nipped at their heels until September, coming as close as a game out of first in late July. But a late season fade saw them drop to four games back, and in third place after the Peppers and the Indianapolis Hoosiers, who nearly reclaimed their place at the top of the standings with a 17-2 run in the season's last three weeks which brought them within a game of the Pappers, leading up to the final two games of the season. The club lost both contests, though, as Newark split their final two to win the League by two games. The Hoosiers were led by CF Edd Roush, who was arguably the league's leading position player, leading the league with 193 hits and a 7.4 WAR while coming in third with an .852 OPS behind Milwaukee's Jack Calvo and Newark's Benny Kauff.

Kauff was stellar for the champs, leading the league with 11 HR, 95 walks, and a .410 OBP, while finishing second to Calvo in Slugging. Newark was second only to Indianapolis in Runs Scored behind Kauff, but middle of the pack in run prevention - in fact, they had a run differential lower than Indianapolis's, whose expected 88-66 record would have outpaced Newark... but those aren't the records that count, in the end.

And what of Johnson? The most controversial figure of the season was stunningly good for Chicago's Whales. How good? A 13.1 WAR, with 30 complete games while leading the league in WHIP, strikeouts, K/9, BB/9, and FIP, while finishing third in ERA (albeit to two Indianapolis pitchers, Frank Moran and Ed Reulbach, who each threw far fewer innings).

While the Federal League lacked an end of year series - a fault they would change in the next couple seasons - they triumphed nevertheless: each team in the league turned a profit, albeit a smaller one than their AL and NL counterparts.

The Federal League wouldn't fold in 1915. Not this time.

Awards
AL Pitcher of the Year: Dutch Leonard, Boston Red Sox - won the award unanimously over Chicago's Eddie Cicotte and his own teammate Smoky Joe Wood by putting up a 24-7 record with an AL-best 1.86 ERA.
NL Pitcher of the Year: Rube Marquard, New York Giants - the pitcher who nearly defected to the Federal League before the season came home with the hardware, going 28-11 with a 1.88 ERA while leading the NL with a 1.01 WHIP.
FL Pitcher of the Year: Walter Johnson, Chicago Whales - see above.

AL MVP: Tris Speaker, Boston Red Sox - won the award unanimously, hitting .335/.436/.465 with a 10.4 WAR. That great season would lead to an all-time snub, and a fateful decision for 1916...
NL MVP: Dave Bancroft, Philadelphia Phillies - won the award over Heinie Groh and Rube Marquard for his excellent defense and strong hitting for the NL champion Phillies. Bancroft also won the NL Rookie of the Year and the Gold Glove at short.
FL MVP: Benny Kauff, Newark Peppers - the CF's offensive and defensive production may have made the difference for the overperforming Peppers.

Historical Notes: In the real timeline, Home Run Baker sat out the entire 1915 season rather than sign a substandard contract with Commie Mack's Athletics. He signed on with New York the following season. The World Series matchup was the same, Red Sox vs. Phillies, but the result was different: the Red Sox were a juggernaut in 1915, winning 102 games and beating Philly four games to one, causing Philly to wait another 66 years for their first championship. They did that, somehow, despite not playing either Smoky Joe Wood or Babe Ruth in the series at all.

[ArquimedezPozo]

The success of the Federal League in 1915 turned heads around baseball. They drew fans - around 240,000 on average, far short of the AL and NL but still respectable. Walter Johnson's Whales drew 390,000 to Weeghman in 1915, more than 50% higher than the last place Cubs, and even the lowest attendance FL team, Milwaukee's Brewers, outdrew the three lowest attendance AL clubs, the Athletics, Browns, and Senators. It escaped no one's notice that two of those clubs lost premium talent to the Federals before 1915.

And that exodus continued. While the Federal League continued to mostly pull from minor and independent leagues, additional stars came over in the 1915-1916 offseason.

The first of these was the irascible but endlessly popular Napoleon 'Nap' Lajoie, who at 41 had just been forced into retirement by the miserly Connie Mack. Lajoie's heart was still in the game, though, and when the last place Kansas City Packers of the Federal League came knocking, Lajoie gave them a shot.

Catcher Roger Bresnahan had been released by the Cubs toward the end of 1915, despite serving as manager in addition to his playing duties. The Whales saw a chance and signed him early in the offseason, not missing a chance to try to cut further into the Cubs' fanbase.

But Lajoie and Bresnahan were at the end of their careers, looking for a final shot. The Federals had signed such players before. It was when the Red Sox tried to sell Tris Speaker - winner of the 1915 AL MVP and one of the best to ever play the game, a level contract after he nearly took them to the championship that everything changed.

The Baltimore Terrapins had finished 71-83 in 1915, 17 games out of first. But Baltimore was a great baseball town, and the largest in the country without a Major League franchise until the Federal League came along, and they were willing to bank on the league's continued success. They heard rumblings from Boston early, and swooped in before Speaker's contract dispute was public knowledge. By the New Year, they'd gotten his signature on the largest contract yet signed by any ballplayer: five years, $75,000. The move not only took another of the AL's brightest stars, it sent a message: the Federal League wasn't going away any time soon.

So 1916 dawned with the established leagues facing their greatest crisis in a dozen years. As reserve clause conflicts resulted, more and more, in major losses, a few owners began to whisper that perhaps, to save their leagues, they would have to give the players more power...

Historical Note: in reality, Tris Speaker had a good but not great 1915, and the Red Sox tried to get him to agree to a pay cut. When Speaker refused, he was traded to Cleveland. Speaker's performance in game during 1915 made that storyline impossible, so a few changes were made here. The Nap Lajoie and Roger Bresnahan stories are true up until the Federal League got involved. Real 1915 attendance figures were used above for the AL and NL.

[Pelican]

Following your sim with great interest. I am plodding along in 1914, playing out games, but with the goal of navigating survival for the FL, through a few key signings with basis in history (players who negotiated or even signed FL contracts, before pulling back) and not (Babe Ruth crossing the street from the minor league Orioles to play for the Terrapins). My goal is for the FL to survive, and eventually for the Pacific Coast League to become a fourth major league (meaning that, eventually, Ted Williams and the DiMaggios will stay on the coast!).

I like your approach of moving some FL franchises to avoid direct conflict with MLB teams (St. Louis) and embracing cities like Baltimore and Buffalo and KC, with a rich baseball history.

I also plan to eliminate the color bar, so that Negro League players, when available in OOTP, will be able to play in the FL and MLB and the PCL. Should be cool.

[ArquimedezPozo]

I got a bit waylaid on this but plan on returning to it, and had envisioned a pretty similar history as you have! In mine it's the Feds who, after being early expanders into Canada, use the Depression as an opportunity to break the color barrier, leading to the PCL and NL following suit rapidly, while the AL becomes the holdout (as it was, really, in our world). The AL basically shifts to becoming a Southern league, and following the PCL model leads to a regional league arrangement for MLB.

Originally Posted by Pelican

Following your sim with great interest. I am plodding along in 1914, playing out games, but with the goal of navigating survival for the FL, through a few key signings with basis in history (players who negotiated or even signed FL contracts, before pulling back) and not (Babe Ruth crossing the street from the minor league Orioles to play for the Terrapins). My goal is for the FL to survive, and eventually for the Pacific Coast League to become a fourth major league (meaning that, eventually, Ted Williams and the DiMaggios will stay on the coast!).

I like your approach of moving some FL franchises to avoid direct conflict with MLB teams (St. Louis) and embracing cities like Baltimore and Buffalo and KC, with a rich baseball history.

I also plan to eliminate the color bar, so that Negro League players, when available in OOTP, will be able to play in the FL and MLB and the PCL. Should be cool.

[ArquimedezPozo]

The 1916 baseball season featured fireworks... on and off the field.

The Federal League
The Federal League race was close wire to wire. How close? On May 31, two months into the season, Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Walter Johnson's Chicago Whales were tied atop the standings at 25-23 apiece, while another three teams - the Milwaukee Brewers, Frank Baker's Buffalo Blues, and Tris Speaker's Baltimore Terrapins, were a game back at 24-24. The defending champion Peppers of Newark were in last place... just three games back.

By the end of June, things had separated a bit. Tris Speaker was living up to expectations (.351/.472/.453 on June 30) but the rest of his team continued to underperform, and a 9-18 month put them in last, 8 games back. At the top of the standings, Indianapolis ruled the roost at 41-34, but Chicago, Buffalo, and Milwaukee were all within three. But in July, the Whales took over, led by the Big Train - Johnson went 4-1 with four saves, pitching in 12 games (six of them starts). He pitched 58 innings and allowed just 8 runs, a 1,24 ERA. That made him 14-2 on the season, while the Whales ended the month at 57-44, four games up on Milwaukee.

The Brewers closed the gap in August though, pulling even with the Whales by August 9 and a game ahead on the 10th. That would prove to be their high water mark, though, as they went just 8-11 to close out August, dropping three games back of the Whales. Chicago expanded their lead, and eventually clinched, with a 14-10 September. Milwaukee dropped further, finishing in a tie with Indianapolis for second, six games back. The defending champion Peppers had an atrocious September, going 9-15 to fall to a last place tie... with Tris Speaker's Terrapins, at 71-83 despite an incredible season from their CF. Speaker hit .360/.486/.476, leading the league in average, OBP, OPS, and Runs Created, and set a Federal League record with 12 WAR.

The National League
The NL was a tale of two halves. At the start of the day on July 20, the race looked like a clear contest between Midwest rivals, with the Chicago Cubs and St. Louis Cardinals tied at 48-42, while the reigning champion Phillies sat a game and a half back. The bottom part of the league was rounded out by three teams who each sat 5 back in the standings: The Pittsburgh Pirates, the disappointing Brooklyn Robins, and the Boston Braves.

But on the 20th, Boston beat St. Louis 5-2. Then the next day, they beat them again, 4-1. Then 8-0. Then 3-2. Two days later they went 3-1 in a four game set against Chicago. Then they hosted the Cardinals again, and swept them again in a four game set. All of a sudden, on August 2, the Braves were in first place at 53-47, having dropped the Cubs to third and the Cardinals all the way to fifth with a losing record. Neither would be factors the rest of the way.

The Phillies, however, would be. While Boston was surging and Chicago and St. Louis were fading, Philly kept on keeping on, going 8-5 over the same span to keep pace. On August 2, they were just a game behind the first place Braves. They went 16-9 in August, while the Braves cooled off at 14-12 in the month. At the start of play on September 1, Philadelphia looked like they were set for a second straight NL pennant.

Then, the Braves forgot how to lose.

Boston went 20-6 in September, including a 12 game win streak to open the month (including a three game sweep of the Athletics). Philly played only a bit better than .500 ball over the same stretch, and on October 1 - with just four games to go - Philadelphia was a game from elimination.

As fate would have it, those four games were in Philly... against the Braves.

With no room for error, Philly went to work. The first game was a nailbiter, going into the tenth tied 4-4 before RF Gavvy Cravath hit a walk-off home run (his 13th of the season, tied for the league lead). Now two games back, Philly rode starters Eppa Rixley (complete game game 2 win) and Grover Alexander, who was masterful in a 3-0 win, with a complete game shutout striking out 7, allowing 4 hits, and walking none. The Phillies were now tied with the Braves, with one single game to decide the pennant.

They lost.

Boston came out swinging, driving rookie starter Burleigh Grimes from the game in the 5th with three runs that made it 7-1. The A's came back with one in the bottom of the inning, but Win Noyes held them scoreless to cap off a brilliant 17 win season. The Braves had done it, coming back from a last place tie to take the club's second pennant in three years, and the second in their history... and they weren't done yet.

The American League
For most of the season, the AL race looked like a laugher, as the Chicago White Sox, fresh off their narrow second-place 1915, retooled and took the junior circuit - if it could still be called that - by storm. As late as August 6, the White Sox held a commanding 11 game lead over Boston's Red Sox, despite the latter's excellent .612 winning percentage. On August 7, though, Boston beat Chicago 3-1 behind the outstanding pitching of Carl Mays and the hitting of 2B Bruno Betzel (traded to Boston by the Browns in the offseason). The Red Sox went on to win the first three games of that four game set, sparking a surge that saw them go 19-6 before dropping two straight to Philly in early September. Over the same stretch, Chicago went just 12-13, and their lead fell to just 3 games by the end of the day on September 10.

That's where the slide ended. After a bitter loss to the last place Browns, 3B Buck Weaver ripped into his teammates for their sloppy play, and something changed. Over the next 15 games, without a single day off, Chicago went 12-3. The streak that included a decisive three game sweep over Boston that all but guaranteed Chicago the pennant. When play finished on October 6, the White Sox had won 104 games to Boston's 96, and went into the World Series the clear favorites against another Boston team, the Braves.

That series would have long-lasting consequences for all of baseball, but it wasn't the only thing in Boston that would.

After Tris Speaker's stunning Federal League defection in the offseason, Boston dropped a lawsuit for breach of contract - not against Speaker, but against the Baltimore Terrapins, who had signed him. The ruling would come down in the offseason, and all of baseball watched and waited: the reserve clause would have its day in court, finally.

The 1916 World Series
The most consequential World Series in the history of the game began on Sunday, October 8, at Boston's Braves Field. The White Sox were of course heavily favored: with 104 wins - the most since the 1912 Red Sox, who had won the World Series that season - they appeared to stand head and shoulders above the Braves, one of the weakest pennant winners in history at 86-68. Led by outstanding pitching (Eddie Cicotte finished second in the AL with a 2.05 ERA, and none of their other two top starters had an ERA above 2.5) and a dynamic offense that led the league in virtually every offensive category led by 1B Joe Fournier, 2B Eddie Collins, and LF Happy Felsch, who at .327/.377/.423 was second only to George Sisler in BA and OPS.

The Braves were good, and capable of stretches of greatness, though, as evidenced by their incredible September run. Boston was a balanced team - third in the NL in Runs Scored, second in Runs Allowed. Still, few of their individual players stood above the rest. Their young shortstop, Rabbit Maranville, hit .285 to lead the team, and no Boston player appeared in the top three in any major offensive category. Bob Steele came in second in the ERA race at 1.97, and their pitching was uniformly excellent, but so was that of their AL counterparts. They were hot coming in, and fresh off a season-winning final game in Philadelphia, though. The crowd that greeted them in Boston was electric.

The first game of the series was a taut pitchers duel, with 18 game winner Dick Rudolph getting the ball in game 1 and delivering 8 innings of shutout ball. He was matched almost pitch for pitch by Chicago's Reb Russell, and going into the 9th neither team had scored. But in the top of the inning, Boston 3B Red Smith made a critical error, leading to a three run frame that would put Chicago in the driver's seat, as Russell shut Boston down in the bottom of the ninth to win Game 1.

But Boston came roaring back, as they'd done all year. Frank Gilhooley and Sherry Magee led the offense against Chicago starter Joe Benz, while the youngster Art Nehf held Chicago to two runs over nine. Boston took Game 2 4-2, and the teams headed west to Chicago for the middle three.

Game 3 was one for the ages - a 17 inning affair in which a 2-2 tie was broken in the 8th by Boston (a Johnny Evers two run single) only to have Chicago tie it back up on a Happy Felsch double that made it 4-4. Boston scored again in the 12th when Bill Hinchman knocked in Red Shannon, but again Chicago tied it when pinch hitter Walton Cruise scored Ray Schalk on a single. The 5-5 tie lasted another five innings until Boston broke through with three to win the game against Jim Scott. Boston took a 2-1 series lead.

Chicago answered with a 3-0 victory behind Russell in Game 4 to tie things up, but that's when things started to go south for Chicago. An 11 inning game ended on a disastrous miscue by SS Ivy Olson on what should have been an easy inning-ender, but which instead allowed the go-ahead run to cross the plate in the 11th. After the game, Olson seemed shaken, and one reporter wrote that the SS seemed shaken - understandable given events, but a line that took on a life of its own later.

Back in Boston for Game 5, another error - this one by Felsch, who was having a poor series at the plate and in the field - gave Boston a three run fourth to make the game 3-2. Though Chicago had chances in the coming innings, they failed in each one, and didn't score again, and the game and series ended there. The Boston Braves, who had won 28 fewer games than the White Sox, were champions. In their four combined losses, the White Sox had committed 8 errors to the Braves 3, and stars like Happy Felsch (who hit .174 for the series) had been silent.

It didn't seem earth-moving in the last days of October in 1916, but the Braves win, and the White Sox defeat, would help to redefine the game in the coming months.

Awards
AL Pitcher of the Year: Dutch Leonard, Boston Red Sox - repeating, with a 26-12 record and a 2.00 ERA to take the award unanimously. Teammate Babe Ruth came in second here, but would take home other hardware.
NL Pitcher of the Year: Grover Cleveland Alexander, 21-18 with a 2.00 ERA and 171 strikeouts, also unanimously.
FL Pitcher of the Year: Walter Johnson, Chicago Whales - repeating, with a 25-17 record, a 1.86 ERA, and 199 strikeouts.

AL MVP: Babe Ruth, Boston Red Sox - the original two-way player was stellar on the mound, going 23-12 with a 2.65 ERA in over 300 innings, but it was his eye-opening offensive performance that won him this award, as he hit .302/.374/.512 and led the AL with 7 homers... despite only getting 189 at bats.
NL MVP: Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals - at age 20, his season has already made him a massive star, leading the NL in every slash category at .316/.387/.468 with 11 home runs, a league-leading 256 total bases, and a 9.2 WAR, tied with the AL's Amos Leonard for the best mark in the AL/NL.
FL MVP: Tris Speaker, Baltimore Terrapins - a .360/.486/.476 line with 12 WAR is far and away the best performance in Federal League history.

Historical Notes: finally coming back to this after some time away!

A few ways in which art is imitating life here: the decision to have the Red Sox sue the Terrapins is to parallel the actual Federal League, which folded in 1915 with payoffs or handouts to team owners which left out the Baltimore Terrapins. Baltimore's owners sued the National League, challenging anti-trust. The suit goes in the other direction here due to Speaker, and will have different results.

The other big development here is the brewing scandal over the 1916 World Series. Obviously in real life the 1919 White Sox lost to the Reds and, it was later discovered, had several players who were in league with gamblers over the series. I hadn't really intended to follow that storyline at all, but when the 104 win White Sox lost to a clearly inferior Braves team in a series where some major figures in the actual 1919 scandal also underperformed, it was too good an opportunity to pass up. It will take some other turns here, though.

[ArquimedezPozo]

The game would change, fundamentally and irreparably, over the winter of 1916 and 1917. The change would come from two unrelated events in two different federal courtrooms - events that only related to one another in their timing and their combined effect on the game.

Red Sox v. Terrapins

The first began weeks before the World Series even began, as a federal judge heard arguments in Boston Red Sox v. Baltimore Terrapins. American League President Ban Johnson had nearly had a fit when he heard that owner George Lannin had filed suit over the Terrapins signing of Tris Speaker, their star player; Johnson knew this case could strike at the heart of baseball's reserve clause, which in his view had kept the labor peace - and the peace between AL and NL - for over a decade. But Lannin had done it, furious over the loss of Speaker, and there was no taking it back.

The arguments in the case did not go well for Boston, and the judge seemed sympathetic to both the labor argument and the position of the Terrapins: that the reserve clause was an unfair advantage and represented an effective anti-trust violation. Though Boston's beleaguered lawyers did their best, the ruling was decisive: the Terrapins were acquitted, and Speaker could stay. But worse, the thing Johnson had feared came to pass: the ruling struck down the reserve clause as illegal under the Sherman anti-trust act, and ordered that players, once they reach the end of their current contracts, must be allowed to sign at will under free agency. The ruling, he said, would take effect at the close of the 1917 baseball season, giving clubs a year to prepare themselves.

The ruling came down on October 20, and set off a flurry of activity. In Boston, Lannin had already been exploring selling the Red Sox, and within a week of the decision had a deal in place with New York-based theater producer Harry Frazee. Teams began to assess their budgets and players, and several star players signed new deals quickly, including Ty Cobb in Detroit (who signed for a record $25,000 annually for five seasons), Zack Wheat in Brooklyn, and the Boston Braves' young shortstop Rabbit Maranville. Others, however, didn't, either because the team refused to play along or because they wanted to see what free agency would be like. These included Philadelphia's Grover Alexander (Connie Mack still insisted he needed to cut payroll), Cleveland's "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, and the Boston pitcher/outfielder Babe Ruth.

Only two weeks after that ruling, as owners began to discuss an appeal of the decision to the Supreme Court, the results from another courtroom had further repurcussions for baseball.

The "Chicago Three"

It had begun with saloon whispers in Chicago, then New York, and then bled into the halls of power in Washington DC: a powerful suspicion that the World Series hadn't been on the up and up. Gambling had been a presence in baseball for some time, and not just in the majors - there were whispers out in Salt Lake City that gamblers were in league with players in the city's PCL team, for example. But nothing had been proven, perhaps because few wanted it to be. But now, as newspapers began hinting that something must have been awry - how else, after all, could you explain a loss as lopsided as Boston over Chicago, and one as defined by sloppy play and miscues? - the pressure built. Rumor upon rumor implicated players in a variety of proposed schemes, often including figures from Chicago and New York's underworld. A Federal Grand Jury was convened to issue subpoenas and hear from players. The testimony lasted into late November; Eddie Cicotte, Happy Felsch, Shano Collins, owner Charlie Comiskey, and others were called to testify.

The results didn't meet the level of public interest, as the Grand Jury disbanded in early November without a single indictment. The players pled with the media that the series was on the up and up - it just hadn't gone their way. Collins in particular was vocal in his denials, but they fell on mostly deaf ears. The story had built so much in the national attention that guilt had already been assigned in the court of public opinion.

Much of that public pressure fell to Comiskey, who in December cut ties with Cicotte, Felsch, and Shano Collins - "The Chicago Three," as they'd come to be called. They all found places elsewhere - Happy Felsch went home to Milwaukee Brewers and signed with the Federal League Brewers (for a significantly reduced salary) while Cicotte landed with the Indianapolis Hoosiers. Collins tried to stick it out in the Majors, and tried hard to sign on with his hometown Boston Red Sox, but they wouldn't have him. In the end, Collins, too, took a roster spot in the Federal League, signing on with the perennial loser Louisville Colonels. Felsch also retained a lawyer - Milwaukee's Ray Cannon, a semi-pro ballplayer himself. Cicotte and Collins signed on with Cannon too, in a move that would itself spring longer-term effects.

Though no crimes had been uncovered, the scandal had damaged the reputation of all of baseball. AL/NL ownership had intended to appeal the anti-trust decision, but several owners balked: a sentiment that they might lose the public forever if they fought to hold onto the reserve clause while the game was under such a massive cloud of controversy. They held off, and the ruling stood.

So baseball went into 1917 in the last year of an old era, awaiting - with excitement for some and fear for others - the dawn of a new one.

Historical Note: Obviously this is where we enter really different terrain. First, a disclaimer: I'm far from a legal scholar, and have no idea if what I wrote up there is remotely plausible. It serves the story, so I'll keep it.

There was a federal anti-trust case against baseball that came out of the Baltimore Terrapins, but it was reversed: instead of an AL team suing Baltimore, Baltimore sued the NL as a whole, because the Federal League had failed due to meddling, payoffs, and back-room deals that gave several Federal League owners a stake in (or complete control in) existing AL/NL clubs, but Baltimore's ownership had been left out. They sued, alleging that the NL was engaged in an illegal trust to destroy competition. That case eventually went to the Supreme Court, who ruled in baseball's favor, unanimously.

The other piece of this is the Black Sox scandal, which I hadn't intended on doing really, but the opportunity was too obvious to pass up. I used that to explain why owners didn't appeal the anti-trust ruling, and if you don't think about it too hard, it mostly works. So don't think about it too hard.

[ArquimedezPozo]

NOTE: My original plan here was to integrate in the early 1930s, but I realized the way I'd set things up meant that the Federal League teams started signing Black ballplayers already. So, in this alternate universe, the Federal Leagues integrate in the 1910s (despite that being essentially impossible given the horrific nature of American racial politics in that decade).

[ArquimedezPozo]

Reverberations from the offseason were felt throughout 1917, in both the Federal League and in MLB.

The Federal League
Unlike in the last two seasons, there was no drama in the Federal League in 1917: the Milwaukee Brewers roared out of the gate with an 18-3 April, and but for a brief moment in late May, never lost their lead. The team ranked first in the Feds in both Runs Scored and Runs Allowed. The team's pitchers were especially dominant, with Bunny Hearn emerging as an ace: the 26 year old hurler went 25-10 with a 1.75 ERA, taking the ERA crown over Walter Johnson (who clocked in at 1.84). John Shackleford, the 32 year old veteran, was 17-17 with a 1.95 ERA, while Lefty Williams, who had pitched a couple years with Detroit before signing on in Milwaukee in 1915, held things down in the bullpen.

Despite the new presence of now-maligned big league star Happy Felsch, the biggest bat in Milwaukee's lineup for most of the season was OF Austin McHenry, at 22 years old the second youngest regular in Milwaukee's lineup (3B Mike Menosky was the youngest). McHenry hit .330/.382/.450 in 102 games, before tearing a ligament in his ankle, which ended his season. But Menosky and Felsch were more than able to keep the bats hot, putting up 7.8 and 5.8 WAR respectively to lead Milwaukee's potent offense.

The Baltimore Terrapins were Milwaukee's biggest competitors on the season, staying in second place most of the way and even eclipsing the Brewers in May, alongside Newark. Newark faded in the back half, though, while Baltimore stayed hot, keeping within 5 games of Milwaukee until mid-September, when the Brewers took 2 of 3 from then in Baltimore. The Brewers went 8-4 to close out the season, while Baltimore hit the skids, positing an exact opposite 4-8 record and ending 11 games back. This was despite another sterling season from star CF Tris Speaker, who hit .353/.463/.486 with an 11.3 WAR and 39 doubles, all FL bests.

Chicago finished barely above .500, however, despite a Walter Johnson season that eclipsed his 1916. Johnson put up a 1.84 ERA identical to his 1916 mark, but in more innings and with an increase to 235 Ks, best in the FL. His 10.9 WAR led the way for pitchers as well, along with his 5.5 K/9.

Maybe the most impressive mark of the year, though, belonged to rookie 1B Edgar Wesley, whose 30 triples shattered the previous record of 21, by Chicago's Les Mann in 1915. The 22 year old Wesley was an easy selection for FL Rookie of the Year, at .285/.382/.444.

The relative lack of season-ending drama in the Federal League also increased calls for some kind of championship series to match that of the World Series; though owners couldn't agree in time during the season, it was clearly to become a priority for 1918.

The American League
It was a tale of two halves in the American League. The first half had belonged to the Detroit Tigers, who held a 32-17 record on June 1, two games up on the A's and 4 above the Boston Red Sox. They were led as always by Ty Cobb, who hit .347/.422/.485 in May. But Cobb hit a rough patch in July, hitting just .250, and as he went so too did Detroit: at the end of the month the Tigers had dropped to 51-52, in 4th place and 14 games back of the league leading Red Sox.

The Red Sox had taken over in June and really never looked back - they lost just a single game in the back half of June to solidify a lead and though they had some rough patches in July and August the second place A's weren't able to capitalize. Then came September, which saw the Red Sox win 18 of 25 including a season-ending 14-1 run against the Yankees, Tigers, White Sox, Indians, Browns, and Senators to lock up the pennant.

1917 was the season of Babe Ruth in the American League: no player had a greater impact than the Red Sox pitcher/slugger, who dominated on both sides of the ball. The 22 year old Ruth led the AL with 23 wins, putting up a 2.39 ERA in 36 starts - 5.1 WAR as a pitcher, to go along with his 7.2 WAR as a hitter. It was on offense that Ruth really dominated, leading the AL and NL combined with 15 home runs and 93 RBI, while batting .306, and posting a .429 OBP and .520 SLG, second in both cases only to NL breakout star Rogers Hornsby. Ruth was the biggest factor leading the Boston Red Sox to an AL title in 1917, as they won 98 games to finish 5 ahead of Connie Mack's A's.

Boston's Ray Collins took the ERA crown for the AL as well, while Dutch Leonard pitched well in limited duty, missing much of the middle of the season to an elbow injury.

The best position player of the season, though, was Philadelphia's Amos Strunk, who on the batting title while putting up an 8.3 WAR, besting Ruth and Cobb. Among pitchers, Reb Russell won 22 with a league-best 7.6 WAR for the surprisingly solid Chicago White Sox, who despite the scandal that had cost them three of their best still managed to finish with a winning record at 80-74.

The bottom of the league belonged to the New York Yankees, whose 58-96 record brought them back to the AL basement after a 1916 of near respectability.

The National League
As their crosstown cousins the Red Sox ripped through the AL, the defending champion Braves were stuck in the mud. On the last day of June, the Braves were just 32-39, in seventh place, with only the lowly Cubs keeping them from the basement. Though the pitching had been strong, with Art Nehf once again leading the way, the bats were anemic; to add to injury the team had lost more than their share of tight ballgames, especially in June (10 losses in one run games, including five extra inning disappointments).

Meanwhile, the state of Pennsylvania saw a see-saw battle for first in the NL, as the Pirates and Phillies traded pole position through April, May, and June. The Pirates, led by young CF Max Carey and a solid if unspectacular pitching staff, had won 44 times by the start of July, with a three game lead over the Phillies. The Philadelphia squad was gifted defensively, and scored the second most runs in the NL despite only C Joe Cobb and veteran RF Gavvy Cravath putting up RC+ over 120. The rest of the lineup was simply good enough, while a rotation anchored by Grover Cleveland, Erskine Mayer, and Eppa Rixley kept opponents off the board.

The Phillies took over in late July, and heading into August they were 59-41, while the Pirates had sunk to third behind a surging Cincinnati club. All through August, the top three in the NL remained set as if in concrete: the Phillies in first, the Reds in second, the Pirates in third. The gaps between them barely wavered.

But something was shifting in the standings, a little further down: the Boston Braves had caught on fire. After a 20-7 August, suddenly the Braves were a winning club, just 4 games out of first at 67-58. While the offense remained fairly anemic, the pitching held: they allowed just 56 runs over 27 August games for a runs per game clip of just over 2. When you factored out their 2-12 defeat to the Pirates on August 7, that number dropped to 44 runs in 26 games - an amazing 1.7 runs per game.

A 2-4 start to September seemed to doom the Braves, though - at the close of play on September 6, they were still in 4th place, a full five games back of the Phillies and Reds. With less than a month left, and three teams to overcome, the task seemed unlikely, if not impossible.

But then Thomas Boman went the distance in a 5-0 shutout of the Robins, while the Phillies and Pirates lost and the Reds took an off day. On September 8, Art Nehf beat the Phillies himself, in a 1-0 shutout, while Rogers Hornsby's Cardinals beat the Reds, and the last place Cubs shut out the Pirates on a Hippo Vaughn three hitter. The Braves ended play that Saturday in third place, just 3.5 back.

They completed a sweep of the Phillies, despite scoring just six runs in the series, taking the last two games by 2-1 and 3-1 scores, then swept the Giants between the 13th and 15th - a series in which Braves pitchers allowed just a single run while the hitters put up 7 despite only one of them - 3B Tony Boeckel - collecting more than a single hit in a game all series. By Saturday September 15, the Braves had moved into a tie with the Phillies, two games back of the Reds in the NL, while the Pirates had faded all the way to 4th, five games back.

The Pirates knocked Boman around in the first game of a three game series the next Monday, breaking the Braves' 7 game win streak. But that just gave Boston a chance to start another and then one: they were perfect over the next 8 games, then swept the Cardinals and took the first two from Cincy, including a very un-Braveslike 9-7 win on September 25. Combined with their recent hot streak, that win helped cement them as the new leaders of the National League, three games up on the Phillies and Pirates, and a stunning 4.5 up on Cincinnati, who went 1-7 over the previous week and a half while the Braves won 8 straight.

It seemed to cap a storybook end for the Braves, but just as they got ready to clinch the pennant they started losing - bad. They were 1-2 to close September, now up by just 2.5. In the final series of the season, they dropped three of four to the Dodgers, getting outscored 12-19, while a final week surge by Pittsburgh brought them... just short. Despite being unable to lock down the last week of games, the Braves finished off the National League with an 86-68 record, just a game over the Pirates, with the Phillies and Reds two and three back respectively.

The team with the best player in the league didn't factor into it at all, but Cardinal Rogers Hornsby's season should be remembered for a long time, as the 21 year old 2B led the NL in everything: his .362 BA was nearly 6 points higher than the next best, while he led the NL with 13 homers. He set NL best marks with 303 TB, a .444 OBP, a .541 SLG, 197 RC+, and an all-time record 13.3 WAR.

The World Series
Once again, a Braves team with a poor offense and a lesser record faced off against a Goliath: last year they'd slain the White Sox. Could they repeat that feat against the 98 win crosstown Red Sox?

The first game didn't bear much promise for the Braves. Art Nehf started on short rest - a questionable decision for a team with relatively deep pitching, but Nehf had been the only starter who hadn't hit a rough patch in the last week. Boston countered with Dutch Leonard, who had come back from injury to start four successful games in September and October. Nehf was good, holding the potent Boston offense to three over his 8 innings of work, but Leonard was better: the Boston ace allowed just a run despite scattering ten hits. The Braves' Sherry Magee and Will Rumler each collected three hits, but it was a costly Braves error in the 8th that opened the door for Boston to score its last two runs and take the first game 3-1.

Game 2 was a relative slugfest. the Braves sent Dick Rudolph to the mound, but the Red Sox weren't impressed, putting up five runs in the first three frames and finally chasing Rudolph with two more in the seventh. 2B Swede Risberg was 2-4 with 2 RBI, and 1B Dick Hoblitzell even better, collecting 4 RBI with a three hit game. Babe Ruth was 2-2 with a key triple, but Ruth's contribution also extended to the mound, where he was good enough to win - he went the distance, and though he allowed six (five earned) his teammates' bats got him a win and the Red Sox a 2-0 series lead.

Game three was a long, desperate affair that saw Boston starter Carl Mays go 11 2/3 while allowing four. Thomas Boman didn't last as long, getting into the 8th while also allowing four, which put the game into extras. Each team used a top starter in relief, with the Braves sending out Bob Steele for 5 2/3 outstanding, 4 hit scoreless innings of work. Boston sent Dutch Leonard out to close out the 12th, which he did effectively, but he only got one out into to the 13th when disaster struck: Red Shannon, who had come in as a pinch hitter earlier in the game, knocked a double off Leonard that followed a Johnny Evers base hit. The 36 year old Evers still had enough speed to him to come around to score, walking the Braves off on their home turf.

It would prove to be the only win the Boston Nationals collected. The Red Sox bounced back strong, with Babe Ruth powering the club to an 8-3 Game 4 win behind Leonard, who bounce back with nine innings of solid work. Hoblitzell went 3-5 with two RBI as well.

Game 5 belonged to Ruth, as had the season that preceded it: the Boston pitcher/OF went the distance, allowing three runs while striking out six, adding a 3-3 performance at the plate to seal a 4-3 Game 5 victory, and the series. Boston carried the cup all the way across town to Fenway, for the first time since 1912.

It was the fourth time in as many years that Boston was represented in the World Series, but the Red Sox came out on top in 1917. Babe Ruth took home the World Series MVP - though he hadn't pitched brilliantly, he won two, and was astounding at the plate, with a .556/.667/.722 line. At 22, he had an incredible future ahead of him - but would the Red Sox pay for him to have that future in Boston? Fans looked with concern at their new owner, Harry Frazee, and feared they knew the answer.

With the World Series at an end, baseball stepped timidly and fearfully into a new era: Free Agency.

Awards
AL Pitcher of the Year: Ray Collins, Boston Red Sox - Once again, two Red Sox hurlers topped the voting. The top spot went to Collins, who led the AL with a 1.86 ERA while winning 18. Ruth came in second, with his AL-best 23 wins.
NL Pitcher of the Year: Boston took both Pitcher Awards in the AL/NL in 1917, with Art Nehf of the Braves taking the hardware. Nehf led the NL with 27 wins, and was just behind Philly's Erskine Mayer with a 1.69 ERA.
FL Pitcher of the Year: Walter Johnson, Chicago Whales - for the third straight season, Johnson topped the Federal League, with 21 wins and a 1.84 ERA.

AL MVP: Babe Ruth, Boston Red Sox - An incredibly easy and unanimous choice, with his batting and pitching lines combining for 12.3 WAR while he led the league in homers.
NL MVP: Rogers Hornsby, St. Louis Cardinals - Ruth dominated the headlines, but another young star is emerging in the NL in Hornsby, who wins his second straight MVP at age 21. Hornsby's .362/.444/.541 line was better than Ruth's, and his 13 homers led the NL, as did his incredible 13.3 WAR, by far the all-time mark in the NL.
FL MVP: Tris Speaker, Baltimore Terrapins - a .353/.463/.486 line with 11.3 WAR didn't match his 1916 line, but was head and shoulders above the competition once again.

Historical Note: not much to note here, except that the previous mistake regarding Black players had an impact above, with Edgar Wesley, a brilliant hitter of the pre- and early-Negro Leagues, has hit stardom in the Federal League. Somehow, whatever I did to try to set up a separate draft system here failed in a strange way, destroying the color line completely despite still having that option checked in the historical league settings. So, given that I can't really go back, I'm just going to imagine that the color line has been obliterated, and see how things unfold from here.

[Pelican]

Originally Posted by ArquimedezPozo

[I]Historical Note: Obviously this is where we enter really different terrain. First, a disclaimer: I'm far from a legal scholar, and have no idea if what I wrote up there is remotely plausible. It serves the story, so I'll keep it.

As you should. Your scenario is entirely plausible. The actual ruling was widely criticized, as MLB was a rather obvious example of an antitrust violation. The decision appears to have been result-oriented. The Justices were afraid that eliminating the reserve clause would ruin the game, so they created a kind of sports exception.

If, as you suggest, the roles of plaintiff and defendant were switched, the merits would look different. (The Federal League would make a better defendant, and the Terrapins as plaintiff were seen as foolish for having failed to take a buyout from MLB as the other teams did.)

Plus the roots of your scandal, as with the Black Sox, exposed the greed of the MLB owners and ridiculously low level of salaries for the top players (and everybody else). Players could make more from gamblers in a single day, than from owners for a full year.

So, yeah, from this lawyer’s perspective, your alternative path is plausible, and ultimately a better legal result. That said, I’m a bit worried what free agency will do to the financial side of the game. As we have learned since 1976, without the “guardrails” of player contracts, the rich owners will get richer and the small market teams will suffer. Plus, you have the Great Depression looming ahead, when survival even with the reserve clause was tenuous. Hoping your leagues can work out a system (e.g. arbitration, salary caps, minimum investment) that achieves competitive balance.

[ArquimedezPozo]

Unfortunately, this whole experiment largely collapsed because of the game's structural limitations (or my own inability to understand how to go about this). The base problem lay in trying to run historical drafts through an association, which proved essentially impossible, at least once I got going. Then, in trying to jury-rig it, I think I broke something, to the point where it simple wasn't working at all anymore. Maybe I'll come back to the concept another time and try to do it correctly from the start, but for now I have to put this one to bed.