Federal Baseball League: Historical/Fictional Hybrid

[ericnease84]

The Kentucky Kings continue to be "kings" in name only, as they remain one of the four teams to have never played in a World Series yet. They once again had some close races and a couple second place finishes, but can never seem to make it over the hump and actually win a pennant. Fans are clearly frustrated, but they continue to come and the team is in good shape money-wise. They just need to bust out of the box of mediocrity that they have spent virtually their entire existence in.

[ericnease84]

The New York Bears continue to be the "little brothers" of New York. They are one of the four teams--along with the Kings, Blue Sox and Green Sox--to have never won a pennant. They came close in 1916, their best season to date, when they went 74-66 and finished in third place, only 3 games out of first place. That is the closest they have ever come, and they regressed to 66-74 in 1917. 1918 produced their best record in team history at 77-63, and they again finished in third place, 6 games out of first place. Most recently, they finished in fifth place with a 69-71 record. They also lost a ton of money in 1919, and rumors continue to swirl that they may cede New York to the Knights, and move again to find a home to call their own. Their attendance is way lower than the Knights' attendance (and the Knights' 4 straight pennants don't help them either).

[ericnease84]

The Philadelphia Yellow Jackets have been fairly competitive lately, finishing at .500 or better in 7 of the past 8 seasons. Unfortunately, that got them nothing except a World Series appearance just now in 1919, in which they were thoroughly dominated by the New York Knights, who swept Philly to win their third straight championship. The Yellow Jackets have now appeared in three World Series, but have yet to win one, having also fallen short in 1904 and 1907. Two of those losses have come to the Knights; the other has given the Captains their only championship in their lone Fall Classic appearance.

[OmahaBaseball]

Originally Posted by ericnease84

If you're following: I don't plan on continuing to rush through multiple seasons at once as I am now. I am just not as familiar with the early era as I am the more modern eras.

I've really enjoyed following this -- nicely done!

[ericnease84]

Back in 1910, the Browns set a record for futility by recording the most losses in FBL history with 94. Then in 1911, they matched that record with another 94-loss season, a record that still stands as of 1919. In this decade, they never finished any higher than 5th place...except for 1914, where they unexpectedly won 89 games, finishing in first place and capturing their third NBC pennant. They met up with the Buffalo Destroyers in the World Series and lost, going 0-for-3 in the World Series in their history. That set a record for most World Series appearances without winning one, a record later matched by the Philadelphia Yellow Jackets in 1919. Those two teams are tied with the Pittsburgh Prowlers for most World Series losses, although the difference is that the Prowlers have won it all twice, whereas St. Louis and Philadelphia never have.

[ericnease84]

The Ravens have been more successful than their close northern Ohio neighbors in Cleveland. That does not say that much, though. The Ravens have just had a couple more winning seasons, although it never amounted to anything...except for in 1917. In 1917, they won 79 games--matching their best record in franchise history. That allowed them to capture their first NBC pennant. They met up with the New York Knights in the World Series, and promptly got swept. Then in 1918, they followed up a 79-win season by LOSING 79 games. They bounced back with a mediocre 71-69 record in 1919.
At least they aren't the Blue Sox. That phrase gets kicked around a lot. The Ravens have been better, in the sense that they have a World Series appearance and are not constantly bombarded with relocation rumors.

[ericnease84]

After a down year in 1911, the Eagles took the league by storm in 1912. They won 98 games--an FBL record that still stands as of 1919--and easily captured the NBC pennant. They then dominated the Boston Patriots in the World Series, sweeping them to win their second championship. Then in 1913, the won "only" 91 games, but it was enough to capture another pennant and return to the World Series. They took down the Buffalo Destroyers in six games, becoming the third team (after the Pittsburgh Prowlers and Chicago Outlaws) to win back-to-back championships.
The Eagles fell to a 64-76 record and fifth place finish in 1914, before coming back to win 81 games and the NBC pennant in 1915. However, this time they fell to their close neighbors, the Baltimore Blackbirds. In 1916, they won the pennant again, and this time they captured their fourth championship in team history by defeating the New York Knights. That left the Eagles tied with the Outlaws for most championships in league history. They remain tied with the Outlaws and the Knights, who have just won three straight.
The Eagles have not been back to the World Series since 1916, although they only finished four games behind Philadelphia in 1919. Going into the 1920s, they look to continue their dominance. The Knights have recently attempted to acquire Walter Johnson, but the Eagles have not been very open to a trade.

[ericnease84]

The 1920 season has just ended. In the ABC, the dominant New York Knights continued their winning ways, jumping out to a huge lead that they would never relinquish. The NBC was a little more competitive. The Toledo Ravens jumped out to a great start before fading away. It became a two-way race between the Chicago Outlaws and the surprising New York Bears. The Bears actually were in first place as the calendar flipped to September, but they could not hold on. They faded into second place, and the Outlaws took the crown. In the World Series, the Knights won it in five games for their fourth straight championship. In the offseason, the league was in for some changes. The next post will cover these changes.

[ericnease84]

1. The Chicago Outlaws decided to change their name. As they were moving into a new stadium in 1921, they made the decision to re-brand themselves at the same time, as there was some public pressure to drop the "Outlaws" name. For the 1921 season, they would become known as the Chicago Cardinals.

2. Partially in response to the recent dominance of the New York Knights, and with eyes on expanding the league in the near future, the decision was made to divide each conference into two divisions for 1921. Each division would consist of four teams, and the winner of each division would meet for a best of 5 Championship Series. The winners of those series will move on to the best-of-7 World Series as usual. The divisions will be as follows:

ABC East
Boston Patriots
Dover Green Sox
New York Knights
Virginia Beach Captains

ABC West
Baltimore Blackbirds
Buffalo Destroyers
Cleveland Blue Sox
Pittsburgh Prowlers

NBC East
Hartford Lions
New York Bears
Philadelphia Yellow Jackets
Washington Eagles

NBC West
Chicago Cardinals
Kentucky Kings
St. Louis Browns
Toledo Ravens

3. The league is in active plans to add 2 teams to each conference. The teams that had been considering relocation have been ordered to stay put for the time being, until new locations have been decided upon.

If anyone following this thread has suggestions for where to put any of the new teams, leave a comment with your suggestion. Keep in mind that since this is the 1920s, we will not be expanding west of the Mississippi River just yet. So no California or Texas teams...yet. They will come later.

[ericnease84]

In mid November, as the league was announcing its upcoming changes, we saw a shocking trade that nobody saw coming. The New York Knights traded star outfielder Ty Cobb to the Toledo Ravens. Cobb was one of the Knights' best players, but the word on the street is that the Knights were tired of Cobb's attitude and sometimes violent behavior.

Going to Toledo


Going to New York


In addition, the Knights sent an undisclosed amount of cash to Toledo, and Toledo sent its first round draft pick for 1921 (#6 overall) to New York.

[ericnease84]

The 1921 season was the first season played with divisions, and it turned out to be a mess. The New York Knights--no surprise--absolutely dominated their division. The other three teams in their division had virtually no chance, as the Knights set a new FBL record for wins in a season with 106, winning the division by 35 games over the second place Dover Green Sox, who finished at 71-69. The biggest problem was the ABC West. Only 3 games separated first place from last, and the Cleveland Blue Sox got their first taste of the postseason by winning the division. The only problem was, their final record was 65-75...they won 41 less games than the Knights did (and the Knights did not even lose 41 games all year long). Nevertheless, those two would face off in the postseason for the right to play in the World Series. Everyone knew who would win that one.
The NBC had a similar problem. The NBC East was competitive, with all four teams in contention well into September. The Hartford Lions won that division, with a record of 69-71. Yes, this means that the first season with divisional play allowed not one, but two losing teams to make the playoffs (the Chicago Cardinals won the NBC West with a record of 84-56, and the second place Kings and third place Browns also posted winning records, with the last place Toledo Ravens finishing with the same record as the ABC West champion Blue Sox).

The league championship series was a best of five series. The NBC Championship Series began first, and the Hartford Lions won the first two games. With their backs to the wall, the Cardinals rallied for three straight wins to win the NBC pennant and prevent a team with a losing record from advancing to the World Series.
And the ABC Championship Series resulted in a quick three-game sweep. Just about everyone was predicting that this series would only go three games. I mean, you had the 106-win Knights, winners of four straight World Series and five straight ABC pennants, going up against a Cleveland Blue Sox team that had never made the playoffs before, rarely finished over .500 and won their division while finishing TEN GAMES UNDER .500! Who wouldn't expect a sweep? And yes, a sweep did occur.

THE BLUE SOX DEFEATED THE KNIGHTS IN A 3-GAME SWEEP!

Boy, were the Knights and their fans mad! They made it no secret that they did not like this new format. One player reportedly was saying, "The World Series is meant to showcase the two best teams in each conference. That pennant was rightfully ours, and with this stupid new playoff format, the league stole it from us!" The Knights' ownership was reportedly considering pursuing legal action against the league and the commissioner.

So the World Series featured the Chicago Cardinals--the first time under that name, but the 8th time in the league's 21-year history--against the Cleveland Blue Sox, who were playing in their first ever World Series with the entire New York Knights fanbase grousing that they did not deserve to be there. So of course, the Blue Sox did the only thing they could do in response to that: win the World Series in a 7-game thriller over the Cardinals. Yes, the long-suffering losers from Cleveland just won the World Series after taking down the powerful New York Knights in the playoffs.

With the Blue Sox winning a pennant, (yes, they won it...a powerful and experienced team like the Knights should have known better than to lose three straight games against a team that they were clearly superior to) that leaves only three teams--the Dover Green Sox, Kentucky Kings and New York Bears--who have yet to appear in a World Series.
In addition to those three, the Boston Patriots (1 appearance), Toledo Ravens (1 appearance), St. Louis Browns (3 appearances) and Philadelphia Yellow Jackets (3 appearances) are the other teams to have never won a championship yet.
The New York Knights have won the most championships, with five. The Chicago Cardinals (who won all of them as the Outlaws) and Washington Eagles each have four. The Buffalo Destroyers have two championships, as do the Pittsburgh Prowlers (the first two in league history). The Baltimore Blackbirds, Virginia Beach Captains, Hartford Lions and Cleveland Blue Sox each have one.

Despite the Knights' belly-aching and threats of legal action, the league announced that the divisional alignment and expanded playoffs will continue for 1922, and that the league will expand sometime in the 1920s. A definite year has not been decided yet, but the ball is rolling in that direction. Rumor has it that former Blackbirds star John McGraw is in line to be the owner of one of these new teams.

Oh, and by the way, you may have wondered about the allegations of cheating coming from Chicago a couple years back? Nothing ever came of that, and no players were disciplined.

[ericnease84]

After the weird 1921 season, nobody was sure what to expect in 1922. Early in the year, it was announced that the ABC would expand to 10 teams in 1924, and the NBC would expand to 10 teams at a later year--undisclosed, but it would be before 1930. The two new teams were not named yet.

As the 1922 season kicked off, things looked a little more "normal" than in 1921. The Knights jumped out to a huge lead, of course. But the other three divisions also boasted teams with winning percentages well above .500. The defending champion Cleveland Blue Sox--who the Knights and their fans still refused to acknowledge as champions--remained under .500, but this time were buried in the division rather than leading it. The ABC West race came down to the Baltimore Blackbirds and the Buffalo Destroyers. In the NBC, the West was between the Cardinals and Ravens, with the Browns on the fringe of the race. The East was led by the Lions, with only the Yellow Jackets within striking distance. In the end, it was the Knights and Destroyers in the ABC, and the Cardinals and Lions in the NBC. Both championship series went the distance. The Cardinals edged out the Lions in five games, and the Knights once again fell short, losing to the Destroyers in five games. In the World Series, the Cardinals came out on top this time, defeating Buffalo in five games. This pulled the Cardinals into a tie with the Knights for the most championships, with five.

The 1923 season would belong to Buffalo, right? The last two times they advanced to the World Series and lost it, they returned to it the next year and won it both times. Would they continue this trend in 1923?
It became clear early on that they would not. They were much closer to the bottom of the ABC West than the top, and they never made a move up. That one came down to the Prowlers and the Blackbirds. Once again, Baltimore fell short and came in second, as the Prowlers won the division to return to the playoffs for the first time in 15 years.
As for the NBC, both division races were close (oh yeah, the Knights won the ABC East. Who else would?). In fact, both were decided on the last day of the season. The NBC East once again featured two "contenders" that also struggled to even get above .500. In the end, the Yellow Jackets edged out the Lions by a single game, even though they finished with only a 70-70 record. The Cardinals and Kings finished the season tied with identical 80-60 records, forcing the league's first ever tie-breaker playoff game. The Cardinals defeated the Kings in that game to win the NBC West.

The Yellow Jackets continued the trend of underperforming teams stepping it up in the playoffs, sweeping the Cardinals in three games and sending them home. And the Knights also continued a disturbing trend of losing in the ABC Championship Series, dropping to 0-3 all time in that series. The Prowlers won that series in four games. They then went on to defeat the Yellow Jackets in the World Series in a four-game sweep. This gave the Prowlers their first championship since 1902. The Yellow Jackets also are now 0-4 in the World Series, the first team to reach that mark (the Cardinals also have 4 World Series losses, but unlike Philadelphia they have won 5 of them).

In the offseason, the first expansion was finalized, announced and put in place. The next post will reveal the two new teams and go through the logistics of expanding the ABC to 10 teams.

[ericnease84]

Expansion Team #1, which will be joining the ABC West for 1924, is the Cincinnati Silverbacks.

The logo came from the OOTP "nicknames" stock logos; beyond that, I designed the main logo and the "C" lettering, as well as the uniforms.

[ericnease84]

[ericnease84]

[ericnease84]

The second expansion team, which also will be in the ABC West Division, will be the Indiana Fireflies, based out of Indianapolis. I got the name and logo from YouTube channel "Frank Prenot," in his video "MLB Expansion to 40 TEAMS." I designed the cap and jerseys using his logo and colors that he had in the video. Link to the video is below. I may use another one of his teams or two later on in this league's history.

Since both expansion teams are going to be placed in the ABC West, one team that is currently in that division will move to the ABC East. That team turned out to be the Buffalo Destroyers, who will move into the East in 1924 to probably not win very many division titles, especially while the Knights are asserting their dominance over the whole league (until playoff time, at least...they are 0-3 in the ABC Championship Series, remember).

This team's jersey design is in the old format, because I made this one a while ago. I only designed the Silverbacks recently.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-FoN8g50TQ

[ericnease84]

[ericnease84]

1924 marked the first season with an expanded league, as the ABC now had 10 teams thanks to the Cincinnati Silverbacks and Indiana Fireflies. Neither of those teams was very good, as expected. They finished in fourth and fifth, respectively, in the ABC West, as the other three existing teams--the Cleveland Blue Sox, Baltimore Blackbirds and Pittsburgh Prowlers--all finished over .500. All three were in contention for most of the season, but Pittsburgh pulled away to win the division. Over in the ABC East, the Buffalo Destroyers were the "lucky" ones who had to move over and join the division that had been dominated for years by the New York Knights. The Destroyers, however, proved to be the biggest threat to the Knights' dominance. The Dover Green Sox were competitive enough, but finished in a distant third and barely over .500. The Boston Patriots and Virginia Beach Captains were non-factors in the division race. In the end, the Knights won the ABC East by 5 games over Buffalo.
The NBC still had four teams in each division, and neither division had much competition. The New York Bears, who had been quietly improving in the past few years, ran away with the NBC East to capture their first ever playoff appearance. In the NBC West, the Chicago Cardinals continued their dominance by winning the division once again. That was their 5th first place finish in a row, and their 6th in the past 7 years.
In the playoffs, the Knights finally got over the hump, getting their revenge on Pittsburgh from the year before by defeating them in four games to win the ABC pennant and finally return to the World Series after a three-year absence. The Cardinals firmly put the playoff-newcomer New York Bears in their place, sweeping them in three games to prevent and all-New York World Series. In the World Series, the Cardinals won the first two games before the Knights swept all three games at home, going back to Chicago needing one win. The Cardinals appeared on their way to a win in Game 6 to force a Game 7, but the visiting Knights scored nine runs in the top of the 9th inning. Waite Hoyt shut down the Cardinals in relief in the bottom of the ninth, and the New York Knights had finally regained their spot on top.

Not much changed in 1925, as three of the four playoff teams returned to the playoffs. The Knights ran away with the ABC East, as the other four teams all finished under .500. The Prowlers won the ABC West again, but in that division only Cincinnati finished under .500. The Indiana Fireflies, in their second season, posted a respectable 77-63 record. Over in the NBC, the Bears won back-to-back division titles, finishing with a decisive 10-game lead. Over in the NBC West, the Toledo Ravens finally dethroned the Cardinals, handing them their first playoff-less season in six years. In the playoffs, only two of the four teams even won a game. Apparently it was the Prowlers' turn for revenge, as they returned the favor for 1924 by sweeping the Knights out of the playoffs. And the Bears were left still searching for their first playoff win, as the Ravens swept them. In the World Series, the Prowlers made quick work of the Ravens, sweeping them and denying them their first championship. This was the fourth championship for the Prowlers, pulling them even with the Eagles for third most in the league (behind the Knights with 6, and the Cardinals with 5).

[ericnease84]

After 1925, the NBC took their turn at expansion with two new teams of their own. They would add one team to each division, and no existing teams would be re-aligned.


The first team was the Trenton Tigers. They would be based in Trenton, New Jersey and would join the NBC East with the Lions, Bears, Yellow Jackets and Eagles.


The second team was the Atlanta Colonels. They would be based in Atlanta, Georgia and would join the NBC West with the Ravens, Cardinals, Browns and Kings.

[ericnease84]

The New York Knights dominated the headlines when they made a shocking trade in the offseason, sending star shortstop Rogers Hornsby to the Cincinnati Silverbacks for third baseman Joe Dugan, veteran reliever Chick Brandom and young lefty Lefty Grove, as well as the Silverbacks' first round draft pick (#3 overall) for the season.

As the season began, the Knights did not look like themselves. In fact, at the beginning of June they were in dead last in the ABC East, 11 games behind a red-hot Virginia Beach Captains team. However, the Knights began to climb up the standings, and by the end of the month they were only a game behind the Captains. They re-took first place in early July and never looked back. Meanwhile in the ABC West, the surprising Silverbacks held a slim lead over Pittsburgh, despite having a record hovering around and sometimes under .500. Cincinnati swung a big trade at the deadline to bring in star third baseman Marty McManus from Kentucky, hoping to hold off Pittsburgh. It did not work, as the Prowlers jumped into first place in mid August and held on to win the division, setting up another Knights/Prowlers ABC Championship Series for the fourth year in a row. The Prowlers only went 70-70, however.

In the NBC, the Chicago Cardinals reclaimed the top spot in the NBC West as the defending division and NBC champion Toledo Ravens sunk all the way to last place in the division, with the worst record in the NBC (the only team with a worse record was the Indiana Fireflies in the ABC West). The expansion Atlanta Colonels did surprisingly well, finishing in third place with an even 70-70 record. The Trenton Tigers did not do so well, going 56-84 and finishing last in the NBC East. The New York Bears continued their newfound dominance of that division, winning it for the third year in a row.

In the playoffs, the Knights faced off against the Prowlers again, and the Prowlers proved to be the Knights' kryptonite once again, as Pittsburgh won the series in four games. In the NBC Championship Series, the New York Bears finally won their first playoff game as they beat the Cardinals in Game 1. However, the Cardinals responded by winning the next three games to win the pennant again. The World Series was a back-and-forth affair, as the teams kept alternating wins. The Cardinals won Game 1, the Prowlers won Game 2, the Cardinals won Game 3, the Prowlers won Game 4, the Cardinals won Game 5 and the Prowlers won Game 6. Then the Cardinals continued the pattern by winning Game 7, and with it the World Series. That gave Chicago their sixth championship in team history, tying the Knights for the most championships.