<< <i>The Federal League was a well-organized, well-financed, well-thought-out effort to construct a new league. I am inclined to believe that, had the Federal League been born at another time, it might have well have become established. It happened to come at a remarkable moment in American history, a time of strife and dissension, a period of high expectations...
...This coincided with a fierce recession in the baseball business, a recession which broke not just the Federal League, but more than twenty other leagues as well--the original Appalachian League, the Atlantic League, the Bi-State League, the California State League, the Canadian League, etc. It was just the wrong time to be starting a new baseball league, and the Federal League couldn't overcome that.
But while the Federal League did not survive, it changed everything. The Federal League sent salaries sky-rocketing. The salary rocket forced the breakup of the best team in baseball, the Philadelphia Athletics, whose players were sold off. The salaries forced Jack Dunn, owner/manager of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, to put his 19-year-old star pitcher, Babe Ruth, up for sale (otherwise Ruth would have spent several years, perhaps even a decade, in Baltimore). The two teams that were able to buy talent, the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, replaced the Athletics as the best teams in baseball.
When the Federal League folded, salaries tumbled. Player in their prime were forced to sign new contract for a third of what they had gotten when the Federal League was standing. Some players were bitter about that. Some of those bitter players are the key figures in the big story of the decade: the Black Sox scandal. >>
besides the federal lg other major leagues include a players lg, the union assoc and the american assoc. (the negroe natl lg too) has been also elevated to major lg status i believe. the bb encyclopedia lists the 5 former lgs i think.
Gemmy10
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<< <i>The Federal League was a well-organized, well-financed, well-thought-out effort to construct a new league. I am inclined to believe that, had the Federal League been born at another time, it might have well have become established. It happened to come at a remarkable moment in American history, a time of strife and dissension, a period of high expectations...
...This coincided with a fierce recession in the baseball business, a recession which broke not just the Federal League, but more than twenty other leagues as well--the original Appalachian League, the Atlantic League, the Bi-State League, the California State League, the Canadian League, etc. It was just the wrong time to be starting a new baseball league, and the Federal League couldn't overcome that.
But while the Federal League did not survive, it changed everything. The Federal League sent salaries sky-rocketing. The salary rocket forced the breakup of the best team in baseball, the Philadelphia Athletics, whose players were sold off. The salaries forced Jack Dunn, owner/manager of the minor league Baltimore Orioles, to put his 19-year-old star pitcher, Babe Ruth, up for sale (otherwise Ruth would have spent several years, perhaps even a decade, in Baltimore). The two teams that were able to buy talent, the Boston Red Sox and the Chicago White Sox, replaced the Athletics as the best teams in baseball.
When the Federal League folded, salaries tumbled. Player in their prime were forced to sign new contract for a third of what they had gotten when the Federal League was standing. Some players were bitter about that. Some of those bitter players are the key figures in the big story of the decade: the Black Sox scandal. >>