1916 – The New York Giants buy center fielder Edd Roush from the Newark Peppers of the defunct Federal League for $7,500. Roush will hit just .188 in New York before being packaged to Cincinnati, where he will blossom into a Hall of Famer.
1915 – Organized Baseball and the Federal League sign a peace treaty at Cincinnati, ending their two-year war. The FL agrees to go out of existence, but the Major Leagues pay an enormous price: $600,000 for distribution to FL owners; amalgamation of two FL franchises, one each into National League and American League; recognition of FL players’ eligibility, and agreement to bid for them in a Fed-controlled auction. The owners of the Baltimore Terrapins, hoping to get the Cardinals, balk, but conferees, eager for settlement, defer their claims – a decision they will repent at leisure when the Baltimore owners take their grievance all the way to the Supreme Court.
Eddie Plank of the Federal League’s St. Louis Terriers records his300th victory when he defeats the Newark Peppers 12-5. The future Hall of Famer (1946) is the ninth player and first southpaw to reach this milestone.
In the Federal League, Newark takes two from Pittsburgh, winning the opener on Edd Roush’s 10th inning inside-the-park homer. Newark leads by one percentage point over Kansas City, with Pittsburgh 3rd and Chicago 4th, only 1 1/2 games separating the teams. The race is so close by season’s end Newark will be 5th, six games out. Chicago will win it by one game with a record of 86-66 to St. Louis’s 87-67 and Pittsburgh’s 86-67. There will be nine 20-game winners, led by George McConnell’s 25-10 for the Whales, the only year McConnell wins more than eight games.
The Federal League sues organized baseball, claiming it to be an illegal trust and asking that it be dissolved and all contracts voided. The case is filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois in Chicago, before Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis. He will stall his decision, and peace will be declared at the end of the year, but another suit, brought by the owners of the Baltimore Terrapins franchise, will result in baseball receiving an exemption from antitrust laws. In the meantime, the FL shifts players to strengthen teams in key cities. Benny Kauff, the league’s answer to Ty Cobb, is moved from the Indianapolis Hoosiers to the Brooklyn Tip-Tops.
1913 – The Federal League is organized as a six-team outlaw circuit and elects John T. Powers president. It will play 120 games at a level equivalent to the lower minor leagues, but will enhance its status considerably in 1914 to challenge the major leagues.