Benny Kauff Essentials Positions: Bats: L Throws: L 68 Weight: 157 Born: 1 5, 1890 in Pomeroy, OH USA Died: 11 17 1961 in Columbus, OH USA Debut: 4/20/1912 Last Game: 7/2/1920 Full Name: Benjamin Michael Kauff Bennie Kauff. Kauff was known as “Ty Cobb of the Feds”. After playing 5 games for the MLB…
1922 – Benny Kauff’s suit for an injunction to restrain the decision to keep him out of baseball is rejected by the appellate court. Kauff was acquitted of auto theft in 1921, but Commissioner Landis still barred him from baseball, stating, “That acquittal was one of the worst miscarriages of justice that ever came under my observation.”
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.
On January 17, 1916, the New York Giants purchase three stars from the Federal League: pitcher Fred Anderson, outfielder Benny Kauff, and catcher Bill Rariden, from the Brooklyn Tip Tops for $35,000. Kauff, the 26-year-old center fielder was the Federal League’s best player. His first three seasons with New York are solid, but the trash-talking…
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.