Charles H. Weeghman buys the Cubs

Charles H. Weeghman buys the Cubs

ByThis Day in Baseball

1916 – The National League, happy to be rid of fractious Chicago Cubs owner Charles W. Murphy, allows Charles H. Weeghman, owner of a restaurant chain and president of the Federal League’s Chicago Whales, to buy the Cubs for $500,000. By putting up $50,000, William Wrigley, Jr. becomes a minority stock holder. Whales manager Joe Tinker succeeds Roger Bresnahan, and the Cubs will play in the Federal League’s newly built ballpark on the North Side, soon to become known as Wrigley Field.

Nap Lajoie

Philadelphia Athletics purchase future Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie

ByThis Day in Baseball

  On January 5, 1915, the Philadelphia Athletics purchase future Hall of Famer Nap Lajoie from the Cleveland Indians. Lajoie slumped to a .258 average in 1914. Thirteen years after a U.S. District Court decision for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia effectively banned him from playing for the Philadelphia Athletics, Nap Lajoie rejoins the team. With Lajoie leaving the Cleveland Naps….

The Federal League sues organized baseball, claiming it to be an illegal trust and asking that it be dissolved and all contracts voided

The Federal League sues organized baseball, claiming it to be an illegal trust and asking that it be dissolved and all contracts voided

ByThis Day in Baseball

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.