In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

5 The Long Wait February 1915 to February 1916 Shortly after the Chicago hearing, organized baseball’s attorneys began preparing formal answers to the Federal League’s allegations on behalf of each of the twenty-one defendants. John Galvin and Ellis Kinkead, the National Commission’s lawyers, took the lead on the project.1 They drafted a comprehensive answer for the Cincinnati Reds, as well as a joint answer for the three members of the National Commission, each of whom had been individually named as a defendant in the suit.2 These answers denied the Federals’ various claims, reiterating many of the same defenses asserted during the hearing. In addition, Cincinnati’s answer set forth a counterclaim against the plaintiffs, alleging that the Federal League’s teams had themselves formed a conspiracy to harm organized baseball by inducing the defendants’ players to breach their contracts. The team noted a number of occasions on which the rival circuit had recruited its players, and argued that this interference had not only undermined discipline and created unrest among the players but also reduced the public’s interest in baseball. Cincinnati requested that the court issue an injunction against the plaintiffs to prevent them from continuing to interfere with its players.3 The other defendant teams drew heavily upon Cincinnati’s answer, adopting the Reds’ responses by reference in their own replies and supplementing them with additional examples of the Federals’ interference with their own players. With the sole exception of the New York Giants, each of the other major league teams also asserted a counterclaim similar to that of Cincinnati’s, accusing the Federal League of having conspired to harm organized baseball. It is not clear why the Giants did not include such a charge in their answer, although attorney Galvin later speculated that the team might have been considering filing its own separate conspiracy Grow_text.indd 94 12/20/13 11:37 AM the long wait 95 lawsuit against the Federals in another court.4 Meanwhile, although a plaintiff would typically be expected to file a written reply to a defendant’s counterclaim, it does not appear that the Federal League ever formally responded to the major league teams’ allegations. Once again, it is not clear why this was the case.5 With the answers filed, all that remained was for the parties to wait for Judge Landis to issue his decision. Starting in early February 1915, reports periodically surfaced that a ruling would be released shortly. For example, the Atlanta Constitution reported on February 4 that Landis would hand down an opinion within the week. Two days later, however, the judge contradicted these reports by announcing that he would not be ruling that week.6 The Sporting News would later state that the initial report had been based on a bogus rumor passed along to American League president Ban Johnson, allegedly on behalf of Landis. Johnson subsequently sent word to the judge notifying him of the misrepresentation. Nevertheless, the reports continued. Two weeks later, the Washington Post announced that Landis would “probably give his decision this week,”7 only to see the week come and go without a ruling. While the parties anxiously awaited Judge Landis’s opinion, the Federal League continued its preparations for the 1915 season. Specifically, after the prospects for peace with organized baseball had faded the previous fall, the Federals set out to find rich new investors to help strengthen the league’s financial standing for the upcoming season. Federal League president Jim Gilmore was eventually able to recruit Harry F. Sinclair, a wealthy oil tycoon, to join the ownership ranks. The thirty-seven-year-old Sinclair appeared eager to invest his vast fortune in the new league, once bragging that “he would like to have [New York Yankees owner] Colonel Ruppert and the other magnates of the two big leagues on a boat on the ocean and that he would throw overboard two dollars for every one thrown over by the other sixteen.”8 Years later, Sinclair would serve six months in prison for his role in the Teapot Dome scandal, after his oil company bribed President Warren G. Harding’s secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, to obtain oil rights on government land in Wyoming. The Federal League initially planned to sell Sinclair its Kansas City franchise , on the understanding that the oilman would then move the team to Newark, New Jersey. After the club’s existing shareholders successfully fought the effort in court, though...

Share