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6 An Aborted Trial February 1916 to June 1917 In the weeks following the dismissal of the Federal League’s antitrust suit, organized baseball worked behind the scenes to resolve its budding dispute with the Baltimore Federals.The efforts to assuage the team were primarily focused on working out an arrangement between the BaltFeds and their counterparts from Baltimore. Specifically, the major leagues hoped that they could persuade Jack Dunn, owner of the city’s International League team, to purchase the BaltFeds’ stadium, thereby securing some settlement proceeds for the rival franchise. A week after Judge Landis dismissed the suit in Chicago, National Commission chairman August Herrmann wrote to American League president Ban Johnson reporting that Dunn was willing to assume the Federals’ lease on the park for its remaining eight years at $5,000 per season. Herrmann believed that if Dunn would slightly increase his offer, then the special committee formed to settle the Baltimore situation could adopt the proposition as its suggested resolution of the matter.1 The National Commission was simultaneously receiving encouragement along these lines from the BaltFeds’ attorneys, who wrote to Herrmann in mid-February encouraging the International League to purchase the stadium.Although the lawyers maintained that this would not completely satisfy their clients, they did suggest it would help mitigate the damages that they continued to hold“[t]he National Commission responsible for.”2 As a result, Dunn and the BaltFeds would continue to negotiate over the next several weeks, to no avail. Ban Johnson reported to Herrmann on February 28 that the International League club had made several different offers to purchase the stadium, all of which were “received in a most discourteous manner.”Johnson reiterated his assessment that“[p]ersonally, I have always been prepared to pass on the Baltimore situation.” NevertheGrow_text .indd 112 12/20/13 11:37 AM an aborted trial 113 less, Herrmann continued to insist, “I do wish this Baltimore matter could be fixed up in some way.”3 At the same time that organized baseball was dealing with Baltimore, it was also trying to resolve its own outstanding legal fees from the Federal League’s antitrust suit. The National League’s counsel in the case, George Pepper, submitted a bill to John Tener shortly after Judge Landis dismissed the suit, requesting payment of an additional $5,000 bonus he had been promised if the league received a“favorable decision”in the case (on top of the $5,667.66 he had already received for services rendered). The National League’s president objected to the request, arguing that Landis never issued an opinion in the case, and in fact had “indicated that no decision would have [ever] been made.”4 Nevertheless, Pepper saw no reason why he should not be fully compensated when the National League itself voluntarily settled the case before the court had issued a decision.“This case called for prompt service of a special sort, at the busiest time of the year, and at a distant point. All other business was laid aside and an effort made to put at your disposal the best service that counsel could render.”As a result, he asserted,“the sum of $10,000 is, in my judgment, reasonable professional compensation.” Pepper closed by politely threatening to sue the league if it did not pay him as agreed: “I should be reluctant to have to press for the collection of a professional charge.”5 While the National League and its counsel were debating fees, Jack Dunn was making what he intended to be his final offer to the BaltFeds in late February. He agreed to pay the team $20,000 for its stadium and equipment, as well as assume the remaining eight years on the underlying real estate lease. The team failed to accept the offer by Dunn’s imposed deadline, however, and as a result he began to move forward with plans to build a new stadium on a different site.6 Through the negotiations, though, organized baseball learned that the directors of the Baltimore club were apparently divided about whether to accept the purchase offer or instead pursue litigation against the major leagues. In fact, the team’s attorney, Stuart Janney, reportedly confessed to Dunn that he was “about ready to drop the whole business” because “he was getting sick of the way his crowd was acting.”7 Despite his earlier pledge not to work with the Federals, International League president Ed Barrow nevertheless implored Dunn to...

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