December 22, 1915: An agreement is made between the owners of the teams in baseball's Federal League and those of the established major leagues, the American League and the National League. The FL's team owners needed it because they had run out of money. The AL's and NL's team owners needed it because they didn't want to pay higher salaries to keep players from defecting.
First, the FL folds. Then, Charles Weeghman, owner of the FL's Chicago Whales, was allowed to buy the NL's Chicago Cubs. And Phil Ball, owner of the FL's St. Louis Terriers, was allowed to buy the AL's St. Louis Browns.
Weeghman brought his Whales players to the Cubs, and moved the Cubs into his ballpark on the North Side, Weeghman Park. But, in spite of the Cubs winning the 1918 NL Pennant, Weeghman lost everything in World War I, and sold the team, with chewing gum magnate William Wrigley Jr. eventually emerging as sole owner. In 1926, he renamed the team's home Wrigley Field. It is the most significant remaining relic of the Federal League.
Ball also bought his players to the Browns, with less success, mainly because he couldn't get along with established general manager Branch Rickey. Rickey went over to the NL's St. Louis Cardinals, and the rest is history.
The Kansas City Packers franchise had been declared bankrupt and taken over by the league office after the close of the regular season, and the Baltimore Terrapins' owners, including former Baltimore Orioles and Brooklyn Superbas (Dodgers) manager Ned Hanlon, rejected the offer made to them. They had sought to buy and move an existing franchise to their city, but were rebuffed, and sued.
And so, his was the "Federal Baseball Club" that was the plaintiff in this case. He argued that baseball was a monopoly, restricting competition, and thus subject to the Sherman Antitrust Act. It took until 1922 for the U.S. Supreme Court to rule otherwise, granting baseball what has come to be known as its "special exemption" from the Sherman Antitrust Act.
The FL's 1914 Pennant was won by the Indianapolis Hoosiers. But they lost money, and were sold to a group that moved them to Newark, setting up shop in a ballpark across the Passaic River, in Harrison, New Jersey. The Newark Peppers did not repeat, as the Chicago Whales won the 1915 Pennant.
With the folding of the FL, that left Baltimore, Buffalo, Indianapolis, Newark and Kansas City as cities that had had FL teams, but not an AL team or an NL team. Baltimore would return to the majors with a new Orioles in 1954, Kansas City with the A's moving there in 1955. (They moved again in 1967, and were replaced by the Royals in 1969.)
Newark and other New Jersey cities have had minor-league teams since, but, with the exception of 14 games played in Jersey City by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1956 and 1957, New Jersey has never again hosted a game in Major League Baseball. It has hosted games in the NFL, the NBA, the NHL, and professional soccer. The New York Red Bulls of Major League Soccer play at Red Bull Arena, almost right across the street from where the Peppers played.
Indianapolis has since had an NFL team, an NBA team, and a team in the World Hockey Association, but never in MLB. Buffalo has since had an NFL team, an NBA team, and an NHL team. But it has only returned to MLB for 49 games, played at Sahlen Field by the Toronto Blue Jays during the 2020 and 2021 seasons, due to COVID restrictions.
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December 22, 1915 was a Thursday. Baseball and football were out of season. Professional basketball barely existed. There were 2 games played in the National Hockey Association, predecessor to the NHL. The Montreal Wanderers beat the Montreal Canadiens, 3-2 at the Montreal Arena. (Both teams played home games there, but, officially, this was a Canadiens' home game.) And the Ottawa Senators beat the Toronto Blue shirts, 7-1 at the Ottawa Arena.
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