Keeping the Federals at Bay: Cleveland in the American Association, 1914-1915

Over the first half of the twentieth century, the American Association served as a model of stability for minor-league baseball. Originally formed in 1902, the league entered the 1952 season with the same eight teams, still located in their places of birth. Along the way, the octet stayed put as well—with one notable exception. Although taking place in the years leading up to America’s involvement in World War I, this move was not in reaction to international hostilities. Instead, it was made to counter a perceived threat to Organized Baseball itself.

One of the founding members of the American Association, the Toledo Mud Hens, had a mixed record of success over the first decade of the league’s history. High points came in 1907, 1910, and 1912 with strong second-place finishes—in 1907, missing the bunting barely, by a couple of games. Despite these modest successes, the team finished in the second division most years, including three tail-ending performances (1902-4) in the first three years of the league. Later, a generous friend, coal millionaire Charles Somers, who also owned the American League’s Cleveland Naps, acquired the Mud Hens. It was this dual ownership that paved the way for the Association’s first location shift—a move designed to thwart a potential problem, the upstart Federal League.

In 1913, a new minor-league circuit began operation. Consisting of six clubs, most in the Midwest, the Federal League was an independent circuit, operating outside the aegis of Organized Baseball. As the summer progressed, the six-team league survived more or less intact (the only franchise move being from Covington to Kansas City on June 26). The potential fan base was large, as the loop included several major-league cities, Cleveland among them. In the inaugural season, Cleveland’s Green Sox finished second, playing in Luna Park, a small local diamond. Though the facilities were modest, the manager was none other than pitching legend Cy Young, one of the city’s most cherished baseball heroes.

Buoyed by their success, the Federals decided to upgrade in 1914. No longer content with minor-league status, the Feds declared themselves a major league before the season. Expanding to an eight-team circuit, the Feds also kept certain franchises in place, allowing direct competition with major-league teams in Chicago, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, all carryover locales from the 1913 campaign. This tum of events startled baseball’s cozy world, prompting direct intervention by the owner of the Mud Hens.

Before the 1914 season, the American Association, though facing direct Federal competition in Indianapolis and Kansas City, decided to remain firm—ready to go head-to-head with the upstarts. However, in March, the Feds announced that their eighth franchise, originally slated to operate in Toronto, was transferring to Brooklyn, butting heads with the Robins of the National League. Alarmed, and not wanting a sudden shift to his turf, Somers took direct action. Knowing full well there was only one suitable site for big-league baseball in Cleveland, League Park, he decided to make it impossible for the Feds to claim any playing dates there. Later that month, Somers announced that he would be transferring his Toledo club to Cleveland, where they would play in League Park when his American League club was on the road.

Logistically, the transfer was easily accomplished, as Cleveland geographically fit into the existing league structure very nicely. However, there were a couple of problems. First, the Association schedule had already been drawn up, so on paper the Toledo games were simply transferred to Cleveland. Of course, this did not dovetail nicely with the existing schedule. As a result, many of the home games of Cleveland’s American Association club were transferred to their opponents’ parks. In addition, the American League, wary of the Association’s encroachment, stipulated that the minor league could not play any home games until the Naps had finished their first lengthy homestand, even though the American League team was slated to start the season on the road.

The American Association’s Cleveland club opened the 1914 season at Indianapolis, dropping a 4-0 decision to the Indians on April 14. Called a variety of nicknames, including Scouts, Warriors, and Sheeks (after manager James Sheckard), the team eventually came to be known as the Bearcats. After facing all seven Association rivals on the road, the Bearcats (7-17) finally opened the season at home on May 14, besting Minneapolis 6-4. Over the next month, Cleveland won more than it lost and clambered back into the race. By early June, the team had clawed its way into second, only a game behind Milwaukee. Despite losing star outfielder Dave Hillyard to a broken leg, the Bearcats continued to perform well, finally grasping first place (50-42) by a few percentage points on July 19.

Then, the season began to unravel. Over the course of another monthlong road trip, the Bearcats went 12-18, dropping out of contention. When they finally returned home on August 19, the club was in fifth place, barely over .500. During the final month they treaded water, finishing fifth with a record of 82-81, 14 1/2 games out of first. Their star performer was Jay Kirke (.349), who spent half the season with the Bearcats and the other half with Cleveland’s other team, the Naps.

Overall, the season was considered a modest success. The team drew almost 100,000 fans—not too bad when considering that the Bearcats lost at least sixteen home dates because of scheduling conflicts. Though they were outdrawn by the American League’s cellar dwelling Indians, the Association club certainly had its own fan base, as reported in the pages of The Sporting News: “The idea that a minor league will not draw in a town used to big league ball is receiving a rather rude jolt in Cleveland. The Naps, cellar occupants of the American League, are getting hardly any crowds, while the American Association club, managed by Sheckard, is getting most of the support.”

Toledo fielded a team in the Southern Michigan Association in 1914. The city certainly missed having a high-class Association club, but it was not weepy-eyed about having Somers out of town. Over the course of his ownership, Somers took full advantage of Toledo’s proximity to Cleveland, regularly shuttling players from one club to the other-naturally favoring the American League Naps. With the two clubs now sharing the same facility, League Park, in 1914, the movement of players increased dramatically. For instance, in addition to Kirke, the Bearcats lost the services of starting first baseman Jack Lelivelt (.295), who was promoted to the American League after 92 games, and starting pitcher Lefty James (9-6), who was also called up.

After the 1914 season, the Feds switched another team to a major-league locale, transferring the pennant winning Indianapolis club to Newark, New Jersey, thereby giving the New York City area another big league club. For the rebel league, Cleveland was still not an option, since Somers made plans to keep his American Association club in League Park for the upcoming season.

With a full off-season to put a workable schedule in place, it must have come as a disappointment to Cleveland’s Association club to see virtually the same problems unfurled at its feet in 1915. The team was scheduled to lose sixteen home dates, as it had the year before. In 1914, the Bearcats were able to overcome this obstacle, posting a reasonably decent season. In 1915, a different story would unfold, primarily the result of instability at the top.

The combination of owning a losing American League club and then incurring the expenses entailed in keeping his star players out of Federal League clutches had stretched Somers financially thin. He hastily fired his underperforming manager, Joe Birmingham, who sued in response. In short, Somers was looking for a way out, even if it meant unloading his Association club.

Aswirl in turmoil, Cleveland’s American Association season opened at home in April 1915 with a 10-1 trimming courtesy of Indianapolis. After a brief homestand, the team took to the road for a monthlong trip, visiting every league opponent on the way. During this marathon, scribes began to call the team the Spiders—doubt referring to Cleveland’s National League team of 1900, which spent much of the season on the road. (One Sporting News wag even substituted the name Spiders for Cleveland in the April 25 box score.) Still, the team was playing decently enough, finally arriving home in late May with a record of 14-17.

During the next homestand, which stretched into mid-June, Somers reduced ticket prices to encourage better turnout. At the same time, he announced he was seeking a buyer for the club who would move it, with luck, back to Toledo, which was without a pro club of any kind in 1915. Shortly thereafter, the Association gave its blessing for such a transfer; however, no takers emerged.

On the field, the team continued to hover around the .500 mark, reaching the breakeven point on July 4 thanks to a 10-5 road trip. (Two of the five losses were no-hitters.) After another good week, the Spiders (38-36) rose to third. Alas, for them it would be a downhill slide the rest of the way.

With the transfer back to Toledo still on hold, the team drifted through July and August, dropping to seventh in the standings. In late August, two weeks into another long swing through Association cities, the announcement was made that the team would play the rest of its games on the road, completing its makeover as the Spiders. Even so, the final weeks of the Spiders’ season would include a few home games after all. In mid-September, they played four times—two games against St. Paul and two against Kansas City, both teams being already on the road nearby. The home season ended with a whimper. The Blues failed to show on September 16, giving Cleveland a 9-0 forfeit win in its last home game.

Overall, the Cleveland Spiders (67-82) in 1915 finished seventh, a lengthy 22 1/2 games from the top. Once again, their best player—this time Denney Wilie (.311)—was snatched away by Cleveland’s American League team before the hundred-game mark. Luckily for them, the Spiders kept the services of Lefty James (19-13) for the whole season-probably keeping them out of the cellar. The announced attendance was 86,000—a drop from the previous campaign, but still better than what several other Association clubs drew.

Following the 1915 season, the Federal League fragmented, with several Fed owners latching on to American League and National League clubs. With the threat gone, Cleveland’s Association team quietly moved back to Toledo for the 1916 season.

Somers did accomplish his goal in keeping the Feds at bay. Although scheduling conflicts prevented League Park from being used every day during the 1914 and 1915 seasons, the handful of open dates were not enough to entice a Federal League jump. It would prove to be his only victory in the world of baseball during the Federal League war. To keep creditors at bay, he sold off his best stars on the American League club, including Nap Lajoie and Joe Jackson. In the end, it was not enough, and the bankers took virtually all of Somers’s baseball empire, including both his Cleveland clubs.

Although this kind of preemptive strike has not been repeated in the world of minor-league baseball, it was used at a higher level many years later. In the early 1960s, with the possibility looming large that a rival league, the Continental League, would soon be established, Houston was granted a National League franchise-a move to prevent the perceived usurpers from gaining a toehold there.

The example of minor leagues and major leagues sharing the same locale has been repeated many times, right up to the present. Several minor-league clubs, both affiliated and independent, are currently in orbit around Chicago. In New York, also represented by an American League and a National League franchise, two minor league teams, the Brooklyn Cyclones (Class A, Mets) and the Staten Island Yankees (Class A), currently operate within the city limits, tapping into the same market as do their parent, major-league clubs. They illustrate the trend in Organized Baseball in recent years for the major league club to maintain one or more of its minor-league affiliates geographically close to the city that the big-league team plays in. The Akron Aeros (Class AA) and Lake County Captains (Class A), farm teams in the Indians organization, play in state-of-the-art ballparks less an hour’s drive south and east, respectively, from Progressive Field in downtown Cleveland, multiplying the opportunities that baseball fans in the Western Reserve have for enjoying the game in person all summer long.