New York City, Andrew Freedman, and the Rise of the American League

This article is an excerpt from David Pietrusza’s upcoming book published by McFarland & Company, Inc. Publishers. Used by permission.

 

DURING THE SUMMER OF 1901, as the infant American League battled for acceptance, New York Giants owner Andrew J. Freedman invited fellow National League magnates John T. Brush of Cincinnati, Arthur Soden of Boston and Frank deHaas Robison of St. Louis to a fateful meeting at his Red Bank, New Jersey estate.

Until the advent of Charles O. Finley and George Steinbrenner, Freedman was widely considered the most unpopular owner in the history of the spoil. A German-Jewish bachelor who grew rich in dry goods and real estate, Freedman became the trusted crony of Tammany Hall’s Richard Croker and even served as his best man. Together the two engineered the election of Robert A. Van Wyck as the first Mayor of the consolidated City of New York. Together with financier August Belmont, he helped finance and control the new Interborough Rapid Transit subway.

By all accounts Freedman was highly unpleasant. Frank Graham termed his “Course vain, arrogant and abusive.” Albert Spalding found him “obnoxious.” Pittsburgh Sporting Life correspondent A. R. Cratty recalled that it was his duty to interview Freedman on each trip the Giants made to that city. “No job was ever harder,” he wrote on Freedman’s death, “unless it be the same act with the late John Tomlinson Brush as the target. Freedman never let you get away from the idea that he was a New Yorker. His whole attitude demanded sort of homage because he was from the big burg on the island. That high bearing cost him many friends on the circuit, or rather in the provinces. Some old and young feared him.”

Freedman once physically assaulted Brush in the barroom of New York’s Fifth Avenue Hotel. In return he was given a pasting by Brush’s friend, Bert Dasher. He once ran into J. Walter Spalding (A. G. Spalding’s brother), and so vociferously insulted him that Walter resigned from the Giants Board of Directors.

Freedman’s teams were chronic tail-enders as he fired managers with abandon, with four in 1895 alone; including an actor Harvey Watkins whose only qualification was his status as a long-Lime Giants fan. In July 1898 after an anti-Semitic remark by Orioles outfielder “Ducky” Holmes — “Well, I’m glad I’m not working for a Sheeny anymore.” — Freedman even participated in a near riot at the Polo Grounds by pulling the Giants off the field and forfeiting to Baltimore.

Brush had developed a scheme to turn the National League into one giant corporation, the ultimate baseball cartel. The plan remained secret until the National League’s annual meeting began in New York in December in 1901. On December 11 New York Sun broke the story. Common stock would be parceled out among the various clubs as follows: New York 30%; Cincinnati 12%; St. Louis 12%; Boston 12%; Philadelphia 10%; Chicago 10%; Pittsburgh 8%; and Brooklyn 6%. A five-man “Board of Regents”, to be elected by the stockholders, would govern the corporation. All managers at $5,000 each were to be hired through the Board. All players were to be “licensed” by them.

Brush’s scheme for such centralized, overreaching control emerged from an earlier plan of his to crush the American League. In mid-season, he had plotted to lure the weak Detroit and Baltimore clubs away from the American League. He would then force “Ban” Johnson to agree to a new twelve-club circuit, “dominant and in full control of baseball in this country.”

In any case, Brush’s plan drew the resentment of the four owners left out in the cold. It also raised the hackles of an American public decreasingly tolerant of “trusts” and monopolies.

As soon as the League Meeting began, Pittsburgh’s Barney Dreyfuss nominated Albert Spalding for President. As early as February rumors had Spalding replacing de ineffectual Nick Young, so as to better strengthen the circuit’s hand in the coming war. Many viewed Spalding’s election as a foregone conclusion.

It was a false prophecy. The “Red Bank” faction, as they were now called, raised all sorts of technical objections to the nomination and ended up standing firmly against Spalding voting to retain Young.

On the second day of the session, Spalding himself appeared to argue his own case. Spalding’s oratory failed to sway his opponents, however, so he took his case to the members of working press.

“In the event of my election…I will impose some conditions … that will be of lasting benefit to the game,” a perspiring and wildly gesturing Spalding thundered to a huge assemblage of reporters, “One of them I will make bold to state … I will demand that Andrew Freedman … be eliminated from the councils of the body…

The issue is now between Andrew Freedman and A.G. Spalding and when I go back actively into baseball Andrew Freedman gets out. He gets out right away or I’ll get out “

But despite Spalding’s stirring oratory, the deadlock continued for 25 ballots with AG. holding the votes of Chicago, Philadelphia, Brooklyn, and Pittsburgh, while Nick Young just as consistently held the other four.

After the 25th ballot, Freedman Brush and their allies left the room, leaving Nick Young with their proxies. Young then ruled a quorum no longer existed while Philadelphia’s Colonel John Rogers insisted that “once a quorum always a quorum.’

Young then left, but the others remained and elected Rogers chairman pro team. He called for another vote and Albert Goodwill Spalding, who was sound asleep in his hotel room, was “elected: President of the National League four votes to none.

At 4 AM Spalding ordered Young to immediately surrender League records, papers, etc. to him. Young at first demurred, allowing that he would turn the trunk of documents over to his son Robert. As negotiations proceeded, a porter hired by Spalding spirited the trunk away.

Spalding then called a league meeting and proceeded to move in for the kill. Only his four supporters answered his call, but Spalding noted that Giants Secretary Fred Knowles was lurking in the doorway while all this was going on. AG. ruled that by Knowles “presence” New York was represented. Thus, a quorum was created.

Spalding next called for a vote on the Freedman “Syndicate” plan, which not surprisingly, was quickly rejected. While Young was probably relieved to be out of all this turmoil, Andrew Freedman had no intention of surrendering so easily. Freedman went to court, and although his first motion was denied, on March 29,1902 a Judge Truax of New York ruled Spalding’s “election” invalid.

Deadlocked balloting proceeded once more. Finally on April 3, 1902 a compromise of sorts was reached. A triumvirate was named to guide executive functions as the war raged into its second year. Brush chaired the unwieldy group. Nick Young, the eternal Nick Young, was back as Secretary-Treasurer. Some allege that as part of this deal, Andrew Freedman sent word to A.G. Spalding that he would retire from baseball as soon as he gracefully could.

“Ban” Johnson, of course, was elated by such dissension in the opposition’s ranks. In every previous struggle, the National League had been firmly united, while its various interloping competitors had lacked cohesion. Now, the shoe was on the other foot.

“If they fight like a bunch of Kilkenny cats among themselves,” “Ban” Johnson chortled, “I know we have them licked.”

Following the 1901 season, the American League looked still more viable, as Johnson shifted his weak Milwaukee franchise (it drew only 139,034 in 1901) to St. Louis (which, next to Chicago, was the second largest city allowing Sunday ball.) The new franchise would utilize old Sportsman’s Park.

Late in the 1902 season, Andrew Freedman, much to the relief of his fellow magnates, bowed out of the game. He sold the Giants to John T. Brush, who in turn disposed of his Cincinnati holdings. After that season, jumping to the American League continued. Even Christy Mathewson and catcher Frank Bowerman were hopping from the Giants to the Browns.

The American Leagues invasion of Manhattan was now about to occur. Obtaining a field in Manhattan was always the major issue delaying the incursion as Andrew Freedman enjoyed considerable favor from the local politicians, so much so that any site considered would soon have a street cut through it by the City Fathers.

In December 1902 Johnson located a promising site between 142nd and 145th Streets and Lenox Avenue and the Harlem River. It was, moreover near a new station of the interborough Rapid Transit (IRT) subway. Johnson’s agents convinced John B. McDonald, an IRT contractor, to purchase the land and lease it to the American League. McDonald persuaded financier August Belmont II to come aboard. However, an IRT Director — one Andrew Freedman — soon killed the plan.

“You know that I am out of baseball, having sold my controlling interest in the New York club to Mr. Brush,” gloated Freedman to the press in early January 1902, “but you may quote me as saying that someone has been stringing these Western fellows all along.”

That situation was changing, however, and fast. On February 18, 1902 the estate of one Josephine Peyton had auctioned off twelve parcels of land for $377,800 to John J. Byrne, a nephew of “Big Bill” Devery. Devery, one of the Big Apple’s foremost gamblers, was a very active Democrat in the borough’s Ninth District, and, oh yes, a former city Police Chief.

Devery soon was in business with Frank Farrell, another major operator. Ex-saloonkeeper Farrell owned 250 pool halls in the city and was closely connected to “Boss” Sullivan, an even greater star in New York’s underworld firmament.

Coal dealer Joseph Gordon, acting as front man for Farrell and Devery approached Johnson telling him his group could easily arrange for a park to be built if given a franchise. Devery and Farrell paid $18,000 for the Baltimore franchise and installed Gordon as President. Devery’s name was missing from those listed as stockholders, although it was well known he had contributed approximately $100 000 to the enterprise.

“Me a backer!” Devery modestly, if somewhat dishonestly, exclaimed, “I only wished I did own some stock in a baseball club. I’m a poor man and don’t own stock in anything. Besides, how could I pitch a ball with this stomach.”

That’s one version of the story. Frank Graham in The New York Yankees tells another. According to sportswriter Graham, Johnson and his new ownership group were brought together by the New York Sun‘s Joe Vila. Vila had known Johnson since the League President’s own sportswriting days and introduced him to Frank Farrell.

Farrell was more than eager to purchase the Baltimore franchise, although Johnson was sure about his prospective new club owner. His reticence evaporated when Farrell produced a $25,000 check and handed it over to Johnson, proclaiming, “Take this as a guarantee of good faith. If I don’t put this ball club across, keep it.”

“That’s a pretty big forfeit,” replied an amazed Johnson.

“He bets that much on a horse race, Ban,” Vila informed him.

In any case the deal was made between the American League and its somewhat shady triumvirate. For $75,000 in actual construction costs (plus $200,000 in excavating the rocky, hilly terrain) rickety wooden 16,000 seat Hilltop Park was constructed. A local Democratic politico, Thomas McAvoy received contracts for both phases. A full five hundred workmen went to work, excavating 12,000 cubic yards of bedrock replacing it with 30,000 cubic yards of fill. On May 30, 1903 the Highlanders opened up before 16,243 fans and defeated Washington 6-2 behind “Happy Jack” Chesbro.

To help shore up the weak New York roster — which after all had finished dead-last in Baltimore — “Ban” Johnson dispatched reinforcements. Clark Griffiths, his pitching career winding down, would manage. Outfielder “Wee Willie” Keeler was lured from Brooklyn for a sizable sum. I signed Keeler, myself,” boasted Johnson,”and I found him an easy man to deal with” The strengthened club would finish a respectable fourth in 1903.

American League baseball — and with it a team to be known as the New York Yankees — had begun in New York City, the Big Apple.