The Federal League owners had deep pockets and were intent on opening them

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Branch Rickey did not believe that the Federal League fifa 15 coins would succeed. He felt that it lacked both quality players and experienced ownership,but he was aware that it posed an immediate threat locally. Before he had even begun his first full season as manager, both Rickey’s Browns and the National League Cardinals were to be faced with third league competition in their small city, a metropolitan area that had the smallest population of any Major League franchise.

The Federal League owners had deep pockets and were intent on opening them. They promised to build new stadiums in six of their eight cities, and they enticed many Major Leaguers with offers of double or tri- ple what they were currently earning. The Chicago Whales made the first big Federal League news in December 1913 when they signed manager Joe Tinker, the shortstop in the Cubs’ famed double play combination of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance. Outfielder Max Flack, later a member of Rickey’s Cardinals, also signed with the new Chicago team. The Whales were owned by Charles Weeghman, the wealthy owner of a chain of Chi- cago cafeterias, who made good on his promise to build a new ballpark on the north side of Chicago.

After playing the 1913 season at St. Louis University, the St. Louis team, known variously as the Terriers or the Sloufeds, moved into a new stadium in 1914.17 Many pundits gave them a good chance of succeed- ing, since its opposition would be two teams that finished last in 1913 and rarely contended for a pennant. The main owner of the Sloufeds was millionaire ice manufacturer Philip DeCatesby Ball, who had made his fortune selling his product to brewers and meatpackers. A native of Keokuk, Iowa, Ball had worked at a variety of jobs, from railroad and construction worker to cowboy to Minor League baseball player, where his career prematurely ended when he was stabbed in the hand during a barroom brawl.18

Trying to make a splash with a big name, Ball signed pitcher Mor- decai Centennial “Three-Finger” Brown, a future Hall of Famer, and named him the Terriers’ player-manager. He also added former Athlet- ics southpaw Eddie Plank, another aging future Hall of Famer. Among the promising outfielders on Phil Ball’s roster were Jack Tobin, a local boy from St. Louis, and Armando Marsans, formerly with the Cincinnati Reds and one of the first Major Leaguers from Cuba. On paper many pundits thought that Ball’s Federal team looked superior to the Hedges- Rickey Browns, who did not seem improved for 1914 and had already returned half of the thirty Minor Leaguers drafted in September 1913 to their original teams.