INSIDE THIS ISSUE Back to Back Champions from 1905 to 1907
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A publication of the Society for American Baseball Research Business of Baseball Committee October 15, 2007 Fall 2007 Right Idea, Wrong Color: Ed Barrow and a Third Major League Comparing Two Successful Franchises by Across the Color Barrier Dan Levitt by Michael J. Haupert Hall of Fame executive Ed Barrow secured his legacy University of Wisconsin-La Crosse during his years with the Yankees. He joined New and York's front office after the 1920 season as their first Kenneth Winter de facto general manager. University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Prior to Barrow's joining the Yankees, the team had Introduction never won the pennant; during his 24 year tenure from 1921 through 1944 New York won fourteen pennants Between 1915 and 1917 two baseball organizations in and ten World Series championships. Barrow had ap- two leagues segregated by race made major structural prenticed well for the Yankee position; he had spent changes to their organizations. As a result, the New nearly his entire adult life holding almost every con- York Yankees and the Hilldale Daisies went on to be- ceivable job in baseball, including scorecard hawker. come the dominant teams in their respective leagues From 1911 through 1917 he was president of the In- (Continued on page 7) ternational League, designated (along with the Ameri- can Association and the Pacific Coast League) as the highest classification minor league. The International Bob Quinn: Father of the Farm System League consisted of many of the largest northeastern By cities in North America that did not have a major Craig Lammers league team: Baltimore, Buffalo, Jersey City, Mont- real, Newark, Providence, Rochester, and Toronto. The Quinn family has been a part of baseball for over Three of these cities – Baltimore, Buffalo and Provi- a century. The first member of the family to achieve dence – had an extended run with a major league team baseball prominence was Bob Quinn, perhaps best re- in the nineteenth century. membered today for his work with the St. Louis Browns, Boston Red Sox and the Baseball Hall of During the first part of the 1910s, Barrow's first years Fame. But his most important work was as business as president, the league was profitable and successful. manager of the American Association's Columbus In 1913, however, a new outlaw league, the six-team Senators. (Continued on page 2) Quinn built the American Association's first back to INSIDE THIS ISSUE back to back champions from 1905 to 1907. His player Right Idea, Wrong Color: 1 development ideas were decades ahead of their time Comparing Two Successful Franchises and were also a significant influence on another Across the Color Barrier Ohioan, Branch Rickey. Ed Barrow and a Third Major League 1 (Continued on page 11) Bob Quinn: Father of the Farm System 1 Review of Public Cowboy No. 1 17 Fall 2007 Outside the Lines Ed Barrow (Continued from page 1) Table 1--1914 Population (000s) Cities With AL, NL, FL, IL & AA Franchises Federal League, began operation in a City City Pop Metro Pop Teams number of larger cities in the Midwest. New York (1) 2,615 6,475 2 Because the new league's players came Chicago 2,185 2,447 3 from outside of Organized Baseball, most Brooklyn (2) 2,065 6,475 2 baseball owners initially remained aloof. Philadelphia 1,549 1,972 2 The Federal League's teams consisted St. Louis 687 829 3 predominately of local semi-pro players, Boston 671 1,520 2 aging ex-major leaguers, and journeyman Cle/Toledo 561 613 2 minor league veterans. Late that first sea- Baltimore 558 659 2 son, the Federal League decided to ex- pand to eight teams, invade some larger Pittsburgh 534 1,043 2 eastern cities, and challenge the existing Montreal 471 NA 1 order as a third major league. To com- Detroit 466 501 1 pete, the Federals assembled a financially Buffalo 427 489 2 strong group of owners that compared Toronto 377 NA 1 favorably with the major leagues. Milwaukee 374 427 1 Cincinnati 364 564 1 At the time minor league franchises were Newark 347 6,475 1 generally owned by baseball men and po- Washington 331 368 1 litically connected businessmen of unex- Minneapolis 301 526 1 ceptional wealth. The owners in Barrow's Jersey City 268 6,475 1 International League were at a significant Kansas City 248 340 2 disadvantage when confronted with a Indianapolis 234 238 2 league backed by some of America's Providence 224 396 1 wealthy industrialists. The problem mani- Louisville 224 286 1 fested itself most acutely in the two mar- Rochester 218 249 1 kets competing directly with the new St. Paul 215 526 1 league, Baltimore and Buffalo. In Balti- Columbus 182 222 1 more, the International League team was Source: 1910 Census (1911 Census for Canadian cities) owned by Jack Dunn, a brilliant baseball Highlighted rows indicate International League Cities. operator, but with few financial resources (1) Manhattan and Bronx; entire NY area for metropolitan population outside his franchise. Buffalo president (2) Brooklyn and Queens; entire NY area for metropolitan population J.J. Stein headed up one of the Interna- tional League's most poorly capitalized franchises. Montreal, and Rochester, were principally owned by baseball men of modest means. The other International League franchises were also insufficiently capitalized for a drawn out battle. New- To add some perspective, Table 1 summarizes the ark and Providence were owned by major league inter- various market sizes in 1914. The chart underscores ests. A syndicate led by Brooklyn Dodger owner how competitive the Federals made the struggle for Charles Ebbets controlled the Newark franchise, and a fans in a number of cities. Furthermore, it highlights Detroit group including William Yawkey, Frank that in Baltimore, Buffalo and Toronto, the Interna- Navin, Ty Cobb and Hugh Jennings owned the Provi- tional league was in some of the largest North Ameri- dence club. Because of the impact of the Federals on can cities. (Montreal, despite its size, it was a perenni- their major league teams, neither – particularly Ebbets ally struggling franchise.) – had extra funds available to expend in defense of their International League franchises. A corporation At their December 1913 winter meetings, Barrow and that included Bill Devery, part owner of the Yankees his owners discussed ways of countering the threat and a shady ex-New York Police Chief, controlled the from the Federal League. The American Association Jersey City club. The other three franchises, Toronto, (Continued on page 3) 2 Fall 2007 Outside the Lines Ed Barrow (Continued from page 2) Table 2--1914 Profit Summary (000s) City NL AL FL IL advocated a plan to end the regular season after New York 120 (20) 112 games and then play an interleague series Chicago 50 70 20 with the International League. The International Brooklyn (25) (60) League owners, however, feared that fans would Philadelphia (20) 18 have little interest in a bunch of exhibition games St. Louis 30 (10) (50) after the regular season and turned down the pro- Boston 90 75 posal. Cleveland (80) The International League and American Associa- Baltimore 10 (43) tion also petitioned the major leagues to elimi- Pittsburgh (30) (38) nate the major league-minor league draft. The Montreal (40) draft had long been a sore spot between the high Detroit 30 minors and the major leagues. It allowed teams Buffalo (30) NA to select players – for a meaningful but not par- Toronto (30) ticularly generous fee – from a lower classifica- Cincinnati (5) tion league. The exact draft rules changed often, Newark (30) but in general a team could lose one or two play- Washington (15) ers in a season. Owners and fans in the high mi- Jersey City NA nors often resented being cast as second best, and Kansas City (40) the bitter confrontation with the Federals, who Indianapolis 12 promoted themselves as major, exacerbated this Providence (12) problem. Barrow hoped to rescind the draft, at Rochester NA least during the battle with the Federal League. Although sympathetic to the plight of the minors, Total * 210 68 (176) (200) the major league magnates never agreed to Bar- Source: New York Times, January 31, 1915; Atlanta row's request. Many felt that eliminating the draft Constitution, February 7, 1915; The Sporting News, was tantamount to conferring major league status, various dates. further diluting their own monopoly. Addition- Highlighted rows indicate International League Cities. ally, the draft provided a source of relatively in- * In aggregate, the National, American, and Federal expensive, well-trained talent. League almost surely performed worse than sug- gested by this table. Overall International League Despite Barrow's best efforts, by June it was losses were variously estimated at $150,000 and clear that the International League was in big $200,000. Based on reports that spotlight individual trouble. Table 2 summarizes the overall 1914 team losses, the aggregate loss for the league most losses. Clearly, the modestly capitalized Interna- likely approaches the high end of the estimates. tional League teams were in severe financial dis- tress. Author’s note: Jersey City, though not in direct competition These figures are from several newspaper ac- with the Federals, was drawing only 200-500 counts. The National League figures in particu- fans per game. In Montreal the players were so lar are probably exaggerated to the high side; it disgusted with the poor attendance that they sent is highly unlikely that any league, in aggregate, a delegation to petition owner Sam Lichtenhein turned a profit in 1914. to either trade them or sell the club. The players later complained that they could not "play win- ning ball in that city," and warned they might strike if the franchise was not transferred.