A CHAMPIONSHIP FOR INDIANAPOLIS THE RESULT IN INDIANAPOLIS WILL CLOSELY WATCHED BY THE OTHER FEDERAL LEAGUE MAGNATES. seventy-five to fifty cents. “The result in to incorporate eight existing minor-league the United States on the sidelines, martial Indianapolis will be closely watched by the franchises (including the Indianapolis jargon began seeping into baseball cover­ other Federal League magnates,” Krause Indians) into a third big league within the age. One scribe expressed mock horror said in a statement, “and it is believed by sphere of organized baseball. Gilmore had that the German army might draft the the Organized Baseball club owners as a counteroffensive up his sleeve. On July Federals’ top player o f Teutonic descent, well. The latter may be forced to make the 1 Gilmore said he would ask the courts to Kauff. Rumors began circulating in mid- same schedule of prices wherever there is invoke the Sherman antitrust law. If suc­ August of a possible baseball armistice competition.” cessful, the Federals hoped to end orga­ that would end the antitrust lawsuits and Slashing prices may have been a boon nized baseball’s monopoly once and for all. consolidate the Federals with organized for fans, but not for owners whose teams By late July, news of the war in baseball baseball. “The sensible men on both sides were already in financial difficulty. Reports began to take a backseat in the papers. realize that the game will be killed,” wrote surfaced that organized baseball hoped From the British Isles to the Balkans, Ralston Goss in the Indianapolis Star, to kill off the Federals by creating a third Europe was slipping toward the real thing. “unless some sort of a compromise can be league of its own in 1915. The plan was Hostilities broke out in August and, with reached within the next few months.” The infield for the Chicago Cubs— shortstop Joe Tinker, second baseman Johnny Evers, and first baseman Frank Chance— proved so deft at turning double plays that writer Franklin Pierce Adams was inspired to write the poem, “That Double Play Again." The poem's refrain of “Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance" made the players famous. 12 | TRACES | Summer 2010.