Match Made In Hell

Ban Johnson and John McGraw, 1900

Match Made In Hell

It’s been a little while since we’ve talked about this subject. You might need a refresher.

I wrote a while ago about exactly what Ban Johnson did right in turning the American League into a major league. You might want to review it:

And, if you haven’t seen it yet, you should check out my special article on John McGraw’s forgotten 1900 season:

There was some sort of force that brought these two men together at the end of the 1900 baseball season.

They really made an odd couple. Both men were clearly vain and conceited. Ban Johnson was a big talker, a narcissist in the old Teddy Roosevelt vein. McGraw was a skilled athlete, yet he was also a schemer — the sort of guy who would run over his grandmother for a base hit, but who also thought nothing of spending hours betting on horses at the race track.

McGraw’s 1900 contract with St. Louis contained no reserve clause, which made what happened next completely legal and above-board. The fact that McGraw knew that he had enough leverage to negotiate that clause out of his contract goes to show how intelligent he really was.

John McGraw was born on April 7, 1873, making him only 27 years old when all of this happened.

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How The Match Was Made

So how did the two get together? How is it that Ban Johnson, the man who loudly proclaimed that his league was the “clean” one, went after a notoriously dirty and aggressive player like McGraw?

Well, the first thing you have to understand is that the American League wasn’t the only potential competitor to the National League in 1900.

In all seriousness, you can’t even begin to look at Sporting Life in 1900 without coming across article proclaiming the return of the American Association, occasionally also called the National Association. The story of the rival would-be competitors to the National League is one that isn’t often told, and one that I don’t have the time to get into here.

That, however, helps explain this article, which is where our story begins:

From St. Louis Post-Dispatch, October 3, 1900, page 5

John McGraw and his friend Wilbert Robinson, both Cardinals players in 1900, wanted to go back to Baltimore. It’s clear that they would do anything to be put in charge of a team in Baltimore, regardless of who they had to work with.

That’s why you also see snippets like this one:

From St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 7, 1900, part 4 page 6

The National League season wasn’t over yet, and yet the St. Louis press had already concluded that neither McGraw nor Robinson would be back the next year. Remember, of course, that McGraw was effectively serving as manager of the St. Louis club at the time.

From The St. Louis Republic, October 9, 1900, page 7

You’ll find notes like the one above here and there. Remember, though, that McGraw’s contract had no reserve clause (I’m not sure about Robinson’s). He could play wherever he wanted, regardless of the claim that St. Louis put out on him.

Based on the little amount of research I’ve been able to do, this appears to be the first article concluding that Baltimore would join the American League in 1901, and that McGraw and Robinson would both be there:

From St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 13, 1900, page 7

Slowly but surely, the Baltimore press started reporting on the rumors:

From The Baltimore Sun, October 20, 1900, page 6

Of course, McGraw’s statements about Baltimore being a big club the next year made for a pretty good hint.

And then came this, less than a week later:

From St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 25, 1900, page 10

There’s more to this article, actually. The rest is a bit gossipy, but still worth preserving:

Joe McGinnity did play with Baltimore in 1901. Cupid Childs, on the other hand, stayed with the Chicago Orphans, where he finished his career after only half a season. Childs, incidentally, was one of the offensive stars of the Cleveland Spiders of the mid-1890s — a fact unknown to most baseball fans today, but that almost all readers of this article in 1900 would have recognized immediately.

Now, the move wasn’t official quite yet. However, it was as good as official. I’m guessing this is the “public display of affection” part of this demonic marriage:

From The Baltimore Sun, October 25, 1900, page 6

That story spread far and wide:

From The Scranton Republican, October 26, 1900, page 1

Note the talk of expanding to New York. As we saw earlier, it’s clear that going to New York was on Johnson’s mind as early as the mid-1890s.

From The Chicago Tribune, October 2,6, 1900, page 4

Everything seemed lovely in Baltimore in those early days:

From The Baltimore Sun, October 27, 1900, page 6

Meanwhile, in St. Louis, it was anything but good times:

From St. Louis Globe-Democrat, October 28, 1900, part 4 page 4

It’s crazy to see the St. Louis press claim that there was “a slim outside chance” that McGraw would return as late as October 28, 1900.

And that’s how it happened — all of it right at the time that the 1900 National League season was wrapping up.

As a final note, there were hints of a possible divorce as soon as the marriage started:

From The St. Louis Republic, January 3, 1901, page 4

More on that later.