The Forgotten League
The 1900 American League
Background
As I started to look into 1908 players we could highlight, it slowly dawned on me that I’ll need to set up some historical background first.
Many of the really interesting personalities in the early days of baseball were directly caught up in the early years of the American League / National League conflict. It’s kind of hard to talk about the players that made 1908 interesting without first establishing what was going on in the bigger baseball world at the turn of the 20th century.
Instead of trying to fit page after page of historical information into a player’s biography, I figured I’d start going through the history slowly, one step at a time.
The Forgotten League
What’s wrong with this article?
So what’s wrong with this? I mean, the description is pretty good. Even the lineups are accurate:
Not a bad research job, especially for the pre-internet era!
However, the problem here is the simple fact that 1901 was not the first season in American League history.
In fact, if you just glance at any Chicago sports page from April 25, 1901, you’ll see that there was clearly a 1900 American League season.
For example, there’s this from The Chicago Tribune:
That same article included descriptions such as this:
In other words, there was indeed a 1900 American League season. Not only that, but it was apparently considered to be the equivalent of a “major league” in some circles.
Now, if you’ve done your homework, this shouldn’t be any surprise to you. The 1900 American League season is mentioned on the History of the American League Wikipedia page, for instance. Still, you won’t find a single mention of this league in obvious places such as the 1900 in baseball page, and you have to really know your stuff to locate its Baseball-Reference page.
How the American League Started
Of course, this isn’t an article about “the history you never knew existed” or anything like that. This is all about the story behind this history, the story that you might not know about.
As you might be aware, the American League was originally the Western League. Ban Johnson, who was originally a Cincinnati sports reporter, was named commissioner of the Western League in 1894. His plan for expansion came to fruition in late 1899.
Now, you’ve probably heard of the problems that the National League faced in 1899. Syndicate ownership led to certain teams (most famously the Cleveland Spiders) becoming bereft of talent. Before the 1900 season, National League owners decided to contract, eliminating teams in Baltimore, Washington D.C., Cleveland, and Louisville. SABR has a very well written history of this event.
When we look back at history, it’s easy for us to conclude that the events that took place took place naturally. It’s simple to see that the American League had teams in Baltimore, Washington D.C., and Cleveland for the 1901 season, and conclude that Ban Johnson simply decided to push the American League into “major league” status because of National League contraction.
However, the truth, as usual, is a bit more muddy than that.
The Western League became the American League before the 1899 National League season finished.
Don’t believe me? Here’s the proof:
There are a few important things to note here.
First of all, as you can clearly see, the National League season wasn’t done yet. It’s hard for us to believe or understand today, but the National League had schedules in the late 19th century that stretched clear into mid-October. This practice continued through the 1902 season; in fact, one of the selling points of the American League was the absence of numerous breaks in season schedules for no apparent reason.
The second thing to note is the feeling from the start that the American League would challenge the National League directly. A confusing aspect here that I don’t quite understand is that the National League somehow thought that allowing the American to grow in stature would somehow hedge off efforts to resurrect the old American Association. In hindsight, this truly was a Chamberlain in Munich moment.
Keep that in mind when you read the popular explanation that the National League saw no threat in the American. When you take the time to actually look at the old documents, things become a lot less clear and straightforward.
Third is the demand to allow American League teams to hold onto their players for two seasons before they were subject to being drafted by the National League, as well as an increase in the drafting price. Though the newspapers didn’t seem to pay much attention to this development, this was an important first step in separating the newly-christened American League from the other minor league baseball organizations, allowing it to develop into an “almost major league” in 1900.
National League Contraction
So what about National League contraction? Well, that didn’t become official until March 1900:
And don’t let the course of history fool you into thinking that this was an obvious decision, or even a popular one at that:
In other words, the American League changed its name and took an offensive posture before the National League officially contracted.
Now, there were rumors of National League contraction going back to the summer of 1899. However, nothing was definite — and you really have to think in hindsight that it took a lot of guts for Johnson to make such bold moves before knowing for sure what the National League was going to do.
Birth of the White Sox
In fact, Ban Johnson won one of the most impressive victories in baseball administrative history before that National League contraction was official.
When I first learned about the 1900 American League season several years ago, I was confused. It made absolutely no sense to me that the National League would willingly allow a “minor league” to move a team to a National League city.
Not only is that what happened — but even that event preceeded National League contraction.
First of all, it just so happens that Ban Johnson’s October 1899 meeting to change the name of his league took place in Chicago, at the Great Northern Hotel:
You should also note here that James A. Hart, President of the National League Chicago club at the time (something that isn’t well attested to on the internet, and is conspiciously absent from his Wikipedia page), was upset about that aggressive name change.
Now, when you start looking closer, you’ll see that the National League was worried about a resurgance of the American Association. This is from that same Chicago Tribune article:
It’s really amazing to read this stuff when you realize what happened in the end. Ban Johnson, in contrast, wasn’t quite as subtle about his intentions in the next paragraph:
Is there any surprise that Boston and Philadelphia made up the second wave of cities Johnson chose to directly challenge the National League?
Anyway, understanding that American Association threat helps to explain snippets like this:
The “new league” referred to here is not the newly named American League, but instead a theoretical American Association.
Now, it didn’t take long for Johnson to show his hand. By November, reports came out indicating that he wanted a club in Chicago for his newly ascendent league:
And it only took a few days for it to become official:
Was this really Hart’s idea all along? I doubt it. I wonder, though, if Johnson didn’t think of a way to make Hart think it was his idea all along.
There was an attempt to prevent the American League from entering Chicago. That attempt resulted in a lot of interesting articles during that eventful winter of 1900, including this:
This article went on:
Johnson’s allusion to New York in that final paragraph is about as subtle as having a door slammed in your face.
Despite that, in the end the National League owners voted in favor of allowing the move - and by a pretty large majority at that:
This article goes on to include more predictions that the American League would continue to abide by the old national agreement — never mind the fact that it had unilaterally rewritten the terms that it would abide by just a few months earlier:
By 1901, the national agreement was as good as dead.
And there you have it: a first-hand view of the National League’s Neville Chamberlain moment, told chiefly through primary sources. Personally, I’m absolutely baffled that Johnson was able to win his coup so easily. James Hart sold his birthright for nothing.
More to Come
There’s a lot more to say and to read on this topic.
Ban Johnson made a wise decision to limit his assault on the National League to Chicago at first. It allowed him a year to experiment — and, as we’ll see tomorrow, that experiment was a resounding success.