This is one for the baseball history enthusiasts...
In 1914 and 1915 the Federal League played as a third major league. This was the last effort to start a major league that actually played games. The Federal League was comprised of eight teams. In 1914 there were franchises in Baltimore, Brooklyn, Buffalo, Chicago, Indianapolis, Kansas City, Pittsburg, and St. Louis. In 1915 the only change was the Indianapolis franchise moved to Newark. The various Fed franchises managed to sign a fair number of players who had MLB experience and also signed players from the upper minor leagues who would go on to play in the AL and NL after the Federal League collapsed – so we should be able to put together reasonable twist teams, which is the goal here.
The baseball-reference.com page for the Federal League is here.
We will run the 1914 and 1915 seasons as the two leagues in a 16 team WiS season. There will be no interleague play so the seasons will be independent of one another until the two pennant winners face off in the World Series. I’ll use the sim-league option that has two four team divisions in each league with the division winners facing off in the LCS. Alignment will be based on the order teams finished in the actual Federal League season, top 4 records in the East division, bottom 4 records in the West.
Assignment of season/franchises will be random. Once we fill I’ll use random.com to assign franchises. Since the two seasons will run independently owners are welcome to have a team in both seasons if they choose. I will ensure no one who plays a team in both seasons ends up with the same franchise in ’14 and ’15. When you sign up please indicate if you want one franchise or two.
Beyond that this will be a standard twist league. Draft a roster of guys who appeared for your franchise/season, choosing any major league season of their career. The WiS database includes Federal League seasons, so you may use one of those seasons if you wish, or an AL or NL season.
- No clones, DH, WW, or trades
- $80 mil salary cap
- AAA will be 6/4 average
- $200K exemption: Allowed to draft three $200k position players and two $200k pitcher from any season; these players cannot appear in games/must be replaced with AAA
- Draft a minimum of 5500 PAs and 1350 IP
Stadiums: The WiS database does not include most Federal League stadiums. The Chicago and Pittsburgh franchises played stadiums used by other ML teams in other seasons, so obviously those franchises will play there. [Interesting historical note…Wrigley Field was built by the Chicago FL franchise and originally called Weeghman Park. At the time the Cubs played in a stadium on the west side of Chicago and moved to Wrigley after the FL collapsed.] Beyond that I've assigned stadiums below. I have used stadiums that were contemporary and geographically close. When I had options I tried to match hitter friendly-ness/pitcher friendly-ness with the way bb-r characterizes the actual Federal League parks the teams played in. Here are the stadium assignments:
Baltimore Terrapins Griffith Stadium
Brooklyn Tip Tops Washington Park III
Buffalo Blues League Park II (Cleveland, OH)
Chicago Whales Wrigley Field
Indianapolis Hoosiers Comiskey Park I
Kansas City Packers Robison Field
Newark Pepper Polo Grounds V
Pittsburgh Rebels Exposition Park
St. Louis Terriers Sportsman’s Park III
6/11/2014 1:43 PM (edited)