April 14, 2012

League War

I just received The Battle that Forged Modern Baseball: The Federal League Challenge and Its Legacy in the mail. So far I’ve read the preface on how the Federal League signed away Joe Tinker from the National League, making the Federal League threat real. I love the way Daniel R. Levitt set up a list of Dramatis Personae at the start, especially so that you can keep all the Wards straight.

The Federal League battle led to the Supreme Court of the United States granting baseball an anti-trust exemption. It also led to baseball taking challenges from new leagues more seriously from the beginning. Such a challenge led to the first expansion of the game in the early 1960s. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the book.

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