In 1913, an independent baseball league started up. There were six teams, including Pittsburgh, and they called themselves the Federal League.
In 1914, a couple of rich owners who had been turned down in attempts to buy major league clubs got involved. They decided the Federal League would be a major league, and started signing players from the National and American Leagues. There was litigation, of course, but ultimately the Federal League was able to proceed. The Pittsburgh Rebels, owned by a second-generation businessman named Edward Gwinner, played in Exposition Park.
The 1914 team finished seventh of eight teams, as did the Pirates. Among the players they signed for 1915 was a left-handed pitcher who had been with Brooklyn named Frank Allen.
On April 24, 1915, Allen started for Pittsburgh in St. Louis. He was opposed by righty Bob Groom, who had spent five years with the Senators.
After Pittsburgh went out 1-2-3 in the top of the first, St. Louis came to bat. Jack Tobin led off by grounding to Jack Lewis at second base. Allen then walked Al Bridwell, who immediately stole second. Delos Drake walked. Babe Borton grounded out to Lewis, advancing the runners. Ward Miller walked to load the bases. Grover Hartley came up and grounded to third baseman Mike Mowrey, who made the play unassisted.
Pittsburgh was out in order in the second. In the bottom of the inning, Charlie Deal grounded to third. Ernie Johnson grounded to shortstop Marty Berghammer, as did Groom.
In the top of the third, Pittsburgh got its first baserunner when Allen walked, but Jones grounded to short to force him. Tobin, Bridwell and Drake all grounded back to Allen to take care of the Terriers.
Berghammer walked to lead off the fourth, but Mowrey grounded into a double play. Ed Konetchy walked, and Rebel Oakes flew out to left to end the inning. Allen threw out his fourth straight hitter on Borton's grounder. Miller flied to center, then Hartley grounded to third.
In the fifth inning, Lewis struck out. Deal knocked down Jim Kelley's liner to third but threw the ball away, allowing Kelley to reach second. It was scored a single and error, representing the first hit of the game. Claude Berry hit a long fly to left. Miller made the catch and threw out Kelley trying to advance to third. In the bottom of the frame, Deal popped to short, Allen caught Johnson's popup, and Groom flied out to Kelley.
Jones singled in an otherwise uneventful top of the sixth. Tobin led off the bottom of the inning with a long fly to right that Kelley gloved while up against the wall. Bridwell hit a more routine fly to center and Drake grounded to short.
Konetchy opened the seventh with a triple to center. He held at third when Oakes grounded back to Groom. With Lewis at the plate, catcher Hartley attempted to pick off the runner at third, but the throw hit Konetchy in the back and bounded to the grandstand, allowing the game's first run to score. After Lewis grounded to Groom, Kelley singled and stole second, but Berry flied out to end the inning. Borton was Allen's first strikeout victim. Miller bounced back to Allen and Hartley lined to right.
After Pittsburgh went down in order in the eighth, Oakes ran down Deal's long fly to center. Bobby Vaughn pinch-hit for Johnson and grounded to short. Groom took a third strike to end the inning.
Mowrey led off the top of the ninth with a single to left and took second when Miller bobbled it. Konetchy sacrificed, and reached first when Groom unsuccessfully tried to throw out Mowrey. Oakes hit a long sacrifice fly to left, Konetchy also advancing. Lewis grounded to Vaughn at short, who got the runner at third. Kelley lined back to the box.
In the bottom of the ninth, Tobin grounded back to Allen, and was ejected for "kicking." Doc Crandall batted for Bridwell and walked, giving St. Louis their first baserunner since the first. Harry Chapman pinch-ran. "Oakes made a wonderful running catch" of Drake's line drive, according to The Pittsburgh Press. Borton grounded to Berghammer, who forced Chapman at second, and Allen had his no-hitter.
Allen's record improved to 4-0. He'd finish the season 23-13 with a 2.51 ERA, leading the Rebels in starts, wins, complete games and strikeouts.
The 1915 Federal League pennant race came down to the final weekend. After a rainout on Friday, Oct. 1, Pittsburgh led St. Louis by a half-game and Chicago by a game and a half. The Rebels and Whales would play two doubleheaders -- in Pittsburgh Saturday and Chicago Sunday -- while the Terriers hosted Kansas City. The league wasn't concerned about making up additional rainouts, so the teams ended up playing different numbers of games.
A sweep of Saturday's twin bill would clinch the pennant for Pittsburgh. Elmer Knetzer started the first game for the Rebels, while Chicago manager Joe Tinker went with Mordecai (Three-Finger) Brown. Knetzer didn't get out of the third inning, giving up four earned runs in 2 2/3 innings. Five relievers followed, but the Whales led 8-1 after four, and Brown scattered 16 hits in posting an 8-5 victory.
The nightcap was much more exciting. Chicago scored three runs in the third off Cy Barger, while Mowrey got the only Rebel hit that Mike Prendergast allowed in the first eight innings. In the bottom of the ninth, Berghammer walked. After Al Wickland made an out, Berghammer took second on Oakes' out. Konetchy was safe on an error by third baseman Charley Pechous, and stole second. Kelley tripled down the right field line, scoring two runs, but was carried off the field after injuring his leg on the slide into third. Cy Rheam pinch-ran and tied the game on Mowrey's single. But Mowrey was caught stealing, sending the game into extra innings. In the 11th, Les Mann's short fly dropped between four Rebels for a double, and that started a three-run rally on five hits. Pittsburgh went down without a hit in the bottom of the inning, and the two clubs set out for Chicago to play a Sunday doubleheader.
St. Louis was eliminated when they lost their Saturday game, so the Whales were in the driver's seat. A win in either of Sunday's games would bring them the pennant. Weeghman Park was filled to overflowing, with a crowd of 34,212.
In the first inning of the opener, with runners on first and second and one out, Konetchy hit the ball to shortstop Mickey Doolan, who threw wildly to third trying to get the lead runner. Wickland scored, and the Rebels were up, 1-0. In the bottom of the third, Max Flack reached second when Berghammer threw away his ground ball. Dutch Zwilling singled him in.
The Whales scored two runs in the sixth when Mann's sacrifice fly brought home Art Wilson and pinch-hitter William Fischer singled in Pechous. Zwilling drove in another in the seventh.
In the ninth, Mowrey walked. After Steve Yerkes and Berry made outs, Lewis pinch-hit for pitcher Clinton Rogge and singled Mowrey to third. Berghammer doubled to center, scoring Mowrey while Lewis took third. Wickland singled to right, driving in the two tying runs.
In the eleventh, Berry struck out. Knetzer singled, and advanced to second when Berghammer was thrown out, catcher to first. That brought up Wickland, whose single to left drove in Knetzer. Chicago went down in order, and the Rebels' pennant hopes were still alive. Knetzer picked up the win with 3 innings of one-hit relief, while Prendergast came on in the ninth and took the loss.
Knetzer started the nightcap against Bill Bailey. Through five innings, the only player to reach second base was Chicago's Doolan, who was stranded there in the third. The Rebels went down in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the inning, Doolan led off with a single to left. Bailey sacrificed him to second, and Rollie Zeider's groundout to second baseman Yerkes advanced him to third. Flack's high fly to center, "ordinarily an easy catch for Manager Oakes, was lost in the spreading shadows and went for a double," according to the Pittsburgh Gazette Times. It brought Doolan home with the Whales' first run. A double by Zwilling and a single by Wilson made it 3-0. Allen came on to get Mann to pop to first. In the seventh, Berghammer struck out. Ed Lennox pinch-hit for Wickland and almost fought with the umpire after being called out on strikes. That brought Oakes to the plate and he hit a fly ball to Zwilling in center. At that point, the game was called on account of darkness. Chicago won the game, 3-0, and the pennant. Had the game been called before the tie was broken, Pittsburgh would have finished first.
"Such a demonstration as that which the fans showed when the second game was bobtailed on account of darkness can hardly be imagined," said the Gazette Times, "for almost every one of the fans, whether sane or insane, flocked on the field, grabbed the few Tinkerites they could get hold of and simply mauled them for five minutes. Bats, gloves and caps -- in fact everything handy -- was stolen by the wildly enthusiastic mob which was celebrating the win of Weeghman's Pets."
The Whales immediately challenged the winner of the Red Sox-Phillies world's series, saying that they'd claim the world's championship if the challenge wasn't accepted.
While the challenge was, indeed, not accepted, the three leagues negotiated to settle the Federal League's anti-trust lawsuit. In the end, they agreed that Terriers owner Phil Ball could buy the St. Louis Browns, that Whales owner Charles Weeghman could buy the Cubs, and that Federal League players from the other clubs could sign with National and American League teams.
The Cubs moved into the ballpark that Weeghman had built for the Whales. When he sold the club to William Wrigley Jr., they changed the stadium's name from Weeghman Park to Wrigley Field. So the Friendly Confines are the last standing link to the Federal League.
The Rebels didn't leave nearly so enduring a legacy in Pittsburgh, although their owners received $50,000 as part of the settlement. But they did have their couple of big moments on the field.
