John T. Powers

John Thomas Powers

• Born June 25, 1874 in Sheffield, IL USA
• Died December 27, 1947 in Sheffield, IL USA

Biographical Information

John T. Powers played an important role in baseball in the 1910s as one of the main founders of the Federal League, which for two seasons challenged the established National League and American League as a third major league. However, after the upstart league collapsed following the 1915 season, his name faded into obscurity.

He was a big booster of baseball throughout his life, as a sportswriter, publicist and organizer of amateur and semi-pro teams. The creation of the Federal League was to be the crowning event of his career, but his vision for the circuit was eventually rejected by the league's financial backers, leading to a head-on clash with the two established leagues, a fight that the new league could not win. Powers had a different vision for the circuit, however: he wanted the league to grow gradually and develop its own players rather than raiding the two established leagues for talent, and in doing so forcing salaries upward in a dangerous gamble. And in 1913, when he was the league's president and it was still considered a minor league outside of Organized Baseball (the equivalent of a modern-day independent league), his vision worked. It was when it came time to take the next step - proclaiming the circuit a major league - that rifts began to appear. He was on the losing side of the argument, and in August of 1913 was pushed aside in favor of James Gilmore, who presided over the league for its other two seasons, in 1914 and 1915, when it competed directly with the other two leagues and eventually collapsed due to lack of revenues.

Reports that Powers played minor league baseball as a youth have never substantiated. He is known to have served as a junior officer in the United States Navy during the Spanish-American War, however. He settled in Chicago, IL after the war, where he worked for the Chicago Times Herald. That's when he became a tireless organizer of baseball teams and leagues. He sought executive positions with various minor leagues in the Midwest in the early 1900s, but nothing came of this until he set up the Class D Wisconsin State League and served as its president and commissioner in 1905 and 1906. However, the league's success was in part based on Powers' strong - some would say dictatorial - leadership, and he was ousted by club owners following the 1906 season (not coincidentally, the league collapsed at the end of the 1907 season). He tried to organize a league in Colorado that year, but soon his unwillingness to compromise with anyone won him powerful enemies, and the venture failed to get off the ground. He moved over to Nevada to organize a four-team outlaw league there, but that only lasted one season, with the league most remembered for an infamous incident in which Powers decided to umpire the championship game himself, hoisting two large revolvers to impress the rowdy miners in attendance, only to be immediately disarmed by the local sheriff.

After a few years on the sidelines, he re-emerged in early 1912 as the organizer of what he called the "Columbian League", a potential rival to the two major leagues whose popularity was booming at the time. He proposed fielding teams in eight cities, mostly in the Midwest, and vowed to respect existing major league player contracts. The National Commission did not take the potential competitor seriously and dismissed the circuit as a wannabe of little consequence. However, player signings did not follow, and another similar venture, the United States League, was launched simultaneously in the eastern U.S., but also looked to place franchises in some of the cities identified by the Columbian League. Financial backers that Powers had lined up shifted their interest to the USL, which seemed to be more advanced, and the fledgling circuit collapsed without playing a single game. The United States League did take the field, but it was nowhere near major league caliber in spite of its claims and disbanded before the season was over. However, in early 1913, Powers came back to the charge with a proposal for a third league, based on the stillborn Columbian League and also claiming the inheritance of the failed U.S. League. This time the project came to fruition as the Federal League was organized as a six-team minor league, with Powers elected as its President on March 8th. The franchises were placed in major league cities (Chicago, IL, Cleveland, OH, St. Louis, MO, Pittsburgh, PA, Indianapolis, IN and Covington, KY, that representing the Cincinnati, OH market), making it clear that the circuit had bigger ambitions then being just another minor league. However, in spite of a lot of bluster, player signings were limited and the quality of the on-field product in 1913 was no challenge to that of the two major leagues.

Thus came the clash that ousted Powers. He would have been content to build slowly on that existing base and gradually improve the quality of the product without raiding the two major leagues for players. Team owners however were not happy with an inferior product and felt they could take the big boys head-on by moving into big Eastern cities (there were some pretty well-heeled persons ready to invest in a new major league, so that point of view was not simply a delusion). In August, Powers lost out to those who wanted to take the next step immediately and in grand fashion, and was ousted from the circuit he had created. To save face, the owners claimed that Powers was given a leave of absence due to overwork, but it was clear to everyone that he had been pushed aside. Unabated, Powers began to make plans to start a fourth major league, but these were dashed when the Federal League showed how difficult it was to compete with the two established leagues and investors were scared away.

During World War I, he went to France to help organize sporting activities for the U.S. expeditionary forces in Europe, then after the end of the conflict helped to organize the first French baseball league, based around French universities (the current Paris Université Club dates back to that era). He returned to the U.S. and continued to be involved in amateur baseball around Chicago.

Related Sites

• John T. Powers at the SABR Bio Project