Baltimore Terrapins
| Baltimore Terrapins | |
|---|---|
| Location | Baltimore, Maryland |
| Ballpark | Terrapin Park |
| Year founded | 1914 |
| Year disbanded | 1915 |
| League championships | 0 |
| Former league(s) | |
| Ownership | Ned Hanlon |
| Manager | Otto Knabe |
The Baltimore Terrapins were one of the most successful teams in the short-lived Federal League of professional baseball from 1914 to 1915, but their brief existence led to litigation that led to an important legal precedent in baseball. The team played its home games at Terrapin Park.
Most of the professional baseball teams in Baltimore have been called the Orioles, in reference to the Baltimore oriole bird. There was already a minor league Baltimore Orioles, and the new Federal League club built their ballpark directly across the street from the Orioles park. The new club chose to call itself the Baltimore Terrapins, after the diamondback terrapin, the state reptile of Maryland. That nickname would later become primarily associated with the University of Maryland, College Park sports teams called the Maryland Terrapins.
While the 1914 team posted a respectable 84–70 record and finished only 4½ games out of first place under player-manager Otto Knabe, the team was less than successful at the box office, even though four of the eight teams in the league (Chicago, Brooklyn, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis) were competing with one and even two (Chicago and St. Louis) other major league teams in the same cities.
In an attempt to turn this situation around and attract a marquee player to help them at the box office, the 1915 team recruited Chief Bender of the American League champion Philadelphia Athletics. The Athletics had sold off several future Hall-of-Famers like Eddie Plank, Eddie Collins and Frank "Home Run" Baker after being swept by the surprising Boston Braves in the 1914 World Series.
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