The Chicago Whales were a professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

team based in

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

. They played in the Federal League, a short-lived "third Major League", in 1914 and 1915. They originally lacked a formal nickname, and were known simply as the "Chicago Federals" (or "Chi-Feds") to distinguish them from the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

and

Chicago White Sox The Chicago White Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The White Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League Central, Central Division. The club plays its ...

. The team came in second in the Federal League rankings in and won the league championship in . They came to an end when the Federal League came to a deal with the National and

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is the younger of two sports leagues, leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western L ...

s that disbanded all its teams. The Whales are notable as the original occupants of the stadium now known as

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a ballpark on the North Side, Chicago, North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home ballpark of Major League Baseball's Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charl ...

, the current home of the Chicago Cubs and the only Federal League stadium still in use.

History

The Chicago team played the 1913 initial season of the Federal League, as the new league was formed as an independent minor league. Without a formal nickname, the team was called the Chicago Keeleys in 1913, after manager Burt Keeley. The 1913 Chicago team ended the season in fourth place with a 57–62 record, finishing 17.5 games behind the first place Indianapolis Hoosiers (75–45). The Cleveland Green Sox (64–54), St. Louis Terriers (59–60) Covington Blue Sox/ Kansas City Packers (32–45) and Pittsburgh Filipinos (49–71) were the other members of the 1913 six-team Federal League. As the 1913 season was being played, the Federal League began talks of its future and decided to continue playing with the design of becoming a major league in 1914. Chicago businessman James A. Gilmore was appointed Federal League president, replacing John T. Powers. Gilmore initially secured Charles Weeghman, a wealthy Chicago restaurateur, to become the owner of the Chicago franchise in the Federal League. Gilmore further positioned the league by securing influential owners in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

and

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

. The 1914 Chicago club finished 1½ games behind the Indianapolis Hoosiers in the inaugural major league season for the league. The team lacked a formal nickname and was known simply as the Chicago Federals. Before the start of the season, Weeghman built a stadium for the team, called Weeghman Park, designed by Zachary Taylor Davis, who had previously designed

Comiskey Park Comiskey Park was a ballpark in Chicago, Illinois, located in the Armour Square neighborhood on the near-south side of the city. The stadium served as the home of the Chicago White Sox of the American League from 1910 through 1990. Built by Wh ...

. He also leased the parcel on which the park stood for 99 years. For the 1915 season, Weeghman held a public contest to choose a formal nickname for the club. Nearly 300 entries were submitted, and Weeghman chose "Whales", saying that it "carried a suggestion of athletic prowess and power", as well as being "absolutely unique as a nickname

In the league's second (and final) season, the Chicago uniforms included the logo of a whale "with its tail flopped high just as if it had destroyed an enemy", inside a large "C" on their uniform shirts. The Whales won the league championship, finishing with 86 wins and 66 losses, percentage points ahead of the 1915 St. Louis Terriers season, St. Louis Terriers' 87–67 record. When

Kenesaw Mountain Landis Kenesaw Mountain Landis (; November 20, 1866 – November 25, 1944) was an American jurist who served as a United States federal judge from 1905 to 1922 and the first Commissioner of Baseball, commissioner of baseball from 1920 until his death. ...

brokered a deal between the Federal League,

and

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

that ended the Federal League's existence, Weeghman was allowed to buy a controlling interest in the Cubs. He then merged the Whales with the Cubs and moved the Cubs from West Side Park into his new steel-and-concrete structure. While Weeghman himself was forced out within four years due to financial troubles, the Cubs still play in the park he built to this day, the only Federal League park still in use. It was renamed Cubs Park in 1920 and acquired its present name, Wrigley Field, in 1926. Many Whales players had American and National League experience, including manager Joe Tinker, Dutch Zwilling,

Mordecai Brown Mordecai Peter Centennial Brown (October 19, 1876 – February 14, 1948), nicknamed "Three Finger Brown" or "Miner", was an American Major League Baseball pitcher and manager during the first two decades of the 20th century (known as the " dead- ...

, and Rollie Zeider. As the Federals, they played the first game at Wrigley Field on April 23, 1914, and to mark the park's centennial on April 23, 2014, the Cubs wore the Federals' uniforms.

History

Baseball Hall of Famers

References

See also