IN THE NEWS: Walter Johnson accepts a $6,000 bonus from the FL Chicago Whales and signs a three-year contract for $17,500 per year. Clark Griffith threatens to take Johnson to court, claiming he has paid Johnson for the reserve option in his contract. American League Prexy Ban Johnson asserts that Johnson was on the market and is "damaged goods," worth getting rid of. Griffith travels to Coffeyville, KS, to persuade his franchise player that the option clause is legal and binding. Two weeks later Griffith signs Johnson for three years at $12,500 per year and returns the bonus to the Feds.
IN THE NEWS: Indoor baseball is a winter fad in some cities. In Chicago, $2,000 is raised at an indoor game for the benefit of the family of Jimmy Doyle, deceased former Chicago 3B.
IN THE NEWS: After weeks of rumors, the bomb drops: Connie Mack sells Eddie Collins, generally regarded as the game's finest position player, to the White Sox for $50,000. Collins signs a 5-year contract worth $75,000 and gets $15,000 as a signing bonus. The deal breaks up the A's "$100,000 infield" and raises conjecture that Mack, too, will leave to manage the Yankees. Ban Johnson reportedly had a hand in the negotiations, sending the A's star to counter the box office effect of the Chifeds signing Walter Johnson.
The National League votes to hold the 1915 player limit to 21 per team. They also create the disabled list (DL) which allows a player to be kept out of play for 10 days and another players substituted for him.
IN THE NEWS: Former Giants mascot (and "pitcher") Charlie "Victory" Faust is confined to the Western Hospital for the Insane. He will die there of pulminary tuberculosis on June 15, 1915.
IN THE NEWS: Charles Comiskey pulls a surprise, reaching down to Peoria and naming Clarence "Pants" Rowland, scout and minor league executive, to manage his White Sox.
IN THE NEWS: Washington manager Clark Griffith meets with Walter Johnson in KC and convinces the star to re-sign for $12,500, considerably less than his recent contract with the Chifeds, with the assurance that Griffith would convince the Washington management to spring for a bigger contract later. Washington will later sign Johnson to $16,000 a year for five years. Griffith gets $6,000 from Charles Comiskey to allow Johnson to repay his Chifed signing bonus.
IN THE NEWS: The Phillies trade their star and captain Sherry Magee to the Braves for cash and two players to be named later. The two turn out to be Possum Whited and INF Oscar Dugey. Magee led the National League in hits, doubles, RBIs, and slugging percentage, while hitting .314. On the first day of spring training, 1915, in Macon, Georgia, Magee will step in a hole while shagging flies and break his collarbone. He'll hit just .280 with two homers.
IN THE NEWS: Ban Johnson's efforts to strengthen the New York Yankees succeed when he arranges the purchase of the team by Colonel Jacob Ruppert and Cap Huston for $460,000 from Bill Devery and Frank Farrell. After Detroit owner Navin refuses to let Hugh Jennings go, the new Yankee owners will name longtime Detroit pitcher Bill Donovan as manager. Donovan was recently manager of Providence (IL).