Pittsburgh Rebels | |
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Information | |
Location | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Year founded | 1913 |
Year disbanded | 1915 |
Former name(s) |
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Former league(s) | |
Former ballparks | |
Colors | Navy, white (1915) |
Ownership | C. B. Comstock & Edward Gwinner |
Manager |
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The Pittsburgh Rebels were a baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 1913 to 1915. The team was a member of the short-lived Federal League. The team was originally called the Pittsburgh Stogies after an earlier Pittsburgh team that played in the Union Association in 1884, [1] but became known as the Rebels by the end of the 1914 season. The team played all of its home games at Exposition Park, located on Pittsburgh's Northside. The Pittsburgh Pirates of the National League left the stadium for Forbes Field in 1909. After the Rebels left Exposition Park in 1915, the field was demolished and its property became part of the adjacent rail yards. [2]
The team's origins can be traced to the Pittsburgh Filipinos a short-lived minor league club in the independent United States Baseball League in 1912. [1] The team was known as the Pittsburgh Filipinos in honor of their manager, Deacon Phillippe, a former pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates. The Filipinos finished in first place during the league's inaugural season, which lasted only one month, with a 19-7 record. [3]
The team joined the Federal League, which launched as an independent minor league in 1913, and were renamed the Stogies. They finished the season in last place with a 49–71 record in a 120-game season.
In early 1914, the Federal League president James A. Gilmore discussed with Robert B. Ward, owner of the Brooklyn Tip Tops, that he was concerned about the financial backing of the Stogies' franchise. Ward then found Edward Gwinner, a railroad contractor with deep pockets. Gwinner was then partnered with architect C. B. Comstock as the new backers of the Pittsburgh Stogies. Doc Gessler was named the Stogies' manager. However, he was fired after only one month. Gessler was replaced by player-manager, Rebel Oakes. The team then took on the nickname of the Rebels, after Oakes took over as the team's manager. With some strong financial backing, the team did not fare so well on the field. They ended up in seventh place (next to last) that season, with a 64-86 record. [4]
During the 1915 season, the team finished in third position with an 86-67 mark, 0.5 games behind the first place Chicago Whales, who would go on to win the league pennant. That season Frank Allen pitched the first no hitter of the season, after the Rebels defeated the St. Louis Terriers 2-0 on April 24, 1915.
Some Rebels players had American and National League experience. Pitcher Cy Barger played two seasons with the New York Highlanders (later renamed the New York Yankees) and another three seasons with the Brooklyn Superbas-Dodgers before joining the Rebels. Meanwhile, fellow pitcher Howie Camnitz played for the Pittsburgh Pirates from 1904 until 1913 and was a member of their 1909 World Series team. Catcher Claude Berry had played for the Chicago White Sox in 1904 and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1906-07. First baseman Ed Konetchy, played for the St. Louis Cardinals and the Pirates, before playing for the Rebels. After the team and the league folded in 1915, Konetchy continued his playing career with the Boston Braves, Brooklyn Dodgers and Philadelphia Phillies.
The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the established National and American Leagues, from 1914 to 1915.
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Samuel Howard Camnitz was a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball for the Pittsburgh Pirates and the Philadelphia Phillies (1913) in the National League and for the Pittsburgh Rebels (1914–15) in the Federal League. A native of Covington, Kentucky, he batted and threw right-handed. In an 11-season career, Camnitz posted a 133–106 record with 915 strikeouts and a 2.75 earned run average in 2085+1⁄3 innings pitched.
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Henry Homer "Doc" Gessler was a Major League Baseball player born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, who began his eight-season career, at the age of 22, with the Detroit Tigers in 1903. He played mainly as a right fielder in a career that totaled 880 games played, 2969 at bats, 831 hits, 363 RBIs and 14 home runs. Doc died of tuberculosis in his home-town of Indiana at the age of 44, and is interred in Saint Bernard Cemetery in Indiana, Pennsylvania.
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The Pittsburgh Filipinos were a minor league baseball club based in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The team began play in 1912 in the United States Baseball League. The team played all of its home games at Exposition Park, located on Pittsburgh's Northside. The Filipinos were named in honor of their manager, Deacon Phillippe, a former pitcher with the Pittsburgh Pirates and a member of their 1901, 1902, 1903 and 1909 National League pennant winning teams as well as their 1909 World Series championship team.