The Appeal and Final Decision

Abstract

This chapter examines organized baseball's appeal following its loss in the Baltimore case as well as the Supreme Court's final decision, a period spanning May 1919 to October 1922. After Justice Wendell Phillips Stafford issued his verdict, organized baseball's attorneys began preparing the appeal. The defendants identified a total of thirty-five alleged legal errors committed by Stafford during the trial, ranging from various evidentiary rulings to the court's determination of the interstate commerce issue and its instructions to the jury. Meanwhile, George Pepper was preparing the brief that organized baseball would present to the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The Baltimore Federals filed its own brief on September 15, 1920. This chapter first considers the Supreme Court proceedings in Federal Baseball Club of Baltimore, Inc. v. National League as well as its decision-making process before discussing Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.'s ruling in favor of organized baseball. It also cites the Supreme Court's rejection of Baltimore's request for a rehearing.