By Steve Cichon
steve@buffalostories.com
@stevebuffalo
The Northland Avenue side of Federal League Park as a game lets out, 1915
Today at Sahlen Field, Major League Baseball picks up in Buffalo where it left off 105 years ago.
Buffalo’s last big-league game was a doubleheader on Sept. 8, 1915.
The Federal League Buffalo Blues swept the Baltimore Terrapins 4-0 and 5-4 to end the home part of the 1915 season, which would end up being the last for the upstart third Major League league.
The Federal League played three seasons from 1913-15 before folding under pressure from the National and American Leagues.
Buffalo’s Federal League team played the 1914 and 1915 seasons.
Box score of the last major league game in Buffalo. Game two of a doubleheader, Sept. 8, 1915
Known as “the Blues,” “The Buffeds,” “The Electrics,” and simply “The Federals,” the team played two seasons in its own home ballpark at Jefferson Street and Northland Avenue, only short walk away from the current Main & Jefferson campus of Canisius College.
Walter Blair, Buffalo Buffeds catcher
Both the Federal League and the Buffalo team had uphill battles to fight to stay in business. Aside from the leaguewide battle with the other major leagues, here in Buffalo the team was trying to win support away from the long-established International League Bisons.
When the Federal League folded, the owners of the Buffeds offered to let the Bisons play at their ballpark, and then tried to sell the stadium to the city. Both of those options fell through, and by the end of 1916, the ballpark had been demolished.
As the Blue Jays prepare to take on the Miami Marlins, they take a six-game win streak for Buffalo’s home major league teams into the contest. The last major league loss for a Buffalo home team was Sept. 2, 1915, against the Newark Peppers.
The current site of the former Federal League Park is a residential area. Third base was situated along Northland Avenue and first base was along Lonsdale Road.
