Benny and the Feds

by Paul Semendinger

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Note - This article was written for and published in the IBWAA Newsletter, Here's The Pitch, on July 31, 2026

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For a brief moment in late April and early May, the 1912 New York Highlanders had a rookie outfielder named Benny Kauff. Benny appeared in five games. He had 11 at-bats and accumulated three hits, all singles.

That was the extent of Benny Kauff’s major-league season in 1912. In the minor leagues that year, Kauff played for three teams at various levels, batting .279 over 95 games.

In 1913, Kauff again played in the minor leagues: B-Level ball with the Hartford Senators. In 135 games, he batted .345, but that was rgw B-level of the minor leagues, not the majors.

When 1914 rolled around, with it came a new league to compete with the American and National Leagues. This new league, The Federal League, looked to draw some of the stars away from the established big leagues. It succeeded in that, as well. Such future Hall of Famers as Mordecai “Three-Finger” Brown, Edd Roush, Joe Tinker, and John Montgomery Ward all signed on to play in the Federal League that first season.

As it turned out, the best player in the Federal League that year wasn’t a current star brought in from the established Major Leagues, it was Benny Kauff.

Playing for the Indianapolis Hoosiers, Benny Kauff played in 154 games and led the league in runs, hits, doubles, and stolen bases. He also batted .370 which also led the league. With the Feds, Benny became a star!

In 1915, Benny Kauff was again great. Playing for the Brooklyn Tip-Tops, he batted .342 to again lead the league. He also again led the league in stolen bases.

They didn’t have WAR back then, the only war they knew was the one raging in Europe in which the United States would soon take part, but modern statisticians have determined that Benny Kauff led the Federal League in WAR in each of the two years of its existence with 7.3 WAR in 1914 and 6.6 WAR in 1915.

The Federal League didn’t survive after the 1915 season, but Benny, now a star, found a home with the New York Giants with whom he would play through the 1920 season.

Kauff was a sold major-leaguer with the Giants of the National League, but he wasn’t a super star like before. He batted over .300 twice, and once had 40 stolen bases in a season, but he was never a league leader in either area.

Kauff’s career ended prematurely. While with the Giants, there were suspicions that he was involved in betting on games. That was bad enough, but later, the event that brought his career to an end was his involvement (or the accusation) that he was involved in a stolen car situation that ran through the courts (which found him innocent). Nonetheless this case resulted in Commissioner Landis banishing Benny Kauff from the game.

And such was the career of the player now remembered in history as the “Ty Cobb of the Federal League.”

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Paul Semendinger is the author of numerous award-winning books including From Compton to the Bronx, Scattering the Ashes, 365.2: Going the Distance, The Least Among Them, West Point at Gettysburg (Vol. 1), and others.