sporting goods dealers in NABA’s governing body, NBF’s membership was restricted to non-commercialized baseball associations. The new federation also developed a AA semi-professional league as a response to amateur teams employing semi-professionals for tournament games. NBF would allow the payment of players in this new league, as long as baseball was not the main source of their income. With the Federation’s leadership closely tied and influenced by Cleveland amateur baseball, CABA allied itself with the NBF.
Even with internal divisions and the advent of the Great War, amateur baseball continued to attract large audiences.
Prior to the 1919 amateur season, however, it was decided that a merger between NBF and NABA was in the best interest of the amateur sport. The namesake of the the National Baseball Federation was kept. Eventually it became NABF - National Amateur Baseball Federation.