Game 161

October 9, 1910 – St. Louis Attempts to Hand the Batting Title to Nap Lajoie to Spite Ty Cobb

At the beginning of the 1910 season, Hugh Chalmers of the Chalmers Automobile Company pledged to give a Model 30 car to player with the best batting average in either league. 

Going into the last day of the season, Ty Cobb was leading the batting race by a healthy, but not insurmountable margin of .385 to Nap Lajoie’s .376. Cobb was sitting out the final game of the season for Detroit claiming an eye ailment. The Naps and Lajoie would play a double-header at Sportsman’s Park against the Browns. 

Prior to the first game, St. Louis manager Jack O’Connor told third baseman Red Corrigan to play back on the outfield grass. He reportedly told Corrigan, “one of Lajoie’s line drives might kill you.”

During the first game of the day, Lajoie bunted three times up the third base line, reaching safely each time. He also hit a triple, but it was not enough as the Browns broke the 4-4 tie with a walkoff hit in the bottom of the ninth. 

In the second game, O’Connor returned to his spot behind the cut of the infield grass. Knowing a good thing when he saw it, Lajoie put three more bunts up the line to go along with another infield single. In his fifth at-bat of the second game, Browns shortstop Bobby Wallace misplayed the ball. Lajoie beat his throw to first, but the play was scored as an error on Wallace. 

Coach Harry Howell then sent a bat boy with a note to the official scorer, a woman named E.V. Parrish, with an offer of a bribe. Howell offered up a new suit of clothes if she would change her call and give Lajoie a 9 for 9 double-header. Miss Parrish declined. 

The Naps won the second game of the doubleheader to finish the season 71-81 in fifth place in the American League. 

The next day, newspapers posted a wide variety of unofficial batting averages and declared Lajoie the winner. Critics of the cruel and impersonal Cobb rejoiced. 

However, once The Sporting News crunched all of the numbers for the season, they put Cobb ahead .3850687  to Lajoie’s .3840947. Commissioner Ban Johnson conducted an investigation and confirmed the result–Cobb was the batting champion. Ban Johnson insisted that both O’Connor and Howell be fired from the Browns. They were both effectively blacklisted from professional baseball for their tampering in the batting race. 

Chalmers delivered Model 30s to both players, effectively calling the batting race a tie. However, even Chalmers may have had a preference for the more affable Lajoie.  “I’ve always understood,” Nap later said, “that the automobile I got ran a lot better than the one they gave to Ty.” 

Baseball Reference Summary

Game 5

April 20, 1910 – Addie Joss No-Hits Same Team Twice

By most contemporary accounts, Addie Joss was an unusual athlete. Nicknamed “The Human Hairpin” for his extremely long arms and unusual delivery style, Joss had a corkscrew delivery and turned his back entirely to the plate before using a sidearm motion. Despite this dramatic delivery and high leg-kick, he did not fall off the mound in the way that some corkscrew pitchers do. He completed his motion and was ready to field anything that came back up the middle.  

Joss’ fielding was a crucial factor in his 1910 no-hitter. He recorded assists on 10 of the 27 outs, mostly on ground balls. Joss threw only two strikeouts in the entire no-hit performance. The day was not without controversy, however. In the second inning,  White Sox shortstop Parent hit a weak topper to third base. Bill Bradley. Bradley juggled the ball and the throw to first was late. The play was initially ruled a base hit, but the scorer later changed it to a fielding error on Bradley.

Second basemen Terry Turner had the Naps’ lone RBI on the day with the double in the top of the 6th which scored Art Kruger. Having already thrown a perfect game against the White Sox in Game 152 of the 1908 season, Joss became the first pitcher to ever no-hit the same team twice. This record would stand for 104 years, until Tim Lincecum no-hit the San Diego Padres for the second time in 2014.

Joss played for only nine seasons, before he lost his life in April 1911 to tuberculosis meningitis. In 1977, the Hall of Fame’s Board of Directors voted to waive the 10-year tenure rule in Joss’ case and make him eligible to the Hall of Fame. He was inducted by the Veterans Committee in 1978.