Laying Down for Napoleon: How Ty Cobb Truly Lost the 1910 Batting Championship

Any close major league batting championship is not without its controversies.

First there is the oxymoronic “infield hit” designation that is liberally awarded by the home team scorer throughout the season. Next comes the perennial cheapie – the bunt for a hit method for fattening one’s average. But perhaps the most conspicuous action occurs during the last days of the season when the batting leader feigns injury and decides to “sit one out,” thus preserving his current average.

Many of these decisions strike a strong emotional response with fans and players alike on both sides of the argument. But is this anything new?

Today we tend to think of these controversies as of recent vintage, but these shenanigans have been with us for more than 100 years. And it was precisely 101 years ago that the American League batting title was won (or lost) in the oddest of circumstances.

Terrible Ty

The 1910 American League batting championship came down to the final days in October and it appeared Ty Cobb would again win the crown. His previous three consecutive batting titles dated back to 1906 and this year’s achievement would give him a grand slam of sorts.

His average going into the last two games stood at a meaty .385.  This average represented a statistically significant lead over his closest competitor. For Cobb to lose the title his rival would need to hit safely in every at-bat in a season-ending doubleheader. As the saying goes -possible but not probable.

But there were larger forces Cobb had unwittingly created that would prove to be his undoing.

According to Baseball-The Biographical Encyclopedia:

Ty Cobb, the ‘Georgia Peach’ was a man possessed. Every game, every play, and every at bat was a war to him. Probably no other athlete has ever matched Cobb’s furious desire to excel. He was egotistical, brash, rude, thin-skinned, a racist and a bully. In short, he was a great player and a terrible person. And because of his unique personality, he was right in the middle of some of the game’s noisiest controversies.

Woonsocket’s graceful tiger

Cobb’s rival for the crown that year was the athletic Woonsocket native, Napoleon Lajoie. His unlikely path to the majors began in the 1890’s when he was the “throw-in” for a traded teammate.

Working as a teamster for City Lumber in Woonsocket, the 21 year old...was making $7.50 a week in 1895 when the Fall River, Massachusetts team of the New England League fell short a player. Lajoie signed for $100 a month and played his first game on May 1.

Before long, word of his talent had spread and several big league clubs began bidding for him in 1896. When Philadelphia made an offer for Lajoie’s teammate Phil Geier, Fall River manager Charlie Marston asked for $1,500, and the Phillies refused. Marston then offered to include Lajoie in the deal, and the trade was made. Lajoie was quickly promoted to the majors.

When “Nap” or “Larry” as he was often called, arrived in the big leagues he did so with a splash.  The second baseman was quickly recognized as a top talent in the game. One competitor said, “He glides around the infield with the grace of a tiger.”

In the years 1901 through 1904 he won consecutive American League batting titles and also garnered the league’s triple crown for the highest batting average, number of home runs and RBIs.  

In 1904 he was named the Cleveland Indian’s captain and the following year awarded the job of player manager.  If Cobb was the sport’s devil incarnate, then his opposite number on and off the baseball diamond was the princely Napoleon. He was admired, some say adored, by fans, teammates and well respected by his competitors. And no better example of this respect can be found than on Oct. 9, 1910.

The Stage is Set

The 1910 title quest had an added player benefit above and beyond bragging rights and future contract negotiations.  The Chalmers Automobile Company was awarding a Model 30 sedan to the winner. And since automobiles were considered a new luxury, the title now had even greater popularity with the public, so much so that fans called the title quest “the automobile race.”

By October, Cobb believed he had secured both the batting title and the keys to the Chalmers. He then conveniently feigned an eye ailment allowing him to sit out the last two games of the season.

On the other hand, Napoleon’s Cleveland team was on the road visiting the St. Louis Browns. He understood achieving perfection at the plate over the course of two games was slim, but his approach was to take it one at-bat at a time.

Enter Jack O’Connor -manager of the opposition St. Louis Browns.  After Nap led off game one with a clean triple, O’Connor saw his chance to reward Napoleon (and deny Cobb) by providing him with the most favorable offensive conditions.

According to the Lowell Sun, O’Connor instructed his rookie third baseman, Red Corriden, to back up and play deep lest the smashes coming off the bat of Napoleon injure him.

"He'll tear your head off with line drives," the skipper warned.   

A terrified Corriden was more than happy to oblige and positioned himself on the outfield grass. “I want to remain in baseball for some years” said Corriden.  “I was not going to get killed playing in on Lajoie.”

Napoleon, totally unaware of O’Connor’s motives, saw the retreated third baseman and proceeded to bunt safely in his next six at-bats. That gave him a 7 for 7 day so far. On his next at-bat he swung away and was credited with a legitimate infield hit.

Now sitting with a perfect 8 at-bats he decided to play on.  This would be something he would later regret.

On his ninth attempt he grounded the ball to the shortstop who made an errant throw to first base.  Napoleon reached safely but the error would count as an unsuccessful plate appearance dropping his average ever so slightly below the perfect day he needed.

Again the opposition got into the act. A St. Louis coach, Harry Howell sought to change the characterization of the error to a hit by voicing his displeasure to the official scorer. But more than a word was sent to the booth of sportswriter E.V. Parrish. Howell offered an incentive payment in the form of a suit of clothes for a change in the call.  Parrish refused and the box score for the day remained showing a spectacular 8 for 9 day at the plate, but falling one short of the perfection needed for the title - or so it seemed.

Who Won?

Because 1910 real-time baseball stats were rather imperfect, many newspapers the following days credited Lajoie with the title.

“Larry Lajoie is Swatting King,” the Oct. 10, 1910 edition of The Waterloo Evening Courier declared. “Lajoie Fools Browns,” read an Oct. 11 headline in The Washington Post.

In fact, Ty Cobb’s own teammates sent a telegram of congratulations to Lajoie. Perhaps it was as much a tweak to their teammate as it was in recognition of Napoleon’s achievement.

When the official dust finally settled, however, it was determined Cobb had indeed secured the title by the slimmest of margins.  If that one last grounder had made it through the infield, Lajoie would have been the recipient of the Chalmers automobile.  

Consequences

The actions of both the St. Louis manager and coach came under scrutiny immediately after the doubleheader. Newspapers, especially those sympathetic to Cobb roared in protest over the actions of St. Louis.

According to the Oct. 11, 1910 Washington Post, Umpire Evans said of the game  “Not until yesterday have I seen anything to make me believe that Lajoie was being helped to win the batting prize.”

In another Washington Post article of the same day, President John Taylor of the Red Sox said, “The action of the St. Louis Browns in playing their infield so far back that Lajoie was able to beat out seven (sic)  bunts  was a disgrace to the game. Judging from the reports , there is no doubt but what the St. Louis club did this,  as Lajoie is a free hitter, who has probably not beaten out seven other bunts during the entire season.”

An investigation followed. Napoleon was cleared of any wrongdoing and found to have no knowledge of the opposing team’s actions. Ditto for third baseman Red Corriden, who would go on to have an unremarkable big league career.

Not so for Manager Jack O’Connor and Coach Howell. The American League President Byron Johnson threw both men out of baseball for life.

In a class move by the Chalmers Company both Cobb and Lajoie were awarded automobiles for their efforts.  But baseball works in strange ways and it would take the deaths of both men and for 70 years to lapse to finally bring the controversy to its true conclusion.

Justice Done-The Record Corrected

In the 1980’s Sporting News historian Paul MacFarlene made an amazing discovery.  Pouring through the 1910 records he found that Cobb was mistakenly credited with two additional hits that year.  Once corrected, Cobb’s average would be a smidgen below Lajoie’s , therefore earning the latter the batting title.

'Not so fast,' said then baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn. He refused to strip Cobb of his title.

The anomaly continues today with Lajoie officially recognized with the highest batting average among players in 1910, but with Cobb holding the official batting title.  

Perhaps this was a fitting conclusion to one of the oddest and most bizarre chapters of baseball history.

Napoleon died in 1959 at the age of 84 . He was inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937 and is ranked 29th in The Sporting News list of 100 Greatest Players.