The original replacement players
Ty Cobb
Detroit Tigers manager Hughie Jennings finds himself recruiting replacement players 112 years ago today after his team abruptly goes on strike in support of teammate Ty Cobb, who a day earlier receives an indefinite suspension from American League president Ban Johnson after Cobb goes into the stands in New York to pummel a heckling fan.
Jennings knows of – and quietly supports – his players’ plan to walk out before their May 18 game against the Philadelphia Athletics at Shibe Park.
Like a good manager, Jennings also plans ahead.
Hughie Jennings
Knowing more trouble will come from the league office if Detroit does not field a team, Jennings – with the help of Philadelphia Bulletin sportswriter Joe Nolan – puts together a team of area college and semi-pro players, as well as a couple of local boxers and has them ready on the spot to replace his striking players.
The replacements promptly lose 24-2 before a Saturday afternoon crowd of 15,000 in North Philly.
Of course, Philadelphia manager Connie Mack supports Jennings’ plan, which Mack knows will result in an easy victory for the A’s as well as – and this always is important for Mack – a tidy profit from the ticket sales.
The Tigers’ lineup that day features amateur players from nearby St. Joseph’s College; Detroit coaches-turned-players Deacon McGuire and Joe Sugden; and boxers Billy Maharg and Bill Leinhauser.
The college guys receive between $25 and $50 as incentives to sign one-day contracts to play against the Athletics.
That would be the defending World Series champion Athletics on their way to another 90 victories in 1912 with future Hall of Famers Eddie Collins and Home Run Baker in the middle of their batting order.
Among the Tigers’ newbie players is a 20-year-old college student named Aloysius Stanislaus — call me “Allan” Travers.
For the promise of $50 from Jennings, Travers becomes the Tigers’ pitcher and gives up all 24 runs — hey, only 14 earned — on 26 hits.
Allan Travers, the pitcher
The runs and hits are – and remain – a record for most allowed in a game by a pitcher in major league history.
Somehow, Travers holds the A’s to only six runs over first four innings before Philadelphia’s offense erupts for 16 runs from the fifth through the seventh.
Collins, Philadelphia’s second baseman, combines with center fielder Amos Strunk and first baseman Stuffy McInnis for 13 of those 26 hits.
For the day, Philadelphia’s batters go 26-for-43 with four doubles and five triples.
Now, imagine their reaction – and their wonderment — as to why they do not go a perfect 43-for-43 after learning Travers never before pitches in a game.
On any level.
Travers later tells famed sportswriter Red Smith that Nolan – who knows of Travers from Travers’ time as a St. Joe’s assistant baseball coach – gives him a tip of the impending strike by the Tigers.
“(Nolan) told me the club would be fined and might lose its franchise if 12 players didn’t show up,” Travers says.
“He told me to round up as many fellows as I could find, so I went down to 23rd and Columbia, where a bunch of fellows were standing around the corner. We thought we’d just go out and appear. We never thought we’d play a game.”
Neither Travers nor any of the six guys he recruits ever play another game, either, as the regular Tigers end their strike before Detroit’s next game three days later at home against Washington.
Travers eventually enters the seminary and becomes a Jesuit priest.
No prayers, though, could lower his career 15.75 earned-run average.
Allan Travers, the pitcher-turned-priest