The selling of Eddie Plank

After winning 21 games for them in 1915, the financially plagued St. Louis Terriers of the equally cash-poor, upstart and soon to be bankrupt Federal League sell pitcher Eddie Plank – along with 10 other players – to the American League’s St. Louis Browns 108 years ago today.

Plank promptly wins 16 games for the Browns in 1916, the next-to-last season of his fabulous Hall of Fame career that starts in 1901 with the Philadelphia Athletics.

The pride of Gettysburg, Pa., retires after the 1917 season with 326 career victories, 284 of which come in 14 seasons for Philadelphia.

“He was not the fastest, not the trickiest,” says Hall of Fame second baseman Eddie Collins, Plank’s longtime in Philadelphia teammate, “and not the possessor of the most stuff, He was just the greatest.”