The Toronto Maple Leafs were a high-level minor league baseball club located in Toronto , Ontario , Canada, which played from 1896 to 1967.
157-598: While the Maple Leafs had working agreements with numerous Major League Baseball clubs after the introduction of farm systems in the 1930s, they achieved great success as an unaffiliated club during the 1950s, when they were the strongest team on the field and in attendance in the Triple-A International League . The 1902, 1918, 1920, 1926, and 1960 teams were recognized as being among the 100 greatest minor league teams of all time . Toronto
314-490: A teamster . He left Woonsocket and his $ 7.50 per week ($ 275 in current dollar terms) working as a taxi driver and joined the Class B New England League 's Fall River Indians in 1896. Lajoie played as a center fielder , first baseman and catcher , earning $ 25 weekly ($ 916 in current dollar terms). He recorded 163 hits in 80 games and led the team in batting average , doubles , triples , home runs and hits . Lajoie
471-530: A 2006–07 investigation produced the Mitchell Report , which found that many players had used steroids and other performance-enhancing substances , including at least one player from each team. Each team plays 162 games per season, with Opening Day traditionally held during the first week of April. Six teams in each league then advance to a four-round postseason tournament in October, culminating in
628-618: A Cleveland uniform." Cy Young said, "Lajoie was one of the most rugged players I ever faced. He'd take your leg off with a line drive, turn the third baseman around like a swinging door and powder the hand of the left fielder." In 1937 , Lajoie was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame . Lajoie was born on September 5, 1874, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island , to Jean Baptiste and Celina Guertin Lajoie. Jean Lajoie
785-667: A batter could foul off any number of pitches with no strikes counted against him; this gave an enormous advantage to the batter. After the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, baseball was rocked by allegations of a game-fixing scheme known as the Black Sox Scandal . Eight players— "Shoeless" Joe Jackson , Eddie Cicotte , Claude "Lefty" Williams , George "Buck" Weaver , Arnold "Chick" Gandil , Fred McMullin , Charles "Swede" Risberg , and Oscar "Happy" Felsch —intentionally lost
942-461: A career-high, and 304 total bases led the majors, the fourth and final time in his career he would lead the majors in the latter category. Lajoie missed significant parts of back-to-back seasons, the first in 1911 when he appeared in just 90 games. Stovall, the former Naps first baseman, replaced McGuire as the club's manager and the Naps finished 80–73. Lajoie was forced to sit out six weeks of
1099-406: A chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before." With the approval of President Roosevelt, spring training began in 1942 with few repercussions. The war interrupted the careers of stars including Stan Musial , Bob Feller , Ted Williams , and Joe DiMaggio , but baseball clubs continued to field their teams. Branch Rickey, president and general manager of
1256-514: A detective to arrive at the conclusion that at some point Johnson (or someone in the league office, anyway) realized the error and decided to conceal it. Lajoie ended his career with a lifetime .338 batting average. His career total of 3,252 hits was the second-most in MLB history at the time of his retirement, behind only Honus Wagner's total (3,420). Lajoie's 2,522 hits in the American League
1413-517: A fellow pitcher. Donahue instead made pitches on the outside corner, to which Lajoie reached over "and hit them with ease." Donahue then aimed a pitch at Lajoie's head and he proceeded to hit a home run. "That's the kind I eat", he said. For the first part of the 20th century, Lajoie's and Ty Cobb 's statistics rivaled each other like few other players in the American League. In 1908, Honus Wagner and Lajoie recorded their 2,000th career hits. Baseball historian David Anderson wrote: Nap Lajoie reached
1570-551: A fine fielder, and had already been sought by several big league clubs. Nap Lajoie clearly represented a financial asset to Marston, who did not give him away. The price the Phillies paid was a substantial sum for two minor leaguers in 1896. Against the Washington Senators on August 12, 1896, Lajoie made his major league debut. He played first base and recorded a single. Ed Delahanty was being considered to play
1727-506: A grand jury in Pittsburgh related to cocaine trafficking. The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike from August 12, 1994, to April 25, 1995, caused the cancellation of over 900 games and the forfeit of the entire 1994 postseason. Routinely in the late 1990s and early 2000s, baseball players hit 40 or 50 home runs in a season, a feat that was considered rare even in the 1980s. It later became apparent that at least some of this power surge
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#17327915203131884-478: A hit (which would have allowed him to go 9-for-9) but that Cobb's batting average was greater, recording 196 hits in 509 at bats to Lajoie's 227 hits in 591 at bats. Johnson asked Chalmers if his company would award an automobile to each player, to which he agreed. Lajoie initially refused the car, but eventually relented and accepted it. Cobb said, "I am glad that I won an automobile and am especially pleased that Lajoie also gets one. I have no one to criticize. I know
2041-515: A hotel lobby and Stovall broke a chair over Lajoie's head. "George didn't mean anything by it," Lajoie said, and the two maintained a working relationship. He finished the season with an average of .301. Naps owner Charles Somers received a trade offer from the Detroit Tigers for Flick and the Tigers' Ty Cobb . Tigers manager Hughie Jennings called Somers and told him he was offering
2198-658: A little better in subsequent campaigns—but in their eighth season (1969) the Mets became the first of the 1960s expansion teams to play in the postseason, culminating in a World Series title over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles. In 1966, the major leagues moved to the "Deep South" when the Braves moved to Atlanta. In 1968, the Kansas City Athletics moved west to become the Oakland Athletics . In 1969,
2355-606: A man for many reasons. Color is not one of them." That year, Robinson won the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate NL and AL Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949). Less than three months later, Larry Doby became the first African-American to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians. The next year, a number of other black players entered
2512-413: A new National Agreement which tied independent contracts to the reserve-clause contracts. The agreement also set up a formal classification system for minor leagues, the forerunner of today's system that was refined by Branch Rickey . Several other early defunct baseball leagues are considered major leagues, and their statistics and records are included with those of the two modern major leagues. In 1969,
2669-543: A new and larger stadium was ready at Hanlan's Point. It would serve as their home until 1926. In 1912, minor league baseball was reorganized and a new top level classification, Double-A, was created. On Sept. 5, 1914, soon after Canada entered the First World War, a 19-year-old Babe Ruth was pitching for the Providence Grays in a game against the Maple Leafs. The Bambino threw a shutout game, beating
2826-625: A new stadium at Liberty Street and Fraser Avenue, called Diamond Park . Led by Barrow, the Leafs won the International League pennant in 1902 with a record of 85–42. The team faltered after its championship season, falling to eighth place by 1905. Debt holders called in their loans and the team was purchased by James J. McCaffery, who served as team president from 1908 until his death in 1922, and Lawrence "Lol" Solman , president from 1922 to 1931. Former major league star Joe Kelley took
2983-431: A one-armed outfielder, got the chance to advance to the major leagues. However, MLB rosters did not include any black players through the end of the war. Black players, many of whom served in the war, were still restricted to playing Negro league baseball . Wartime blackout restrictions , designed to keep outdoor lighting at low levels, caused another problem for baseball. These rules limited traveling and night games to
3140-732: A paid attendance of 802. During their last season, Hunter was in discussions to sell the club, hoping to find an owner to keep the team in Toronto. The asking price was $ 60,000. Maple Leaf Gardens Limited , owner of the Toronto Maple Leafs of the National Hockey League, held negotiations to purchase the club, but the deal ultimately fell apart due to concerns about the team's stadium, which needed up to $ 250,000 in repairs and whose owner wanted $ 4 million to purchase it. Harold Ballard , part owner of MLGL, said that
3297-554: A peak in 1910, when Hugh Chalmers of the Chalmers Auto Company (a direct predecessor to modern-day Chrysler ) promised a Chalmers 30 Roadster to the season's batting champion. The public became fascinated with the daily statistics of Lajoie and Cobb in what became known as the Chalmers Race. Sports bettors, who by this time followed the sport attentively, also followed the daily reports with interest. Cobb took
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#17327915203133454-501: A rebellion by players against the hated "reserve clause", which restricted the free movement of players between clubs. Teams came and went; 1882 was the first season where the league's membership was the same as the preceding season's, and only four franchises survived to see 1900. Competitor leagues formed regularly and also disbanded regularly. The most successful was the American Association (1882–1891), sometimes called
3611-539: A reported $ 50,000. Former co-owner Gardiner returned to the Leafs as a director. Hunter and Starr launched a drive for community ownership, selling shares in Toronto (Community) Baseball Ltd., although there was little interest. In 1965 the Boston Red Sox became the parent club and another future Baseball Hall of Fame manager, Dick Williams , replaced Anderson at the Leafs' helm. Williams then led them to consecutive Governors' Cup titles in 1965 and 1966. Despite
3768-543: A single-game MLB attendance record in their first home appearance with 78,672 fans. In 1961, the first Washington Senators franchise moved to Minneapolis–St. Paul to become the Minnesota Twins . Two new teams were added to the American League at the same time: the Los Angeles Angels (who soon moved from downtown L.A. to nearby Anaheim ) and a new Washington Senators franchise. The NL added
3925-540: A successful Baltimore chop, the batter hits the ball forcefully into the ground, causing it to bounce so high that the batter reaches first base before the ball can be fielded and thrown to the first baseman. The adoption of the foul strike rule—in the NL in 1901, in the AL two years later—quickly sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring runs became a struggle. Before this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes:
4082-448: A wheelchair, and doctors considered amputation. The injury and illness kept Lajoie out until August 28, when he returned as the team's first baseman. Near the end of the season he sustained an injury to his ankle from a foul tip during an at bat, and did not play for the remainder of the season but continued to manage from the bench. He finished the season having only appeared in 65 games (a career-low, other than his rookie season when he
4239-521: A year during a three-year stretch from 1939 to 1941 when the Leafs finished in eighth place each season. Control of the team passed to Peter Campbell, who would be president until his death in 1949. The Leafs' .305 winning percentage in 1941 was the lowest in franchise history. Campbell negotiated a working agreement with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1942, and a year later the team won the International League pennant—its first in 16 years. By 1947,
4396-639: Is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan . Baseball's first all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings , was founded in 1869. The first few decades of professional baseball saw rivalries between leagues, and players often jumped from one team or league to another. These practices were essentially ended by the National Agreement of 1903, in which AL and NL agreed to respect each other's player contracts, including
4553-519: Is incorrect. He was a competent fielder, even a good fielder. He was not a defensive superstar." During spring training before the 1928 season, Lajoie commented on the 1927 New York Yankees . "Of course, you could see a lot of loafing going on but if that club is the greatest of all times, you just know that we had a lot of clubs in my time who were world champions and didn't know it." He died in Daytona Beach, Florida on February 7, 1959, at
4710-582: Is now the official major-league record, lists both men at .384 in its seasonal section, but its player register has Lajoie at the same number and Cobb at .383—so even the various editors of that source do not, or cannot, agree. Jon Wertheim wrote in Sports Illustrated 100 years after the event, The statistics for the Detroit players had been crossed out and nullified. Every Detroit player, that is, except one: Ty Cobb. It takes something less than
4867-526: Is tainted. The 1901 season was the first for the AL and the level of competition was presumably evolving. Such questions, however, in no way cast doubt on the extraordinary batting ability of the second baseman." In April 1902, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania overruled an earlier decision by the Court of Common Pleas and upheld the reserve clause in contracts between players and NL clubs. President of
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5024-452: The 3,000 hit club . Lajoie recorded the hit off Yankees pitcher Marty McHale in a 5–3 Naps win. His .258 batting average for the season, however, was the lowest since he had joined the majors in 1896. The Naps finished in last place in the American League standings with a 51–102 record, their worst record since joining the league and the franchise's lowest winning percentage (.333). Lajoie requested that Somers trade him and
5181-899: The Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves , the St. Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles , and the Philadelphia Athletics became the Kansas City Athletics . The 1958 Major League Baseball season began to turn Major League Baseball into a nationwide league. Walter O'Malley , owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers and "perhaps the most influential owner of baseball's early expansion era," moved his team to Los Angeles, marking
5338-508: The Chicago National League Club Jim Hart said the state Supreme Court's decision had dealt "a fatal blow to the rival league" and NL clubs "have won a great victory." The Phillies' Rogers obtained an injunction barring Lajoie from playing baseball for any team other than his team. However, a lawyer discovered that the injunction was enforceable only in the state of Pennsylvania . The courts ruled that
5495-484: The Goudey Gum Company . However, the card (#106 in the set) became infamous for being impossible to find copies of. While the company eventually sent copies of the card to those collectors who wrote in to complain, it was revealed years later that the uncut sheets of the set did not include the card, and the alleged 1933 Lajoie card was printed with the 1934 set. Today, the card is among the highest value from
5652-583: The Governors' Cup four times: 1934, 1960, 1965, and 1966 (finalists in 1943, 1955, 1956, 1958), and won the Junior World Series in 1907 and 1926 (finalists in 1917, 1934, and 1960). Members of the Maple Leafs won the league batting title 16 times: † Bases on balls counted as hits for the 1887 season Fifteen members of the Maple Leafs have been inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame : Fourteen team members have been inducted into
5809-596: The Great Depression , baseball's popularity had begun a downward turn in the early 1930s. By 1932, only two MLB teams turned a profit. Attendance had fallen, due at least in part to a 10% federal amusement tax added to baseball ticket prices. Baseball owners cut their rosters from 25 men to 23, and even the best players took pay cuts. Team executives were innovative in their attempts to survive, creating night games, broadcasting games live by radio, and rolling out promotions such as free admission for women. Throughout
5966-682: The Houston Astros and the New York Mets in 1962. The Astros (known as the "Colt .45s" during their first three seasons) became the first southern major league franchise since the Louisville Colonels folded in 1899 and the first franchise to be located along the Gulf Coast . The Mets established a reputation for futility by going 40–120 during their first season of play in the nation's media capital—and by playing only
6123-539: The Louisville Colonels starting in 1968. After just five seasons, the club moved again, to Pawtucket, Rhode Island , in 1973, where it operated as the Pawtucket Red Sox through the 2020 season after which the club moved to Worcester, Massachusetts , to become the Worcester Red Sox for the 2021 season. The team's baseball stadium was demolished in 1968. In 1969, the year after the demise of
6280-611: The National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP). The NABBP existed as an amateur league for 12 years. By 1867, more than 400 clubs were members. Most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the Northeastern United States. For professional baseball 's founding year, MLB uses the year 1869—when the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings , was established. A schism developed between professional and amateur ballplayers after
6437-487: The National Basketball Association (NBA). Baseball games are broadcast on television, radio, and the internet throughout North America and in several other countries. MLB has the highest total season attendance of any sports league in the world; in 2023, it drew more than 70.75 million spectators. MLB also oversees Minor League Baseball , which comprises lower-tier teams affiliated with
Toronto Maple Leafs (International League) - Misplaced Pages Continue
6594-678: The National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada. Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world. They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the commissioner of baseball . MLB
6751-621: The Texas Rangers . In 1977, baseball expanded again , adding a second Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays , as well as the Seattle Mariners . Subsequently, no new teams were added until the 1990s and no teams moved until 2005. By the late 1960s, the balance between pitching and hitting had swung in favor of the pitchers. In 1968—later nicknamed "the year of the pitcher" —Boston Red Sox player Carl Yastrzemski won
6908-694: The World Series , a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions first played in 1903. The New York Yankees have the most championships with 27. The reigning champions are the Los Angeles Dodgers , who defeated the New York Yankees in the 2024 World Series . MLB is the third-wealthiest professional sports league by revenue in the world after the National Football League (NFL) and
7065-817: The first and second Negro National Leagues (1920–1931 and 1933–1948), the Eastern Colored League (1923–1928), the American Negro League (1929), the East–West League (1932), the Negro Southern League (1932), and the Negro American League (1937–1948). In 2021, baseball reference website Baseball-Reference.com began to include statistics from those seven leagues into their major-league statistics. In May 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it
7222-567: The first base position after Dan Brouthers retired. Delahanty, however, wanted Lajoie to play first so he could return to his natural position of left field . Delahanty said to Lajoie, "Look, sonny, you tell the boss you're a first baseman and you and me are gonna get along." Lajoie became the team's first baseman, and by the end of the season he and Delahanty were roommates. Later in 1898, new manager George Stallings moved Lajoie to second base , commenting, "[Lajoie would] have made good no matter where I positioned him." Lajoie hit .363 and led
7379-442: The "beer and whiskey league" for its tolerance of the sale of alcoholic beverages to spectators. For several years, the NL and American Association champions met in a postseason championship series—the first attempt at a World Series . The two leagues merged in 1892 as a single 12-team NL, but the NL dropped four teams after the 1899 season. This led to the formation of the American League in 1901 under AL president Ban Johnson , and
7536-541: The 1870s. In 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (later known as the National League or NL) was established after the NA proved ineffective. The league placed its emphasis on clubs rather than on players. Clubs could now enforce player contracts, preventing players from jumping to higher-paying clubs. Clubs were required to play the full schedule of games instead of forfeiting scheduled games when
7693-538: The 1896 season, but started and finished the year in Toronto. In 1897, the team began playing its home games on the Toronto Islands at Hanlan's Point Stadium . The stadium and the team were owned by the Toronto Ferry Company . In 1900, a group of 52 Toronto businessmen, spearheaded by Ed Barrow and Ed Mack, a tailor and former ballplayer, bought the team for CA$ 6,000 . The club constructed
7850-507: The 1912 season when he sprained his back in May during a practice session in Chicago. He played in 117 games on the season, an increase of the 90 he played in one season before, but Cleveland, who had hired Joe Birmingham as the team's fifth manager since Lajoie gave up the role in 1909, finished 75–78. Lajoie and Joe Jackson tied for the team lead with 90 RBIs. He finished fourth in
8007-494: The 1930s, both on and off the field. In 1931, ownership of Maple Leaf Stadium passed to the Toronto Harbour Commission after the club was unable to pay taxes and other debts. Shortly after, club president Solman died, with George Oakley succeeding him in May 1931. At the same time, J. P. Bickell joined the team's board of directors. The 1932 Maple Leafs lost 113 games and only attracted 50,000 fans through
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#17327915203138164-510: The 1936 season, Oakley publicly commented that baseball was in trouble in Toronto and that something would have to change. A few months later, he and general manager Leman were approached by Joe Cambria , former owner of the Albany Senators , who wanted to buy the team and move it to Albany, New York. A group of local investors, headed by stockbroker Percy Gardiner and former lieutenant-governor of Ontario William Donald Ross , bought
8321-450: The 1951 season, soon after the team came under new ownership. In July 1951, Jack Kent Cooke became the new owner of the Maple Leafs, and succeeded Ross as president. Under Cooke's ownership, the Leafs were one of the flagship franchises of the IL, leading the league in attendance every year from 1952 to 1956. In his first home game as owner, Cooke offered free hot dogs and drinks to everyone in
8478-557: The 1960s and 1970s, as baseball expanded, NFL football had been surging in popularity, making it economical for many of these cities to build multi-purpose stadiums instead of single-purpose baseball fields. Because of climate and economic issues, many of these facilities had playing surfaces made from artificial turf , as well as the oval designs characteristic of stadiums designed to house both baseball and football. This often resulted in baseball fields with relatively more foul territory than older stadiums. These characteristics changed
8635-463: The 1990s. During the 1980s, baseball experienced a number of significant changes the game had not seen in years. Home runs were on the decline throughout the decade, with players hitting 40 home runs just 13 times and no one hitting more than 50 home runs in a season for the first time since the Dead-ball era (1900–1919). The 1981 Major League Baseball strike from June 12 until July 31 forced
8792-542: The 2021 season); moreover, it is the lowest of any major league team in the modern (post-1900) era. In 1917, Lajoie joined the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League as manager. At the age of 42, Lajoie won the league's batting title with batting average of .380. He appeared in 151 of 156 games and, for the first time in his career, played on a team that won a pennant. He later
8949-493: The AL to George Stone in batting average, slugging and on-base percentage. In 1906 he married Myrtle Smith and the couple moved to a small farm outside Cleveland. In June of the 1907 season, Lajoie's .296 average, "an average even now that scores of players would be glad to accept," put him at risk for hitting below .300 for the first time in his career. He also missed 15 games due to a recurrence of sepsis. Lajoie and Naps first baseman George Stovall got into an argument in
9106-520: The AL with a .368 batting average. In 1913, Birmingham and Lajoie had arguments in the open, including one incident in June when Lajoie cursed Birmingham openly to reporters after being benched during a batting slump. Lajoie hit .335 on the year, the last time he would hit over .300 in his career. Only two other major league players had attained 3,000 career hits until Lajoie hit a double on September 27, 1914, and so joined Cap Anson and Honus Wagner in
9263-464: The AL, for the franchise's first winning record since the AL began as a league. After his first season with the Bronchos, Lajoie's .378 average led all AL players. New York Giants manager, John McGraw , was rumored to want to sign Lajoie, but Lajoie said "... I intend to stick to Cleveland." For the remainder of 1902 and most of 1903, Lajoie and Elmer Flick traveled separately from the rest of
9420-435: The American League batting title with an average of just .301, the lowest in the history of Major League Baseball. Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain won 31 games, making him the only pitcher to win 30 games in a season since Dizzy Dean in 1934. St. Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Bob Gibson achieved an equally remarkable feat by allowing an ERA of just 1.12. Following these pitching performances, in December 1968
9577-420: The American and National Leagues both added two expansion franchises . The American League added the Seattle Pilots (who became the Milwaukee Brewers after one disastrous season in Seattle) and the Kansas City Royals . The NL added the first Canadian franchise, the Montreal Expos , as well as the San Diego Padres . In 1972, the second Washington Senators moved to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to become
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#17327915203139734-409: The Brooklyn Dodgers, began making efforts to introduce a black baseball player to the previously all-white professional baseball leagues in the mid-1940s. He selected Jackie Robinson from a list of promising Negro league players. After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to any racial antagonism directed at him, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $ 600 a month. In what
9891-431: The Browns lasted only one season. However, despite their strong start, attendance never again came close to matching the 1952 numbers, even with pennant-winning seasons under managers Luke Sewell in 1954, Bruno Betzel in 1956, and Dixie Walker in 1957. The pennant-winning 1960 Leafs, a Cleveland affiliate, won 100 games with a league-record 32 shutouts under manager Mel McGaha , but attendance figures were flat from
10048-711: The Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning the Negro league teams that they had followed exclusively. Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspaper writers and white major league players. Manager Leo Durocher informed his team, "I don't care if he is yellow or black or has stripes like a fucking zebra. I'm his manager and I say he plays." After a strike threat by some players, NL President Ford C. Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended. Robinson received significant encouragement from several major-league players, including Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese who said, "You can hate
10205-513: The Great Depression, no MLB teams moved or folded. The onset of World War II created a shortage of professional baseball players, as more than 500 men left MLB teams to serve in the military. Many of them played on service baseball teams that entertained military personnel in the US or in the Pacific. MLB teams of this time largely consisted of young men, older players, and those with a military classification of 4F , indicating mental, physical, or moral unsuitability for service. Men like Pete Gray ,
10362-441: The International League Hall of Fame: John Berly, Bruno Betzel, Ike Boone, Jack Dunn, Luke Hamlin, Dan Howley , Rocky Nelson , Steve O'Neill , Eddie Onslow, Dick Porter, Dick Rudolph, George Selkirk , George Stallings , and Dixie Walker. † Excludes 1887 season when bases on balls were counted as hits Source: Baseball's Back in Town by Louis Cauz, Controlled Media Corporation Inc., 1977 The Maple Leafs were affiliated with
10519-405: The Leafs in January 1937 to keep them in Toronto. Oakley immediately stepped down as president and was succeeded by Donald G. Ross, lawyer and son of William Donald Ross. Howley was brought back as manager, returning to the position he had held three times previously: in 1918, 1923–1926, and 1933. The team lost a lot of money, and wasn't very successful on the field, drawing about 60,000 paying fans
10676-415: The MLB Playing Rules Committee voted to reduce the strike zone from knees to shoulders to top of knees to armpits and lower the pitcher's mound from 15 to 10 inches, beginning in the 1969 season. In 1973, the American League, which had been suffering from much lower attendance than the National League, sought to increase scoring even further by initiating the designated hitter (DH) rule. Throughout
10833-422: The Maple Leafs 9-0, but most notably, he hit his first professional home run to cash in three of those runs. The Eastern League moved up to Double-A and changed its name to become the International League. The Maple Leafs continued as members of the International League for the next 55 years, with the league being reclassified as Triple-A in 1946. 42 year old Nap Lajoie and his .380 batting average helped lead
10990-408: The Maple Leafs to another championship in 1917. Manager Dan Howley first joined the team in 1918, leading the Leafs to the pennant that year. Canadian Mooney Gibson became manager in 1919, and was called to the major leagues after one season. The 1920 Leafs won 108 games, and had what would be the highest single season winning percentage in the history of the franchise at .701, but finished second to
11147-510: The NL in putouts (1898) and the AL four times in his career (1901, 1903, 1906, and 1908). From 1906–1908 he led the AL in assists (amongst second basemen). He also led the league in double plays six times in his career. Baseball historian William McNeil rates Lajoie as the game's greatest second baseman, when combining both offensive and defensive impact. Bill James argues, "In the last 20 years several statistical analysts ... have credited Lajoie with immense defensive value ... this analysis
11304-411: The NL in slugging percentage in 1897 and doubles and RBIs in 1898. He had a .378 batting average in 1899, though he played only 77 games due to an injury. In 1900, he missed five weeks due to a broken thumb suffered in a fistfight with teammate Elmer Flick . In April 1900, Brooklyn manager Ned Hanlon made a public offer of $ 10,000 to purchase Lajoie from the Phillies which would be rebuffed by
11461-584: The National Agreement in September 1903 (which also brought the formation of the World Series ). To begin the 1903 season, the club changed its name from the Bronchos to the Naps in honor of Lajoie after a readers' poll result was released by the Cleveland Press . (The team was officially the Blues in their inaugural AL season but changed to the Bronchos for the 1902 season.) The Bronchos finished
11618-430: The Phillies owners. John Rogers , described as a "penny-pinching" majority owner of the Phillies, assured Lajoie that he would make the same salary as Delahanty. However, Lajoie discovered that while he was earning $ 2,600 ($ 95,222 in current dollar terms), Delahanty earned $ 3,000 ($ 109,872 in current dollar terms) (contracts for NL players were not allowed to surpass $ 2,400). Rogers increased Lajoie's pay by $ 200 but
11775-770: The Special Baseball Records Committee of Major League Baseball officially recognized six major leagues: the National League, American League, American Association, Union Association (1884), Players' League (1890), and Federal League (1914–1915). The status of the National Association as a major league has been a point of dispute among baseball researchers; while its statistics are not recognized by Major League Baseball, its statistics are included with those of other major leagues by some baseball reference websites, such as Retrosheet . Some researchers, including Nate Silver , dispute
11932-758: The Triple-A Leafs, a new Toronto Maple Leafs began play as an amateur team belonging to the Ontario -only Intercounty Baseball League at another diamond located in Christie Pits Park. Major League Baseball arrived in the city of Toronto during the next wave of expansion, in 1977, with the Toronto Blue Jays . Toronto won the Eastern League/International League pennant 12 times: 1887, 1902, 1907, 1912, 1917, 1918, 1926, 1943, 1954, 1956, 1957, and 1960. The team won
12089-568: The U.S.'s involvement in World War I. Lajoie made his services available to the draft board but they rejected his offer. On December 27, 1918, Lajoie announced his retirement from baseball. Several years after his retirement, a story in The Milwaukee Sentinel talked of Lajoie's ability to "outguess any pitcher." Lajoie faced pitcher Red Donahue , who avoided pitching fastballs to Lajoie after seeing him go 4-for-4 against
12246-614: The World Series in exchange for a ring worth $ 100,000 ($ 1,712,780.35 in 2022 dollars). Despite being acquitted, all were permanently banned from Major League Baseball. Baseball's popularity increased in the 1920s and 1930s. The 1920 season was notable for the death of Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians . Chapman, who was struck in the head by a pitch and died a few hours later, became the only MLB player to die of an on-field injury. Both leagues quickly began to require
12403-503: The age of 84 from complications associated with pneumonia. He had fallen in the autumn of 1958 and fractured his arm. His wife had died earlier in 1951. In 1999, he ranked number 29 on The Sporting News ' list of the "100 Greatest Baseball Players", and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team . Lajoie was included in the checklist for the 1933 baseball card set produced by
12560-419: The beginning of the 20th century, however, the upstart American League (AL) was looking to rival the supremacy of the NL and in 1901, Lajoie and dozens of former National League players joined the American League. National League clubs contested the legality of contracts signed by players who jumped to the other league, but eventually Lajoie was allowed to play for Connie Mack 's Philadelphia Athletics . During
12717-596: The cancellation of 713 total games and resulted in a split-season format. In 1985, Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb 's all-time hits record with his 4,192nd hit, and in 1989 Rose received a lifetime ban from baseball as a result of betting on baseball games while manager of the Cincinnati Reds . Rose was the first person to receive a lifetime ban from baseball since 1943. 1985 also saw the Pittsburgh drug trials which involved players who were called to testify before
12874-537: The center field fence, and the Huntington Avenue Grounds of the Boston Red Sox , which was 635 feet (194 m) to the center field fence, thus home runs were rare, and "small ball" tactics such as singles , bunts , stolen bases , and the hit-and-run play dominated the strategies of the time. Hitting methods like the Baltimore chop were used to increase the number of infield singles. On
13031-514: The championship season, the Leafs lost $ 168,000 in 1965. Gardiner wrote a personal cheque for $ 100,000 to cover the shortfall, with the balance being paid by other members of the board. Meanwhile, the deterioration of Maple Leaf Stadium, regular broadcasts of major league games on television, and other factors drove attendance down to only 67,216 in 1967. According to Hunter, the team lost about $ 500,000 over its last four seasons in Toronto. The final home game, on Labour Day Monday, September 4, 1967, drew
13188-482: The club obliged, selling Lajoie to the Athletics for the waiver price and in so doing, Lajoie returned to Philadelphia. The following season, 1915, Lajoie returned to the Athletics when Mack signed him to a contract. In his first season back with the Athletics, he finished with a .280 batting average but the team ended the season in last place with a 43–109 record. The 1916 season would be Lajoie's last in
13345-560: The club was no longer in the running for the league championship, which happened frequently under the NA. A concerted effort was made to curb gambling on games, which was leaving the validity of results in doubt. The first game in the NL—on Saturday, April 22, 1876 (at Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia )—is often pointed to as the beginning of MLB. The early years of the NL were tumultuous, with threats from rival leagues and
13502-415: The company's interest was due in part to help position themselves to go after a Major League Baseball franchise for Toronto. After the season, the team was sold to Walter Dilbeck, a real estate developer from Evansville, Indiana , for $ 65,000. On October 17, 1967, the directors of the International League approved the transfer of the Maple Leafs franchise to Louisville, Kentucky , where the team competed as
13659-573: The condition of the baseball itself. The baseball used American rather than the modern Australian wool yarn and was not wound as tightly, affecting the distance that it would travel. More significantly, balls were kept in play until they were mangled, soft and sometimes lopsided. During this era, a baseball cost three dollars, equal to $ 52.72 today (in inflation-adjusted USD ), and owners were reluctant to purchase new balls. Fans were expected to throw back fouls and (rare) home runs. Baseballs also became stained with tobacco juice, grass, and mud, and sometimes
13816-432: The contentious reserve clause . The period before 1920 was the dead-ball era , when home runs were rarely hit. Professional baseball was rocked by the Black Sox Scandal , a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series . Baseball survived the scandal, albeit with major changes in its governance as the relatively weak National Commission was replaced with a powerful commissioner of baseball with near-unlimited authority over
13973-438: The contract on behalf of Mack. "Hough offered me $ 24,000 ($ 878,976 in current dollar terms) for four years. You can bet I signed in a hurry," Lajoie said. Lajoie was considered "the first superstar" to join the newly formed AL. He was also the first player whose yearly salary was $ 4,000 ($ 146,496 in current dollar terms). "The Phillies opened their season and drew 6,000 fans. A week later, when we opened, there were 16,000 in
14130-590: The damage had already been done. "Because I felt I had been cheated, I was determined to listen to any reasonable American League offer," Lajoie said. In 1901, the newly created American League had attracted several of the top players in the competing National League to join its ranks. Rogers declined Lajoie's request for an increase in salary, and as a result Lajoie jumped to the crosstown Philadelphia Athletics , owned by former Phillies' part-owner Benjamin Shibe and managed by Connie Mack . Frank Hough offered Lajoie
14287-590: The entire year. James A. Dunn, vice-president and second-largest shareholder after Oakley, died in August 1933. The one bright spot was 1934, when the team won the league championship under manager Ike Boone before losing the Junior World Series in nine games. A few months later, in December 1934, Oakley died. After George Oakley's death, his son Cliff Oakley succeeded him as team president. Following
14444-401: The family. Lajoie dropped out of school to work in a textile mill . He also began playing semi-professional baseball for the local Woonsocket team, under the alias "Sandy" because his parents did not approve of their son playing baseball. He earned money as a taxi driver with a horse and buggy and locally was called "Slugging Cabby." "When I told my father I had decided to take the job he
14601-470: The final two games, a doubleheader, off against the Chicago White Sox , confident that his average was safe and would allow him to win the AL batting title—unless Lajoie had a near-perfect final day. Going into the final game of the season, Cobb's average led Lajoie's, .383 to .376. Lajoie and the Naps faced a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns in Sportsman's Park , Cleveland's final two games of
14758-591: The first major league franchise on the West Coast. O'Malley also helped persuade the rival New York Giants to move west to become the San Francisco Giants. Giants owner Horace Stoneham had been contemplating a move to Minnesota amid slumping attendance at the aging Polo Grounds ballpark when O'Malley invited him to meet San Francisco Mayor George Christopher in New York. After Stoneham
14915-428: The following major league teams: Notes Sources Major League Baseball This is an accepted version of this page Major League Baseball ( MLB ) is a professional baseball league and the highest level of organized baseball in the United States and Canada . One of the "Big Four" major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada , MLB comprises 30 teams, divided equally between
15072-513: The founding of the Cincinnati club. The NABBP split into an amateur organization and a professional organization. The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players , often known as the National Association (NA), was formed in 1871. Its amateur counterpart disappeared after only a few years. The modern Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves franchises trace their histories back to the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in
15229-600: The games were on the square and I am greatly pleased to know that the affair has ended so nicely." Lajoie said, "I am quite satisfied that I was treated fairly in every way by President Johnson, but I think the scorer at St. Louis made an error in not crediting me with nine hits. However, I am glad that the controversy is over. I have the greatest respect for Cobb as a batter and am glad of his success." The Sporting News published an article written by Paul MacFarlane in its April 18, 1981, issue where historian Pete Palmer had discovered that while Cobb's September 24 doubleheader
15386-429: The hole " between the corner and middle infielders. Starting pitchers were no longer expected to throw complete games ; it was enough for a starter to pitch 6–7 innings and turn the game over to the team's closer , a position which grew in importance over these decades. As stolen bases increased, home run totals dropped. After Willie Mays hit 52 home runs in 1965, only one player ( George Foster ) reached that mark until
15543-529: The juice of licorice, which some players would chew for the purpose of discoloring the ball. Also, pitchers could manipulate the ball through the use of the spitball (In 1921, use of this pitch was restricted to a few pitchers with a grandfather clause ). Additionally, many ballparks had large dimensions, such as the West Side Grounds of the Chicago Cubs, which was 560 feet (170 m) to
15700-414: The last game of the season and after an investigation by American League President Ban Johnson . Lajoie in 1914 joined Cap Anson and Honus Wagner as the only major league players to record 3,000 career hits. He led the NL or AL in putouts five times in his career and in assists three times. He has been called "the best second baseman in the history of baseball" and "the most outstanding player to wear
15857-487: The league preferred Lajoie's personality to that of Cobb's. Coach Harry Howell is reported to have said to the game's official scorer, E. V. Parish, "to do well by Lajoie." Howell was reported to have offered a bribe to Parish, which as described in Al Stump's biography of Cobb, was a $ 40 ($ 1,263 in current dollar terms) suit. Parish refused the offer and the resulting uproar ended in O'Connor and Howell being banned from
16014-481: The league, he also offered a $ 10,000 ($ 339,111 in current dollar terms) reduction in salary. Somers promoted Naps coach Deacon "Jim" McGuire to manager. The team finished 71–82 while Lajoie's .324 average was third in the AL and 33 doubles second. The Naps finished 1910 71–81 but Lajoie had one of his better seasons statistically as he led the majors with a .384 average and 227 hits, both categories bettered only in Lajoie's 1901 campaign. His 51 doubles,
16171-620: The major league clubs, and the MLB Draft League , a hybrid amateur-professional showcase league. MLB and the World Baseball Softball Confederation jointly manage the international World Baseball Classic tournament. In the 1860s, aided by soldiers playing the game in camp during the Civil War , "New York"-style baseball expanded into a national game and spawned baseball's first governing body,
16328-447: The major leagues by AL President Ban Johnson . Johnson had the matter investigated, and after having Cobb's September 24 doubleheader statistics re-checked, discovered only the first game of Cobb's statistics had been scored, but not the second game, in which he went 2-for-3. This put Cobb's suggested actual batting average at .385, again ahead of Lajoie's. In the end, Johnson ruled that Lajoie's sacrifice bunt should have been recorded as
16485-461: The major leagues unless you have players who know the game. We don't have time to teach and train youngsters up here. Our job is to win pennants, not run schools," he said. Franklin Lewis, sports writer and author, wrote "Lajoie, in spite of his marvelous fielding and tremendous batting, was not exactly a darling of the grandstand as a manager." Lajoie recommended to Somers on August 17, 1909, he find
16642-658: The major leagues. Satchel Paige was signed by the Indians and the Dodgers added star catcher Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe , who was later the first winner of the Cy Young Award for his outstanding pitching. MLB banned the signing of women to contracts in 1952, but that ban was lifted in 1992. There have been no female MLB players since then. From 1903 to 1952, the major leagues consisted of two eight-team leagues whose 16 teams were located in ten cities, all in
16799-572: The major-league status of the Union Association by pointing out that franchises came and went and that the St. Louis club was deliberately "stacked"; the St. Louis club was owned by the league's president and it was the only club that was close to major-league caliber. In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced its recognition of seven leagues within Negro league baseball as major leagues:
16956-497: The majors in hits (232), batting average (.426), runs (145), on-base (.463) and slugging percentage (.643), and total bases (350). His 125 RBIs led the AL and his 14 home runs were a career-best and his 48 doubles are a Philadelphia Athletics' record. Mack said of Lajoie, "He plays so naturally and so easily it looks like lack of effort." Author Robert Kelly writes: The .422 [ sic ] batting average of Lajoie still stands as an AL record. To some degree, however, it
17113-448: The majors. In his final major league game, he hit a triple to help Athletics pitcher Joe Bush win his no-hitter. Lajoie, aged 41 years, played in 113 games and finished with a .246 average. Philadelphia's season record was worse than the previous season's franchise-low record, and the team finished in last place again with a 36–117 record. The Athletics' winning percentage (.235) is the franchise's worst winning percentage (through
17270-447: The milestone later in the summer with even less hoopla, in an age when individual records received little attention from the press and were generally scorned by many players. Players overly worried about their individual stats were often unpopular with teammates. The modesty of Wagner and Lajoie over their achievements contrasted sharply with Cobb's ambition and overriding interest in his individual numbers. The Lajoie-Cobb rivalry reached
17427-404: The name was changed to Indians (the team's name until 2021). Lajoie led the AL in batting average five times in his career and four times recorded the highest number of hits. During several of those years with the Naps, he and Ty Cobb dominated AL hitting categories and traded batting titles with each other, most notably in 1910, when the league's batting champion was not decided until well after
17584-471: The nature of professional baseball, putting a higher premium on speed and defense over home-run hitting power since the fields were often too big for teams to expect to hit many home runs and foul balls hit in the air could more easily be caught for outs. Teams began to be built around pitching—particularly their bullpens—and speed on the basepaths. Artificial surfaces meant balls traveled quicker and bounced higher, so it became easier to hit ground balls " in
17741-527: The northeastern and mid-western United States: New York City had three teams and Boston , Chicago, Philadelphia , and St. Louis each had two teams. St. Louis was the southernmost and westernmost city with a major league team. The longest possible road trip, from Boston to St. Louis, took about 24 hours by railroad. After a half-century of stability, starting in the 1950s, teams began to move out of cities with multiple teams into cities that had not had them before. From 1953 to 1955, three teams moved to new cities:
17898-412: The number was revised. Previously, Ty Cobb and George Sisler had been credited with having the AL's all-time mark. That same year in a game against the Chicago White Sox 's Clark Griffith , Lajoie became the second Major Leaguer after Abner Dalrymple in 1881 to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded in an 11–7 game. For the 1901 season, Lajoie led the majors in doubles (48), and led
18055-473: The park. Within a week, he had brought in Victor Borge and Gloria DeHaven for guest appearances. At another game that week, he provided free orchids from Hawaii to the first 3,000 women in the park. An opera company and free comic books for children under 14 were scheduled for another game that week which was rained out. Cooke had suggestion boxes installed throughout the stadium and introduced music over
18212-506: The pennant in 1887, behind 33-game-winner Edward Nicholas Cannonball Crane , who also led the team in hitting with a .428 batting average (walks were counted as hits for that season). The league folded in July 1890. In 1895, Toronto resurfaced in the original Eastern League (which in 1902 was designated Class A, at that time one level below Major League Baseball ), where it played through 1911. The club relocated to Albany, New York for part of
18369-423: The playoffs included) to see a team which finished in fourth place. Nine days after Cooke became owner, the team announced it had signed its first African American players, pitcher Leon Day and catcher Charlie White . Cooke negotiated an affiliation with the St. Louis Browns for the 1952 season. With his focus on entertainment, Cooke had often been compared to Browns' owner Bill Veeck . The arrangement with
18526-519: The point that the 1942 season was nearly canceled. On January 14, 1942, MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote to U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt , pleading for the continuation of baseball during the war. Roosevelt responded, "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going. There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before. And that means that they ought to have
18683-603: The powerhouse Baltimore Orioles . Through the 1920s, the team averaged 93 wins a season, but won only one pennant. In 1926, the Maple Leafs moved to the new Maple Leaf Stadium , which would be their home for the next 42 seasons, and capped off the season with the championship, with Howley back as manager. The following year, the National Hockey League team, the Toronto St. Patricks , changed its own nickname to Maple Leafs. The Maple Leafs struggled through
18840-461: The previous season, when the Leafs had finished in eighth place. It was also in 1960 that Sparky Anderson first joined the team as a middle infielder. He went on to play with the Leafs until 1964 when he became manager. In 1961, Cooke left Canada to become a U.S. citizen, naming Harry Kimber club president. Cooke sold the team in January 1964 to a syndicate led by Robert L. Hunter and Sam Starr for
18997-401: The public address system between innings. He also announced he would hire female ushers for the next season and hired a flagpole sitter who was supposed to remain at the top of the pole until the Leafs made the first division. Over the 10-year span from 1951 to 1960, the Maple Leafs drew 3.2 million spectators, peaking in 1952 with 446,040 fans in attendance (which went to more than 500,000 with
19154-433: The regular season. As a manager, Lajoie was also described as "much too lenient with his players." Lajoie contracted sepsis from an untreated spike injury after a game in July 1905. Dye from Lajoie's stockings entered his bloodstream and led to blood poisoning. (A rule was put into place requiring white socks to be worn underneath a player's colored socks.) The injury worsened and Lajoie eventually came to games in
19311-475: The reins as manager in 1907 and the team's fortunes immediately turned around. Kelley was drafted by the Boston Doves the next season, when the Leafs returned to Hanlan's Point Stadium, but Kelley rejoined the club in 1909 and guided the team to the championship in 1912. Hanlan's Point Stadium burned down in August 1909, so the team had to finish its season back at Diamond Park. In time for the 1910 season,
19468-514: The reserve clause was not valid for players who signed with an AL team. Mack responded by trading Lajoie and Bill Bernhard to the then-moribund Cleveland Bronchos , whose owner, Charles Somers , had provided considerable financial assistance to the A's in the early years. Lajoie was also pursued by Charles Comiskey , owner of the Chicago White Sox. Lajoie, nicknamed "The Frenchman" and considered baseball's most famous player at
19625-542: The reserve clause, led to the organization of the Major League Baseball Players Association to collectively bargain with the owners, which in turn led to the introduction of free agency in baseball. Modern stadiums with artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s. Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s. In the mid-2000s, media reports disclosed the use of anabolic steroids among MLB players;
19782-478: The resulting bidding war for players led to widespread contract-breaking and legal disputes. The war between the AL and NL caused shock waves throughout the baseball world. At a meeting at the Leland Hotel in Chicago in 1901, the other baseball leagues negotiated a plan to maintain their independence. A new National Association was formed to oversee these minor leagues. After 1902, the NL, AL, and NA signed
19939-523: The season 77–63 and Lajoie finished his first full season with the club again the AL's batting champion with a .344 average. He also led the league in slugging percentage (.518), finished second in doubles (41), third in RBIs (93) and tied for fifth in home runs (7). In the off-season he contracted pleurisy . During the 1904 season, Lajoie received a suspension after he spat tobacco juice in an umpire's eye. He later informally replaced Bill Armour as
20096-652: The season in third place. The next year, renamed the Toronto Canucks, the team left the Canadian League along with Hamilton to join the original International League (also known as the International Association), where it played from 1886 to 1890. The baseball stadium that would come to be known as Sunlight Park was built for the team and opened on May 22, 1886, with Toronto defeating Rochester 10–3 in front of 3,000 fans. Toronto won
20253-540: The season, Lajoie set the all-time American League single-season mark for the highest batting average (.426). One year later, Lajoie went to the Cleveland Bronchos , where he would play until the 1915 season, when he returned to play for Mack and the Athletics. While with Cleveland, Lajoie's popularity led to locals electing to change the club's team name from Bronchos to Napoleons ("Naps" for short), which remained until after Lajoie departed Cleveland and
20410-402: The season. After a sun-hindered fly ball went for a stand-up triple and another batted ball landed for a cleanly hit single, Lajoie had five subsequent hits – bunt singles dropped in front of rookie third baseman Red Corriden (whose normal position was shortstop), who was playing closer to shallow left field on orders, it has been suggested, of manager Jack O'Connor . In his final at bat of
20567-509: The second game, Lajoie reached base on another bunt but the throw to first by Corriden was off target and the play was scored a error and thus, Lajoie did not record an official at-bat, nor a hit. He finished the doubleheader 8-for-8 and his batting average increased to .384, .001 greater than Cobb's mark. Although the AL office had not officially announced the results, Lajoie began to receive congratulations from fans and players, including eight of Cobb's Detroit Tigers teammates. Most players in
20724-571: The sport. MLB rose in popularity in the decade following the Black Sox Scandal, and unlike major leagues in other sports it endured the Great Depression and World War II without any of its teams folding. Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier . Some teams moved to different cities in the 1950s and 1960s. The AL and NL added eight clubs in the 1960s: two in 1961, two in 1962, and four in 1969. Player discontent with established labor practices, especially
20881-411: The stands. The American League was here to stay," Lajoie later said. Lajoie's batting average that year was .426 (due to a transcription error that was not discovered until 1954, which inaccurately gave his hit total as 220 instead of 229, it was originally recorded at .405, later changed to .422, before finally being revised again to .426). The batting average mark became the all-time AL record after
21038-462: The team a new manager, although he wanted to remain on the club as a player. Somers responded to Lajoie by giving him more time to finalize his decision but when Lajoie came back days later and announced the same decision, Somers acted quickly to find a replacement. Lajoie later described the decision to take on the added duties as a player-manager as the biggest mistake of his career as he felt it negatively affected his play. The highest-paid player in
21195-401: The team agreed to include him in their asking price. Author David Jordan wrote: A legend later grew up that Geier was the main target of Nash's pursuit and that Marston "threw in" Lajoie in order to get the Phillies to pay the $ 1,500 asking price. This is hardly likely. While Geier was considered a good prospect, Lajoie was banging the ball at a .429 clip in his first professional season, was
21352-401: The team was back to eighth place. Joe Ziegler then became general manager and is credited with turning the team's fortunes around, with such promotional innovations as 20-cent hot dogs and Sunday games. Under Ziegler, the Leafs set a new franchise attendance record with 353,247 customers in 1949—double what it had been two years earlier, despite a fifth-place finish. Ziegler resigned at the end of
21509-507: The team's manager (Armour submitted his resignation on September 9 but as team captain , Lajoie had already been acting as the Naps' field manager). After the season had concluded, Lajoie was officially named manager. He still managed to lead the majors with a .376 batting average as he recorded his second consecutive league batting title. He also led the majors in hits (208), doubles (49), RBIs (102) and slugging percentage (.546). Lajoie forbade his players from card playing and gambling during
21666-524: The team, needing to avoid entering Pennsylvania so as to avoid a subpoena (the only team they could legally play with inside state limits was the Phillies). When the Naps (the team was temporarily named the Naps after Nap Lajoie) went to play in Philadelphia, Lajoie and Bernhard would go to nearby Atlantic City to help pass the time. The issue was finally resolved when the leagues made peace through
21823-588: The time, arrived in Cleveland on June 4; his play was immediately met with approval from fans. The Bronchos drew 10,000 fans to League Park in Lajoie's first game. The Bronchos' record at the time Lajoie and fellow Athletics teammate, Bill Bernhard, joined was 11–24 and improved to 12–24 after the team's inaugural game with their new players, a 4–3 win over the Boston Americans . The team went on to finish 69–67, fifth in
21980-506: The trade because Cobb was not getting along with several teammates. Somers decided to retain Flick, saying, "We'll keep Flick. Maybe he isn't as good a batter as Cobb, but he's much nicer to have on the team." The Naps finished the regular season in second place to the Tigers with a 90–64 record, a half-game behind the Tigers (who finished 90–63 and were not forced to make-up a rained out game in accordance with league rules). Lajoie
22137-454: The use of new, white baseballs whenever a ball became scuffed or dirty, helping bring the "dead-ball" era to an end. The following year, the New York Yankees made their first World Series appearance. By the end of the 1930s, the team had appeared in 11 World Series, winning eight of them. Yankees slugger Babe Ruth had set the single-season home run record in 1927, hitting 60 home runs; breaking his own record of 29 home runs. Afflicted by
22294-485: Was French-Canadian and had immigrated to the United States. Upon arrival to the U.S., he first settled in Rutland, Vermont , but then moved to Woonsocket, where Nap, the youngest of eight surviving children, was born. Throughout his childhood Lajoie received little formal education. Jean, who worked as a teamster and laborer , died not long into Lajoie's childhood, which forced him and his siblings to work to support
22451-399: Was "absorbing the available Negro Leagues numbers into the official historical record." The period between 1900 and 1919 is commonly referred to as the "dead-ball era". Games of this era tended to be low-scoring and were often dominated by pitchers, such as Walter Johnson , Cy Young , Christy Mathewson , Mordecai Brown , and Grover Cleveland Alexander . The term also accurately describes
22608-648: Was "widely regarded as an outstanding prospect," and Indians owner Charlie Marston rejected an offer from the Pittsburgh Pirates for Lajoie in exchange for $ 500 ($ 18,312 in current dollar terms). He was also scouted by the Philadelphia Phillies and Boston Beaneaters . The Philadelphia Phillies of the MLB's National League (NL) purchased Lajoie and teammate Phil Geier from Fall River for $ 1,500 ($ 54,936 in current dollar terms) on August 9. Phillies' manager Billy Nash originally went to Fall River intending to sign Geier only but obtained Lajoie when
22765-980: Was a result of players using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs . In 1993, the National League added the Florida Marlins in Miami and the Colorado Rockies in Denver . In 1998, the Brewers switched leagues by joining the National League, and two new teams were added: the National League's Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix and the American League's Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Tampa Bay . Nap Lajoie As manager Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie ( / ˈ l æ ʒ ə w eɪ / ; September 5, 1874 – February 7, 1959), also known as Larry Lajoie ,
22922-593: Was an American professional baseball second baseman who played 21 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). Nicknamed "the Frenchman" , he represented both Philadelphia franchises and the Cleveland Naps , the latter of which he became the namesake of, and from 1905 through 1909, the player-manager . Lajoie was signed to the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League (NL) in 1896. By
23079-547: Was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment", Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s, joining the Dodgers' farm club, the Montreal Royals , for the 1946 season. The following year, the Dodgers called up Robinson to the major leagues. On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons. Black baseball fans began flocking to see
23236-405: Was more than that—hell, the team was actually called the "Naps" in his honor, as if Lajoie was the team. If Lajoie was in the habit of covering second base every play, the shortstop certainly wasn't going to tell him not to. Lajoie led the majors in 1906 in hits (214) and doubles (48) and the Naps finished third in the AL again with a winning record, 89–64. Lajoie finished second in
23393-413: Was not called up until well after the season had begun). The Naps finished with a 76–78 record in a season in which they had been 52–29, and held a three-game lead in the American League on July 24 Baseball historian Bill James wrote of Lajoie's higher-than-normal career putout total and importance to Cleveland: Nap Lajoie was not only the team's superstar, after 1905 he was also the manager. He
23550-406: Was not correctly tabulated (perhaps purposely) according to the correct date, the second game's statistics were in fact included in the next day's ledger, thus incorrectly recording a second 2-for-3 performance from Cobb which meant Lajoie's average was greater. Author James Vail wrote in 2001: To date, it seems that no one knows for certain who won that 1910 batting title. Total Baseball , which
23707-426: Was out five weeks, and Cleveland lost the pennant to Detroit by half a game. Lajoie finished the season tied for third-most in hits (168) while Cobb's batting average, slugging and on-base percentages, and hit total led the American League. Baseball historians have suggested the managerial duties Lajoie took on affected his offensive numbers. Lajoie's dissatisfaction with the Naps' play worsened. "You can't win in
23864-517: Was partly blamed for the Naps' second-place finish. Author Fred McMane described an instance during the season between Naps catcher Nig Clarke and Lajoie. Clarke ... was newly married and asked Lajoie for a day off so that he could go home. Lajoie refused. Clarke sulked and walked over to warm up pitcher Addie Joss . On the first pitch, he stuck out a finger and the ball broke it cleanly. With blood streaming from his hand, Clarke waved it defiantly in front of Lajoie. "Now can I go home?" asked Clarke. He
24021-449: Was persuaded to move to California, Time magazine put O'Malley on its cover. MLB Commissioner Ford C. Frick had opposed the meeting, but the dual moves proved successful for both franchises—and for MLB. Had the Dodgers moved out west alone, the St. Louis Cardinals —1,600 mi (2,575 km) away —would have been the closest NL team. Instead, the joint move made West Coast road trips economical for visiting teams. The Dodgers set
24178-591: Was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers for $ 3,000 ($ 60,770 in current dollar terms) in March 1918 but the contract was annulled by the Commissioner's office and made a free agent to which Lajoie was "well pleased". Later that same year he joined the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association as player-manager. He helped lead the team to a third-place finish but the season was impacted due to
24335-579: Was that league's record until Cobb surpassed his mark. He was among the second group of players elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937 and was later inducted on June 12, 1939, when the Hall opened that same year. Lajoie obtained the greatest number of votes as he led induction mates Tris Speaker (165 votes) and Cy Young (153) with 168 votes (83.6 percent of ballots) from the Baseball Writers' Association of America . Lajoie led all second basemen in
24492-514: Was very angry. He shouted that ball players were bums and that nobody respected them, but I was determined to give it a try at least one season," Lajoie later said. He also received the nickname "Larry" from a teammate who had trouble pronouncing Lajoie. Lajoie admired baseball players such as King Kelly and Charles Radbourn . When word of Lajoie's baseball ability spread, he began to play for other semi-professional teams at $ 2 to $ 5 per game ($ 73 to $ 183 in current dollar terms). He also worked as
24649-573: Was without professional baseball from 1968 to 1976, when the American League added the Toronto Blue Jays via the 1977 Major League Baseball expansion . The first Toronto baseball organization, the Toronto Baseball Club, played in the Canadian League in 1885, playing its home games at William Cawthra 's Jarvis Street Lacrosse Grounds (Old Lacrosse Grounds) at the northwest corner of Jarvis and Wellesley Street. It finished
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