Detroit Tigers replacement players (May 18, 1912)

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Replacement Tigers in the dugout in Philadelphia Replacement Tigers (May 18, 1912).jpg
Replacement Tigers in the dugout in Philadelphia
Box score of Philadelphia-Detroit baseball game, May 12, 1912 Replacement game box score.jpg
Box score of Philadelphia-Detroit baseball game, May 12, 1912

The Detroit Tigers replacement players represented the Detroit Tigers on May 18, 1912.

Contents

On May 15, 1912, Detroit star Ty Cobb was taunted in New York by a fan named Claude Lueker. According to several accounts, Lueker triggered Cobb's anger by calling him "a half nigger". [1] [2] According to another version, Lueker also yelled at Cobb, "your sisters screw niggers" and "your mother is a whore." [3] Cobb leapt into the stands where he assaulted Lueker. Lueker was unable to defend himself, having lost one hand and three fingers from the other hand in an industrial accident. When fans yelled at Cobb that the man had no hands, Cobb shouted back, "I don't care if he has no feet!" American League president Ban Johnson responded by suspending Cobb indefinitely. [4]

Cobb's teammates voted to strike, declaring that they would not take the field until Cobb was reinstated. It was the first strike in baseball history. [5] Johnson refused to back down and told Detroit owner Frank Navin that the team would be fined $5,000 for every game in which they failed to field a team.

Navin ordered manager Hughie Jennings to find players willing to take the field. The Tigers were on the road in Philadelphia, and so Jennings recruited eight replacement players from a neighborhood in North Philadelphia. Each man was paid $25 or $50. [6] The replacement players represented the Tigers on May 18, 1912, against the Philadelphia Athletics. The Athletics set a club scoring record in defeating the replacement Tigers by a score of 24 to 2, tallying 26 hits, 42 total bases, and ten stolen bases (five by Eddie Collins). [5] The Tigers' starting pitcher, Allan Travers, was a college student who became a Catholic priest and later confessed he had never pitched in his life.

The Tigers' manager Hughie Jennings (age 43) and coaches Joe Sugden (age 41) and Deacon McGuire (age 48), each of whom previously had long and distinguished careers as players, also played in the May 18 game for the Tigers. For all three men, it was their only playing appearance of the 1912 season. Jennings played in only one more major league game, in 1918. It was the final game of both Sugden's and McGuire's careers. The unplanned appearance raised McGuire's career total to 26 major-league seasons, a record that was not surpassed until 1993 by Nolan Ryan. McGuire, who became the last player born during the Civil War to appear in a big-league game, recorded two fielding assists in the game for a career total of 1,859, which remains the all-time record for catchers.

After the embarrassing display, Johnson met personally with the striking Tigers and told them they would be banned for life if the strike continued. Cobb urged his teammates to end the strike, and the Tigers complied. Accordingly, the major league careers of the replacement Tigers lasted one game.

Ed Irwin

Ed Irwin
Third baseman
Born: 1882
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Died:(1916-02-05)February 5, 1916 (aged 32–33)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
Batted: Right
Threw: Right
MLB debut
May 18, 1912, for the Detroit Tigers
Last MLB appearance
May 18, 1912, for the Detroit Tigers
  1. "Cooperstown Confidential". The New York Times. July 28, 2009.
  2. Holmes, Dan (2004). Ty Cobb: a biography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. pp. 58–59. ISBN   978-0-313-32869-5.
  3. 1 2 Paul Hoffman. "May 18, 1912: Tigers stage players strike in support of Ty Cobb". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved July 10, 2023.
  4. Godfrey, Andrew. "1912 Tigers Pickup Team Loses 24-2". bleacherreport.com. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  5. 1 2 "Detroit Players Go Out in First Strike in History of Baseball: Tigers Quit Field When Told Cobb's Suspension Stood". The Philadelphia Inquirer. May 19, 1912. pp. 1, 17 via Newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 Reisler, Jim (April 28, 2012). "A Beating in the Stands, Followed by One on the Field". The New York Times . p. SP10. Retrieved April 11, 2013.
  7. Joe Naiman, "The First Replacement Players: The 'Tigers' of May 18, 1912," Baseball Research Journal, No. 25 (1996), 121-123.
  8. Bill Lamb. "Ed Irwin". SABR Bioproject. SABR (Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved July 1, 2021.
  9. 1 2 3 "Ed Irwin". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  10. 1 2 "Allan Travers". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  11. "Argument Has Fatal Ending". The Carbondale Leader. February 7, 1916. p. 1. Retrieved April 12, 2024 via Newspapers.com. Open Access logo PLoS transparent.svg
  12. "TheatreOne". www.theatreone.org. Archived from the original on October 6, 2011. Retrieved January 17, 2022.
  13. 1 2 3 Dwight Ott (April 16, 1978). "William C. Leinhauser, 84". The Philadelphia Inquirer. p. 8C via Newspapers.com.
  14. "Bill Leinhauser". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  15. 1 2 Lamb, Bill. "Billy Maharg". sabr.org. Retrieved February 19, 2019.
  16. "Vincent Maney". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 11, 2023 via Newspapers.com.
  17. "Paper Tigers: How a Player Strike Put a Team of 'Misfits' on a Major League Field for a Day". Society for American Baseball Research. Retrieved July 11, 2023.
  18. "S. Vincent Maney, Insurance Broker". Buffalo Evening News. March 15, 1952. p. 6 via Newspapers.com.
  19. 1 2 "Jim McGarr". Baseball-reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  20. "Dan McGarvey". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  21. "Jack Smith". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
  22. "Hap Ward". Baseball-Reference.com. Sports Reference LLC. Retrieved July 9, 2023.
Joe Sugden
Joe Sugden baseball card.jpg
Catcher
Born:(1870-07-31)July 31, 1870
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died: June 28, 1959(1959-06-28) (aged 88)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Batted: Switch
Threw: Right
MLB debut
July 20, 1893, for the Pittsburgh Pirates
Last MLB appearance
May 18, 1912, for the Detroit Tigers