June 4, 1902: The Cleveland Naps

June 4, 1902: The case of Napoleon Lajoie is settled. He plays his 1st game for Cleveland.

Napoléon Lajoie (that's pronounced "LAH-zhoh-ay," and he had no middle name) was born on September 5, 1874, in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. He would be the 1st of 2 natives of that town to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, followed by 1930s Chicago Cubs catcher Charles "Gabby" Hartnett.

A son of French-Canadian immigrants, Napoléon dropped out of school to work in a textile mill, a major industry in late 19th Century New England. He joined a semi-professional baseball team, where a teammate, unable to pronounce his last name, started calling him "Larry." Others began calling him "Nap" for short.

He was playing for a team in nearby Fall River, Massachusetts when he was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League. They put him at 1st base, and he roomed with their biggest star, the hard-hitting Ed Delahanty. In 1897, he batted .363, had 127 RBIs, and led the NL in total bases and slugging percentage. In 1898, he was moved to 2nd base, again had 127 RBIs (which would remain a career high), and led the NL with 43 doubles.

Despite injuries that cost him significant playing time in 1899 and 1900, in the latter year, Ned Hanlon, manager of the Brooklyn Superbas, offered the Phillies $10,000 for Lajoie. At the time, it would have matched the record purchase for a ballplayer. Phillies owner John Rogers turned him down.

Rogers should have taken it. He had promised Lajoie the same salary as Delahanty, $2,600. When Lajoie found out that Delahanty was actually making $3,000, they both believed Rogers was untrustworthy. As the American League was ready to start play and raid NL rosters in 1901, Lajoie said, "Because I felt I had been cheated, I was determined to listen to any reasonable American League offer."

(Eventually, so was Delahanty: He stayed with the Phillies for 1901, but "jumped" to the Washington Senators in 1902. He was still with them in 1903, when he died under mysterious circumstances.)

Former Phillies part-owner Ben Shibe founded the AL's Philadelphia Athletics, borrowing the name from at least 2 previous professional teams. He hired Connie Mack, former Washington Senators (NL) and Pittsburgh Pirates catcher, and former Pirates manager, to be his team's manager and treasurer. Lajoie made $2,800 in 1900. He was offered $24,000, about 8 1/2 times what he was making. He said, "You can bet I signed in a hurry," adding, "The Phillies opened their season, and drew 6,000 fans. A week later, when we opened, there were 16,000 in the stands. The American League was here to stay."

Lajoie won the AL's 1st batting title, although his average was in dispute for many years. Until 1954, it was listed at .405. A transcription error was discovered, and it was revised to .422, making it the highest in AL history to this day. Later on, another error was found, and it was discovered that his average was actually .426, making it the 2nd-highest in major league history, trailing only the .440 of Hugh Duffy with the 1894 Boston Beaneaters.

That season, Lajoie also hit 14 home runs and had 125 RBIs. These also led the League, giving him the Triple Crown. He also led the AL with 232 hits, 48 doubles (which, through the 2021 season, remains an A's franchise record, in any city), 350 total bases, 145 runs, a .463 on-base percentage, a .643 slugging percentage, a 1.106 OPS, and a 198 OPS+. (He also had 14 triples, a fine total in any era, but it did not lead the League.)

Over the next 120 years, the American League would have multi-category-leading seasons produced by Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Jimmie Foxx, Hank Greenberg, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Mickey Mantle, Frank Robinson, Carl Yastrzemski, Rod Carew, Reggie Jackson, George Brett, Ken Griffey Jr., Miguel Cabrera, Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. Lajoie's performance in the AL's 1st season stands alongside the best of these.

Mack said of Lajoie, "He plays so naturally and so easily, it looks like lack of effort." Ed Walsh, Hall of Fame pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, once said, "Did you ever see Larry Lajoie bat? No. Then you missed something. I want to tell you that there was one of the greatest hitters, and fielders, too, ever in baseball. There's no telling the records he'd have made if he'd hit against the lively ball."

But the next season, the Phillies sought an injunction to prevent Lajoie from playing in the American League. On April 21, 1902, the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania upheld the reserve clause in contracts between players and NL teams -- but also said that the injunction was only enforceable in Pennsylvania. That is, he could only play in the Keystone State if it was for the Phillies. This meant that he could play for the A's in away games.

Since he could only play away games -- and there was no health risk as there would be over a century later, as with Kyrie Irving and the Brooklyn Nets -- the A's let him go. To return the favor of Charles Somers, owner of the Cleveland Bronchos (the H was silent), lending the A's money to help them get started, on May 31, Mack traded Lajoie and pitcher Bill Bernhard, who had also jumped from the Phillies to the A's and to whom the injunction also applied, to the Bronchos.

Lajoie made his debut with the Bronchos on June 4. They beat the Boston Americans, 4-3 at League Park in Cleveland. Lajoie went 1-for-3 with an RBI. He completed the 1902 season with a .378 batting average, leading the AL again.

In 1903, Somers made Lajoie his manager, and even changed the name of the team to the Cleveland Naps, to capitalize on his popularity. He batted .344 in 1903 and .376 in 1904. The American League had been in business for 4 years, and only 1 man had ever led it in batting average: Nap Lajoie.

In the middle of the 1905 season, Lajoie contracted sepsis from an untreated spike injury. Dye from his stockings entered his bloodstream, and led to blood poisoning. As a result, a rule was put into place requiring white socks to be worn underneath a player's colored socks. Doctors considered amputating the leg, but he recovered. The Naps were 52-29 on July 24 when he was hurt, but only went 24-47 the rest of the way. Lajoie's Cleveland teammate, right fielder Elmer Flick, who had been their best player before Lajoie arrived, won the batting title.

Lajoie bounced back in 1906, batting .355 (which did not lead the League), and collecting 214 hits including 48 doubles (both of which did). That same year, he married Myrtle Smith, but they never had children. He tailed off a bit in 1907, and did not have a great season in 1908, but the team did, finishing just half a game behind the Detroit Tigers, led by Ty Cobb. That would be his best performance as a manager. He had another good by not great season in 1909.

In 1910, the Chalmers auto company promised a new car to the AL's batting champion. Lajoie, turning 36 late in the season, and Cobb, just 23, both wanted it. With 3 games left in the season, Cobb was batting .383, and stayed out of the lineup to preserve that average. On the last day, Lajoie went 8-for-8 in a doubleheader in which the St. Louis Browns, hating Cobb for his seemingly dirty play, played their infield back. Of Lajoie's 8 hits, 6 were bunt singles. Lajoie finished at .384, but few thought that was legitimate. Chalmers settled it by giving each man a car.

Lajoie batted .365 in 1911, .368 in 1912, and .335 in 1913. But with Cobb at his peak, Lajoie never won another batting title. He dropped to .258 in 1914, although he collected his 3,000th career hit. With the injunction long gone, he returned to the A's for the 1915 and 1916 seasons, and retired with a lifetime batting average of .338; 3,243 hits (at the time, 2nd all-time behind Honus Wagner) including 657 doubles, 153 triples and 82 home runs; 380 stolen bases; and an OPS+ of 150.

Had the Phillies paid Lajoie what he was worth, who knows? Most likely, they wouldn't have won a Pennant, either, as one man could only have done so much.

In 1917, he was player-manager for the Toronto Maple Leafs of the International League, for whom the hockey team would later be named. At age 43, he batted .380, won the IL batting title, and managed them to the Pennant. He played for the American Association's Indianapolis Indians in the war-shortened 1918 season, and then retired.

In 1937, he was among the 2nd class of players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. In 1939, he attended the Hall's opening ceremony. In 1958, living in Daytona Beach, Florida, he had a fall and broke his arm. He never recovered, and died on February 7, 1959, at the age of 84.

In 1999, despite his not having played in a major league game in 83 years, The Sporting News ranked him 29th on their list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, 3rd among 2nd basemen behind Rogers Hornsby and Eddie Collins. In 2022, ESPN ranked him 48th, 4th among 2nd basemen behind Hornsby, Joe Morgan and Jackie Robinson. (Hornsby fell from 9th to 20th, Collins all the way from 24th to 82nd.)

The Cleveland team kept the name Naps until he left them after the 1914 season. They then became the Indians, and the Guardians in 2022. (The Boston Americans became the Red Sox in 1908.)

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June 4, 1902 was a Wednesday. These baseball games were played:

* The New York Giants beat the Chicago Orphans, 4-3 in 10 innings at the Polo Grounds. The Chicago team, formerly known as the White Stockings and, for their youth, as the Colts, had long been led by 1st baseman and manager Adrian Constantine Anson. He was known as "Cap," for "Captain," until he got older, and became known as "Pop." He retired after the 1897 season, and the team became known as the "Orphans," because "they missed their Pop." They were renamed the Chicago Cubs in 1903.

* The Brooklyn Superbas beat the Cincinnati Reds, 5-2 at Washington Park in Brooklyn. The Superbas became the Dodgers in 1911.

* The Boston Beaneaters beat the St. Louis Cardinals, 7-3 at the South End Grounds in Boston. The Beaneaters went through some name changes, and became the Braves in 1912.

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Philadelphia Athletics, 3-0 at South Side Park in Chicago. Roy Patterson pitched a 4-hit shutout.

* The St. Louis Browns beat the Baltimore Orioles, 6-2 at Oriole Park in Baltimore. The Orioles would fold at the end of the season, and a new franchise would take their place, eventually becoming the New York Yankees.

* The Pittsburgh Pirates beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-4 at National League Park (later renamed Baker Bowl) in Philadelphia. Honus Wagner went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and 2 RBIs.

* And the Washington Senators beat the Detroit Tigers, 13-6 at Boundary Field in Washington.