DETROIT – So, baseball is a weird sport, right? I mean, I love it, but it’s just weird, right? There are 30 stadiums used by Major League Baseball and literally none of them are the same.
Can you imagine how wild it would be if Little Caesars Arena’s ice rink and basketball court were slightly different from TD Garden’s?
The eccentricities of baseball has added to its charm. It’s why the sport can be played in fields, yards, empty parking lots -- all you need is a ball and a bat.
When it comes to the price of entry, baseball might just be only behind soccer as one of the most easily accessible sports. This accessibility also adds to more eccentricities.
Speaking of weird, did you know that the Detroit Tigers are responsible for one of the wildest games that features multiple sports records that have yet to be beaten? It seems like it should have been turned into a movie at this point, because it is such an unconventional and absurd situation.
The Ty Cobb strike
The Detroit Tigers is the longest-running team in the American league that has kept its name and its city. It has a long and storied history. It’s not a stretch to say that Ty Cobb is probably the most famous player the Detroit Tigers has ever had. The guy spent nearly a quarter of a century with the Tigers -- 22 seasons!
In 1912, Cobb was one of the biggest stars in all of sports. He was Babe Ruth before Babe Ruth. He was Wayne Gretzky before Wayne Gretzky. He was Tom Brady before Tom Brady. He was huge. During a May 15 game in New York City, Cobb climbed into the stands and beat the snot out of a heckler. There’s more to it than that, but the details aren’t quite important to this story, just that the league president Ban Johnson was present at the game and witnessed the assault. Johnson ejected Cobb, fined him $50 (nearly $1,600 today) and suspended him indefinitely.
The Tigers, without its biggest star, traveled to Philadelphia to play against the Philadelphia Athletics, who had won the last two World Series. All 18 Detroit Tigers players backed Cobb and stated they would not play if Cobb was not among them.
The Tigers facing the two-time defending World Series champions was a huge game that people wanted to see. Johnson informed the Tigers’ owner, Frank Navin, that they would be fined $5,000 (roughly $160,000 today) if they did not have a team on the field. Tigers Manager Hughie Jennings teamed up with Athletics Manager Connie Mack and their respective team coaches to get a team together. Local Little League teams and college teams were busy or on away games, so they scavenged players from wherever they could find them. Some had never played baseball before.
Whatever the exact opposite of a ringer is, that’s what the temporary Tigers team was comprised of.
When the game started, the real Tigers took to the field and when the umpire asked Cobb to leave, the team went with him. The replacement players signed one-day contracts and took to the field. They were supposedly told to go out and forfeit, but the Detroit Tigers against the defending World Series champions was a game that attracted a lot of attention. Due to the number of people who showed up to see the game, they decided to play. What followed wasn’t great.
So, they ... did well, right? Real underdog story?
Oh, you sweet summer child, of course they didn’t. Mack had reportedly told Jennings he would play his reserve Athletics against the substitute Tigers. He didn’t.
So how did they do? Record-breakingly bad. Like, records that will never be broken ever bad. To the surprise of absolutely no one, it turns out that World Series champions have a leg up on a bunch of randos in baseball.
Detroit Tigers coach Joe Sugden was the only replacement player who had major-league experience. He had a base hit.
The replacement Tigers pitcher, Allan Travers, was a violinist in the student orchestra at St. Joseph’s College. He also failed to make the team at his college and had never pitched before. Playing against some of the best players in the world at the time, Travers pitched the worst complete game ever in the major leagues.
Jennings batted for Travers and struck out.
Ed Irwin played third base. He was the only replacement Tiger who got a hit in the entire game.
Vincent Maney played shortstop. He had no hits, struck out twice, but managed to get to first base after being hit by a pitch. He said the game was the most fun he ever had and told his brother, “It was a big defeat for us, but they paid us $15 for a couple of hours work and I was satisfied to say that I had played against the world champions.”
Jim McGarr played second base. He struck out four times. Left fielder Dan McGarvey had no hits. Third baseman Jack Smith had no plate appearances.
Hap Ward played right field. He struck out twice and was caught stealing once.
Bill Leinhauser, an amateur boxer, played center field. He had no hits and struck out three times.
Billy Maharg, a professional boxer, had two assists and never made base. He ended his major-league career with a .000 batting average. A ground ball knocked out two of his teeth.
The Tigers lost 24-2. It was not the game people wanted to see and thousands of fans demanded refunds.
What happened next?
Commission Johnson met with the real Tigers and told them they would be banned for life if they didn’t play the next game. Cobb pressured his teammates to play and his suspension was reduced to 10 days.
At the time of the strike, crowds could get violent, sometimes throwing bottles at players on the field. Cobb wasn’t the first player to confront a heckler in the stands and that’s why the players sided with him. The strike resulted in additional security and regulations being put into stadiums. It also drew more attention to player unions, making the sport better for players and fans, but not the ones who came to see fights. At least there’s still hockey for that. And boxing too, I guess.