Nap Lajoie

Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie
Second baseman
Born: September 5, 1874(1874-09-05) Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Died: February 7, 1959(1959-02-07) (aged 84) Daytona Beach, Florida
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
August 12, 1896 for the Philadelphia Phillies
Last MLB appearance
August 26, 1916 for the Philadelphia Athletics
Career statistics
Batting average	.338
Hits	3,242
Runs scored	1,504
Home Runs	83
Teams
As Player Philadelphia Phillies (1896–1900) Philadelphia Athletics (1901–1902) Cleveland Naps (1902–1914) Philadelphia Athletics (1915–1916) As Manager Cleveland Naps (1905–1909)
Career highlights and awards
1901 American League Triple Crown
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Induction	1937
Vote	83.58% (second ballot)

Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie (English pronunciation: /ˈlæʒəweɪ/; September 5, 1874 – February 7, 1959), also known as Larry Lajoie, was an American Major League Baseball second baseman. He was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. In his career as a second baseman, he was considered one of the greatest players of the fledgling American League in the early 20th century, and the most serious of Ty Cobb's challengers.

Lajoie was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.

Playing career

Lajoie started his career in the National League with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1896. In 1901, in response to a league-wide salary cap of $2,400 per year, he jumped to the crosstown Philadelphia Athletics, owned by former Phillies' part-owner Benjamin Shibe and managed by Connie Mack. Lajoie's batting average that year was .426. The same year Lajoie became the second Major Leaguer to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded after Abner Dalrymple in 1881. Only four other players have done it since: Del Bissonette in 1928, Bill Nicholson in 1944, Barry Bonds in 1998, and Josh Hamilton in 2008.^[1]

Lajoie circa 1908.

The next year the Phillies obtained an injunction barring Lajoie from playing baseball for any team other than the Phillies. However, a lawyer discovered the injunction was only enforceable in the state of Pennsylvania. Mack responded by trading Lajoie to the then-moribund Cleveland Bluebirds, whose owner, Charles Somers, had provided considerable financial assistance to the A's in the early years. Lajoie arrived in Cleveland on June 4, and proved to be the shot in the arm the Bluebirds needed, drawing 10,000 fans to League Park in his first game.^{[citation needed]} He was named team captain a few weeks later, and at the end of the season the team changed its name to the "Naps" in his honor.

For the remainder of 1902 and most of 1903, Lajoie and teammate Elmer Flick traveled separately from the rest of the team, never setting foot in Pennsylvania so as to avoid a subpoena. The issue was finally resolved when the leagues made peace through the National Agreement in September 1903.^{[citation needed]}

Lajoie won three batting titles and might have won a fourth if he had not contracted sepsis from an untreated spike injury in 1905.^{[citation needed]} With Cobb's arrival in the Majors in 1905, however, Lajoie faced real competition.

Rivalry with Ty Cobb

Main article: 1910 Chalmers Award

The Lajoie-Cobb rivalry reached a peak in 1910, when the Chalmers Auto Company (a direct predecessor to modern-day Chrysler) promised a car to the batting leader (and MVP) that year. Cobb took the final two games of the 1910 season off, confident that his average was high enough to win the AL batting title unless Lajoie had a near-perfect final day.

Lajoie, a far more popular player than Cobb, was allowed by the opposing St. Louis Browns to go 8-for-8 in a season-ending doubleheader. After a "sun-hindered" fly ball went for a triple and another batted ball landed for a cleanly hit single, Lajoie had five subsequent "hits" – bunt singles dropped in front of third baseman Red Corriden, who was playing closer to shallow left field on orders of manager Jack O'Connor. Lajoie also laid down a sixth bunt that was muffed for an error—officially giving him a hitless at-bat and dropping his average. O'Connor and coach Harry Howell then offered a new wardrobe to the official scorer, a woman, if she changed it to a hit. She refused, and the resulting uproar resulted in O'Connor and Howell being kicked out of baseball for life.

Nap Lajoie on a 1911 American Tobacco Company baseball card.

As it turns out, Lajoie's average is not the only one tainted by controversy; Cobb's average might have been inflated by counting a game twice in his statistics when one day he went 2-for-3, as researchers discovered 70 years later. In the end, the Chalmers Auto Company avoided taking sides in the dispute by awarding cars to both Cobb and Lajoie for their thrilling batting race.

Legacy

Lajoie ended his career in 1915 and 1916 with a return to the Athletics, finishing with a lifetime .339 average. His career total of 3,242 hits was the second best in Major League history at the time, behind only Honus Wagner's total. Lajoie's 2,521 hits in the AL was the league record until Cobb surpassed it in 1918. Among second basemen, Lajoie posted staggering career offensive numbers; in the history of baseball, only Rogers Hornsby and Eddie Collins can compare.

Lajoie was among the second group of players elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937, being inducted when the Hall opened in 1939. He died in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1959, at the age of 84.

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 is mentioned in the poem "Line-Up for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:

Line-Up for Yesterday

L is for Lajoie
Whom Clevelanders love,
Napoleon himself,
With glue in his glove.

— Ogden Nash, Sport magazine (January 1949)^[2]

See also

Biography portal

• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball RBI records
• List of Major League Baseball hit records
• List of Major League Baseball doubles records
• List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
• List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
• List of Major League Baseball leaders in career stolen bases
• 3000 hit club
• Hitting for the cycle
• Triple Crown
• List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions
• List of Major League Baseball home run champions
• List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
• List of Major League Baseball doubles champions
• Major League Baseball titles leaders

References

1. ^ "Baseball Almanac". http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_wk3.shtml. Retrieved 2009-09-17. 
2. ^ "Baseball Almanac". http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_line.shtml. Retrieved 2008-01-23. 

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or Fangraphs, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)
• Nap Lajoie at the Baseball Hall of Fame
• Nap Lajoie at Find a Grave

Preceded by George Davis	National League RBI Champion 1898	Succeeded by Ed Delahanty
Preceded by First Triple Crown Winner	American League Triple Crown 1901	Succeeded by Ty Cobb
Preceded by First Champion	American League Home Run Champion 1901	Succeeded by Socks Seybold
Preceded by First Champion Buck Freeman	American League RBI Champion 1901 1904	Succeeded by Buck Freeman Harry Davis
Preceded by First Champion Ed Delahanty Ty Cobb	American League Batting Champion 1901 1903–1904 1910	Succeeded by Ed Delahanty Elmer Flick Ty Cobb
Preceded by Bill Armour	Cleveland Naps Manager 1905–1909	Succeeded by Deacon McGuire

Persondata
Name	Lajoie, Nap
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	September 5, 1874
Place of birth	Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Date of death	February 7, 1959
Place of death	Daytona Beach, Florida