Jack Lapp

John Walker Lapp (born September 10, 1884 in Frazer, Pennsylvania - February 6, 1920 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), was a professional baseball player who played catcher in the Major Leagues from by|1908-by|1916. He played for the Chicago White Sox and Philadelphia Athletics.

Jack Lapp was a 2nd / 3rd string catcher for eight of his nine years in the big leagues (7 with Philadelphia and 1 with Chicago) 1908-1916. He did catch 503 games in his career, so he wasn’t exactly “riding the pines” for all those years and his comprehensive career stats can be seen here: http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=lappja01

In 1911 the Athletics’ 1st string catcher was Ira Thomas with Paddy Livingston and Jack Lapp backing him up. Philadelphia played the Giants in the World Series (http://www.baseball-almanac.com/ws/yr1911ws.shtml ), which went 6 games (10/14, 10/16, 10/17, 10/24, 10/25, and 10/26) with the A’s the Champs primarily with good leather and fine sticks (Stuffy McInnis, Eddie Collins, Jack Barry and Frank Baker to name a few). Ira Thomas caught the first two games and was “slightly injured” in the 7th inning of game 2. Paddy Livingston, who had been a key figure during the regular season, was suffering from injuries to his legs, arms, and hands. He did not play in the Series.

Jack Lapp was called on to catch Game 3 (10/17/1911) which lasted 11 innings. He set the catcher record for a Single Game Catching Base Stealers with five and he had fourteen Putouts. Ira Thomas came on to catch Game 4, a nine-inning affair that had Thomas limping by the end. Jack Lapp was called upon to catch Game 5 (10/25/1911), which lasted 10 innings. He “only” caught one base stealer and only had four putouts in that game. Thomas caught Game 6 for a Philadelphia series victory.

The next year (1912) Jack Lapp split catching with Ira Thomas and Ben Egan, but Jack caught the majority of the games (83) and lead all of the A.L. catchers in “range” and “throwing”.

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