Detroit Tigers - Turn of the Century (1910-1919)

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1910

1913

1917

Decade

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Titles:

Top Tigers Players of the Teens

None

Pitchers:

BallPark:

Hooks Dauss (20.19)- 81

Bennett Park (1910-1911)

Harry Coveleski (15.04) - 43

Naviin Field (1912-1919)

Jean Dubuc (8.38) - 41

Bernie Boland (12.86) - 36

Team Name: Tigers

Ed Willett (8.21) - 35

George Mullin (9.48) - 32

Owner:

Howard Ehmke (4.38) - 14

Frank J. Navin

Wild Bill Donovan (6.95) - 13

Ed Summers (4.06) - 11

General Managers:

Bill James (2.97) - 11

None

Catchers:

Managers:

Oscar Stanage (4.92) - 32

Hughie Jennings

First Basemen:

No Hitters:

George Burns (6.18) - 20

George Mullin (1912)

Second Basemen:

Hall of Famers:

Ralph Young (2.37) - 22

Hughie Jennings

Jim Delahanty (6.71) - 17

Ty Cobb

Sam Crawford

ShortStop:

Harry Heilmann

Donie Bush (30.8) - 91

MVP:

Third Base:

Ty Cobb (1911)

Ossie Vitt (12.77) - 22

George Moriarty (9.6) - 20

Notable Events:

Outfield:

1910 - The Tigers were coming into the new decade on a three year

Ty Cobb (84.29) - 201

pennant winning run. However, new owner Frank Navin was not replenishing

Bobby Veach (30.36) - 83

his squad fast enough. Navin, an accountant by trade, watched his pennies.

Sam Crawford (29.95) - 63

Also, he wasn't a rich guy like previous owner Yawkey (who still retained

Harry Heilmann (10.9) - 27

a non controlling interest in the club). Anyway, the Tigers were now on

Davey Jones (3.37) - 11

the decline. In 1910, the pitching is what let them down as

Ira Flagstead (3.03) - 4

Detroit gave up 94 runs more than in 1909, thus causing a fourteen game

slide in the standings. The pitchinig staff was still pretty good, just not as

Notable Events:

good as in the previous seasons. And age was starting to creep in.

On the bright side, the offensive core was still young. Cobb was 23, Bush

1914 - Harry Coveleski, a twenty eight year old lefthander, is purchased

22 and Crawford was 30 but had plenty of big years left in him.

from Chattanooga. Harry was on the scrap heap. He had knocked

around with the Phillies and the Reds earlier in his career, but had not

1910 - Ty Cobb wins the batting title by .001 over Nap Lajoie.

appeared in the big leagues during the previous three seasons. Coveleski

Ty sat out the last game of the season at .385 thinking that the

singlehandedly turned the Tigers from a bottom half of the table

title was safe. However, Lajoie got on base every time in a

team to a top half of the table team. Over the next three seasons,

double header against the Browns. Like everyone else, the

Harry would come out of nowhere to win sixty five games for Detroit

Browns hated Cobb and let Lajoie get on. However, the official

and the Tigers would finish in the top half of the league all three seasons.

scorer later reversed a hit to an error, thus losing the title for

The team led by Cobb, Crawford, Veach, Bush, Heilmann and Dauss

Lajoie. Meanwhile, the Chalmers Automobile company had

needed the presence of Coveleski to make it to the first Division.

offered a new car as a prize to the batting champion, adding

If they had just one more star during this period, the Tigers would have

even more drama to the situation. They eventually gave cars

been a serious contender. By 1917, Coveleski, who Hughie Jennings

to both Cobb and Lajoie. Just to make things even more stupid,

rode exceedingly hard (averaging 313 innings over the three year

when the stats were reviewed for the 1910 season with a fine

period), was cooked.

tooth comb by Total Baseball, it was discovered that Cobb had

one hit less and gave the title to Lajoie .384 to .383. Some still

1914 - The Tigers strike, surprisingly, in support of Ty Cobb who was

have Cobb as the 1910 batting champ

suspended for beating up a fan who called him a name.

The players are fined and compelled to come back after a game in

1912 - The Tigers open their new stadium, Navin Field, which

which replacement players from a local sandlot played and lost

will be their home for the next 87 years. It is built on the same

24-2 to the A's

location as the ballpark it replaced, Bennett Park. The new

stadium was one of a wave that swept over baseball during this

1915 - Another one that got away. Outfielder Baby Doll Jacobson is a

period as major league baseball was soaring in popularity

twenty four year old rookie. He is a big lumbering guy, not very fast,

and the times were good economically. Most of the parks built

not a particularly good fielder, but he can hit. Hughie Jennings didn't

in this period lasted well into the second half of the century and

need him with Veach, Cobb and Crawford already in the outfield.

beyond. Navin Field was oriented differently than Bennett Park

The Tigers were in a heated pennant race with Boston and were able

so that the sun wouldn't shine in left handed batters' eyes in

to pick up the "other" Bill James from the Browns for Baby Doll to try

the late afternoons.

to help fortify their pitching down the stretch. Jacobson would go on to

be one of the top hitters in baseball in the Twenties, unfortunately for

1912 - The Tigers drop to sixth place, but there is cause for optimism as

the Tigers, not with Detroit.

two excellent young righthanders join the club. Hooks Dauss, 22, will be

the ace of the staff for the rest of the decade and Jean Debuc, 23, will

1915 - The Tigers win 100 games but lose the pennant to the Red Sox

have a solid five year run as part of the rotation. Debuc was picked up

by one game. In the Twentieth Century, the Tigers would have five one

from Montreal in the rule 5 draft. He had been with the Reds earlier.

hundred win seasons and twice would not win the pennant. The other

Dauss was purchased from St. Paul.

time was in 1961 when Detroit got beaten out by the Maris-Mantle Yankees

1913 - Outfielder Bobby Veach, 25, is purchased from Indianapolis. He

1916 - Twenty Two year old righthander Howard Ehmke is a rookie. He

is a real good player. Along with Cobb and Crawford, Veach turns the

will go on to win 166 games with several big league teams, many

Tigers ouftield into one of the all time great outfields, if not the greatest.

of those wins coming for Detroit. He was purchased from Buffalo

1913 - One that got away. Lefty Williams, 20, is purchased from Nashville.

1919 - Ty Cobb wins his thirteenth, and final, batting title in a fifteen year

He would become one of the game's best pitchers, just not with the Tigers.

stretch going back to 1907. The other two years, Cobb finished second

Lefty's career ends prematurely in 1920 at the age of twenty seven when

and one of those two, his 1910 loss to Lajoie, was tainted.

he is suspended from baseball due to the Black Sox scandal. Detroit made

Cobb wasn't only dominant in batting average in this stretch,

a huge mistake selling the then twenty one year old Williams off to

he was also a perennial leader in on base percentage, slugging

Sacramento of the PCL in 1914.

percentage, runs, hits, total bases and stolen bases. Plus, at various

times, he also led the league in doubles, triples, home runs and RBI.

1914 - Future Hall of Fame outfielder Harry Heilmann, 19, is selected from

The only other player who came close to dominating the sport the way

Portland in the Rule 5 draft. He becomes the world's greatest utility man,

Cobb did was Babe Ruth. The biggest example of this was in 1921

playing first, second and the outfield as manager Jennings squeezes

when The Babe out homered five of the other seven teams in the

Harry into the lineup at every opportunity due to an already full outfield.

league. Babe had several other monster homer years sort of like that.