Nap Lajoie

Napoleon Lajoie played 21 major league seasons, batted .338, and collected 3,243 hits. In 1901, he hit .426, the highest single-season batting average in the modern era, a mark no hitter has topped in more than 120 years. He won the American League's first Triple Crown that season, leading the league in batting average, home runs (14), and RBI (125). He was so popular in Cleveland that the franchise renamed itself in his honor. They called the team the Naps, and they kept the name for as long as he played there.

Woonsocket

Lajoie was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the youngest of eight surviving children in a French-Canadian family. His father, Jean Baptiste Lajoie, had immigrated from Canada in 1866. His father died in 1881, when Napoleon was six. By the time he turned eleven, he had left school after only eight months of attendance and gone to work sweeping floors in a textile mill. He later drove a horse-drawn cab for a livery stable, earning the nickname "The Slugging Cabby." His surname, contrary to what most modern fans assume, was pronounced "LAZH-uh-way," with emphasis on the first syllable.

He played semipro baseball in New England and signed with Fall River of the New England League in 1896, where he batted .429. The Philadelphia Phillies purchased his contract for $1,500 that same year.

The Leap and the Lawsuit

Lajoie played five seasons for the Phillies, never batting below .324, but grew frustrated by his $2,600 salary, which was $400 less than teammate Ed Delahanty's. When Connie Mack offered more money to join the Philadelphia Athletics of the new American League in 1901, Lajoie jumped.

The results were immediate and staggering. He led the American League in batting average (.426), hits (232), doubles (48), runs (145), home runs (14), RBI (125), on-base percentage (.463), slugging percentage (.643), and total bases (350). On July 30, 1901, he hit for the cycle with a grand slam against the Cleveland Blues, going 4-for-5 with six RBI.

The Phillies sued to get him back. In April 1902, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court granted an injunction prohibiting Lajoie from playing for any team except the Phillies within the state of Pennsylvania. Ohio courts refused to enforce the ruling, so to keep Lajoie in the American League, he was transferred to the Cleveland Bronchos. For the rest of the injunction's duration, he simply stayed home when Cleveland played in Philadelphia. The dispute was resolved before the 1903 season as part of the peace agreement between the two leagues. The case became a landmark in sports contract law, and SABR has called it one of "the most important legal documents in the early history of Major League Baseball."

The Cleveland Naps

Lajoie spent 13 seasons in Cleveland, from 1902 through 1914. The franchise renamed itself the "Naps" in his honor, making him the only active player to have a major league team named after himself. He served as player-manager from 1905 to 1909, compiling a record of 377-309 (.550). The Naps finished third by five games in 1906 and second by half a game in 1908, but never won a pennant under his leadership.

He led the league in fielding percentage among second basemen six times and was widely regarded as the best defensive second baseman of the dead-ball era. Connie Mack praised his "long reach" and said catchers considered him "the easiest man to throw to in the game today." The New York Press wrote that he "glides toward the ball... gathers it in nonchalantly, as if picking fruit."

The 1910 Batting Race

The most controversial batting race in baseball history unfolded on the final day of the 1910 season. The Chalmers Motor Car Company had offered an automobile to the American League player with the highest batting average. Ty Cobb sat out the Detroit Tigers' final two games, believing his .385 lead was safe. Lajoie played a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns.

Browns manager Jack O'Connor ordered rookie third baseman Red Corriden to play deep on the outfield grass, effectively conceding bunt singles. Lajoie went 8-for-8. His first at-bat produced a legitimate triple. The rest were bunt singles that rolled untouched down the third-base line. He finished at .384. American League president Ban Johnson declared Cobb the winner by a margin of less than one percentage point. The Chalmers company, embarrassed, gave automobiles to both players.

O'Connor and coach Harry Howell, who had tried to bribe the official scorer, were banned from baseball. In 1978, researcher Pete Palmer discovered that a 1910 box score had been counted twice in Cobb's favor, crediting him with two phantom hits. Correcting the error would have given the title to Lajoie. Commissioner Bowie Kuhn declined to change the records.

Final Years

On September 27, 1914, Lajoie doubled off the New York Yankees' Marty McHale at League Park in Cleveland to reach 3,000 career hits. He was the third player to reach the milestone, joining Cap Anson and Honus Wagner. He played two more seasons with the Athletics, batting .280 in 1915 and .246 in 1916 before retiring at 41.

He managed in the minor leagues through 1918, winning a batting title and a pennant with the Toronto Maple Leafs in 1917 at age 43. After baseball, he ran unsuccessfully for sheriff of Cuyahoga County as a Republican and invested in rubber and brass manufacturing.

Lajoie was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1937 with the highest vote total of that year's class, receiving 168 of 201 ballots (83.6 percent). He was inducted alongside Tris Speaker and Cy Young. He died of pneumonia in Daytona Beach, Florida, on February 7, 1959, at age 84.