1909 Detroit Tigers season
The 1909 Detroit Tigers won the American League pennant with a record of 98–54, but lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1909 World Series, 4 games to 3.
As a young man, Schmidt worked in the coal mines and was a skilled brawler who fought an exhibition match with the heavyweight champion, Jack Johnson.
[3] He was 28 when he played his last major league game and died at age 46 in a New York hospital for the insane where he had been a patient for several years.
Second baseman Germany Schaefer was traded by the Tigers to the Washington Senators during the 1909 season for Jim Delahanty.
Schaefer was a pioneer of baseball clowning, and his vaudeville act with teammate Charley O'Leary was inspiration for the MGM musical film "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" starring Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra.
[4] In 1919, a little over a year after Schaefer played his last game, he died at age 42 of tuberculosis at the sanitarium in Saranac Lake, New York.
As a rookie in 1909, he led the American League in walks (88), sacrifice hits (52), and assists by a shortstop (567), finished second in the AL in runs scored (114), was third in the AL in on-base percentage (.380), and set a major league record for stolen bases by a rookie (53) that stood for 89 years.
His 52 sacrifice hits is the fourth highest single season total in major league history.
Mullin holds the Tigers franchise record for innings pitched (in a career and in a season) and has the second most wins in the team's history.
[6] Killian also holds the record for fewest home runs allowed, giving up only 9 in his entire career.
At one point, Killian pitched a record 1001 innings (from September 1903 – August 1907) without allowing a home run.
On September 25, 1908, Summers threw two complete game victories in a double header to help the Tigers clinch the AL pennant.
[8] On July 16, 1909, Summers pitched 18 scoreless innings of a tie game against the Washington Senators at Bennett Park.
[citation needed] Hughie "Ee-yah" Jennings led the Tigers to three consecutive American League pennants, in 1907–09.
During his years as Detroit's manager, Jennings became famous for his antics, mostly in the third base coaching box, which variously included shouts of "Ee-Yah", and other whoops, whistles, horns, gyrations, jigs, and grass-plucking.
The "Ee-Yah" whoop became his trademark and was accompanied with waves of both arms over his head and a sharp raising of his right knee.
[13][14] (See also Jack Smile, Ee-yah: The Life and Times of Hughie Jennings, Baseball Hall of Famer) Behind the antics was a great coaching mind.
Connie Mack called Jennings one of the three greatest managers in history, along with John McGraw and Joe McCarthy.
They led the American League for most of the regular season, but remained in a close race with the Philadelphia Athletics, finally taking the pennant by 3½ games.
The 1909 Tigers' winning percentage ranks as the 3rd best in team history through 2010, as follows: Infielders Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg.
In Game 3, the Pirates won, 8–6, behind three hits, three runs batted in and three stolen bases by Honus Wagner.
= Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts In November 1909, a group of players from the 1909 Tigers (not including Ty Cobb or Sam Crawford) toured Cuba and played 12 exhibition games against two integrated Cuban teams, Habana and Almendares.
The Cuban-American Major League Clubs Series drew wide attention in Cuba, where baseball was already very popular.
Demonstrating the high level of play in Cuba, the Tigers lost 8 of the 12 games to the integrated Cuban baseball teams.
The Detroit roster, from a game played on November 18, 1909, consisted of the following players: Davy Jones, Charley O'Leary, George Moriarty, Matty McIntyre, Boss Schmidt, George Mullin, Heinie Beckendorf, Bill Hopke and W. Lelivelt.
The following members of the 1909 Detroit Tigers are among the Top 100 of all time at their position, as ranked by The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract in 2001:
