Stahl began his baseball career as a catcher with the Boston Americans in 1903, before being purchased by the Washington Senators, where he moved to first base full-time, with occasional stints in the outfield.

Stahl sat out the 1911 season, instead opting to return to his native Illinois, where he took a position as a bank manager for a firm on the South side of Chicago.

[1] This dispensation was given in January 1912, freeing Stahl to assume his place as player-manager of the Red Sox.

[1] The team did not elect to find him for his absence in 1911.,[1] and in his second managerial stint led the Red Sox to the 1912 World Series title.

[2] Stahl has a measure of immortality as the acknowledged eponym of the term "jaking it", a baseball phrase for faking an injury to stay out of the lineup, or otherwise loafing.