The First Strike in Baseball

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DOUGHBOYS
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Joined: Sat Feb 05, 2005 6:00 pm

The First Strike in Baseball

Post by DOUGHBOYS » Mon May 18, 2020 12:21 pm

I receive these little daily blurbs about what happened in baseball on this date.
One caught my attention. I did a little investigation on it.
The first strike in baseball history was on this date in 1912.

It all happened over an event that had happened three days earlier.
Ty Cobb was the Tigers star player. And even in 1912, no fans can be as loud or obnoxious to an opposing player like Yankee fans can.
This fella in the stands, his name was Claude Lueker, was really letting Cobb have it. After so many verbal attacks, Cobb yelled at him that if he didn't stop, he'd have some unwanted company. Lueker persisted. The last straw came when Lueker called Cobb a 'half-nigger'.
Being a racist himself, Cobb ran up into the left field seats, grabbed Lueker and started raining down punches on him.
Nobody lifted a finger to stop Cobb.
After a few haymakers, a fan in the stands pleaded for Cobb to stop. "He doesn't have any hands, Cobb!"
It was true. A printing press mishap had cost Lueker all his fingers on one hand and only had two on the other.
"I don't care if he doesn't have any feet either!" Cobb replied.
Soon, players from both teams and Hughie Jennings on a dead run from the dugout, helped pull Cobb off of the well-beaten Lueker.
Cobb was thrown out of the game.
Although there were a few boo's, they were drowned out by the cheers from New York fans, demonstrating just how much this fella must have needed a whooping when considering that Cobb was in New York.

The next day, Ban Johnson, the Commisioner of baseball suspended Cobb.
Cobb was pissed.
He was pissed that he was suspended first of all for doing what he thought was the right thing and what most others in the park felt was the right thing.
And secondly, he was pissed that Johnson never let him state his side of the facts.
He wanted a hearing.
To be clear, Cobb was not well liked. Even by his own teammates. Most stayed away from Cobb and didn't have anything to do with him.
But they thought this was unfair as well.
They decided to boycott.

Tigers Manager, Hughie Jennings, was a tough sombitch.
How tough?
When Jennings played he would look to get hit by a pitch, much as Joey Votto looks for a walk.
He got hit three times in one game.
He got hit 51 times in a season. A record that still stands.
And get this, looking to get hit by a pitch, Jennings put his head down to get struck by the ball.
Mind you, this was BEFORE helmets.
Jennings took his base and finished the game. Once the game was finished, Jennings collapsed. He went to the hospital and did not wake from his unconsciousness for three days. Whereupon he rose out of bed and hurried so he could make the next game.
Besides being tough, Jennings was smart. He heard of the boycott and recruited some 'replacement' players to be ready to avoid a forfeit of the game.

The game started and when Cobb was told by the Umpires that he couldn't play, the rest of the Tigers left the field.
The replacement squad took the field and were soundly thrashed by the Yankees, 24-2.
A poor fella by the name of Allan Travers went the distance for the Tigers.
(Can you imagine how many pitches he threw that day in giving up 24 runs in nine innings?)
Not making it in the Big Leagues, Travers would work for the Man who offered him little help that day.
Travers would be a Priest.

After hearing of the boycott, Ban Johnson was furious.
He canceled the Tigers game the next day.
He threatened to fine each player $50 a day for each game missed afterwards.
He threatened Hughie Jennings and he threatened the owner of the Tigers.
Ty Cobb, seeing that others would suffer, asked the Tigers players to come back and play and they did.

Aftermath....

Cobb missed 10 games.
Can you imagine a player just missing 10 games for that today :lol:

Lueker shouted that he would sue Cobb.
As far as anybody knows, nothing came of it.

A security guard close to the situation in the left field stands was not admonished for failing to act.
In the New York Tribune, the next day, the paper stated that the guard admitted that the fan should have been escorted from the field before the incident. Meanwhile, he would not explain his 'inactivity' in prevention of the beating.
The paper also went on to say that Cobb is only human and gave the fan 'ample warning'.
And in the tradition of New York papers always wanting to give the home team the Bronx Cheer, here is the way the column headlined...

Cobb Turns to Boxing

Tires of Abuse, So Thrashes Man in Grandstand

Yankees Thrashed Too
On my tombstone-
Wait! I never had the perfect draft!

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