1912 Cleveland Naps season explained

Cleveland Naps
Season:	1912
League:	American League
Ballpark:	League Park II
City:	Cleveland, Ohio
Owners:	Charles Somers
Managers:	Harry Davis, Joe Birmingham

The 1912 Cleveland Naps season was a season in American baseball. The Naps had two of the best hitters in the majors in Shoeless Joe Jackson and Nap Lajoie. Despite this, they ended up back in the second division, finishing in fifth place with a record of 75–78.

Regular season

• April 20, 1912: The Naps played in the first ever game at Navin Field in Detroit against Ty Cobb's Detroit Tigers. Navin Field, later known as Tiger Stadium, opened the same day as Fenway Park.^[1] It was supposed to have opened on April 18 (like Fenway Park) but it rained in both cities on that day.^[2] Naps batter Shoeless Joe Jackson scored the first run ever at Navin Field, though the Tigers would win the game 6–5.^[3] Although Jackson would go on to hit a team leading .395 for the season including 3 home runs and 90 RBI's, he finished second in batting average to Ty Cobb who hit .409 for the year.

Roster

1912 Cleveland Naps
Roster
Pitchers		CatchersInfielders		Outfielders		Manager

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		69	215	49	.228	0	14
1B		89	273	83	.304	0	39
2B		117	448	165	.368	0	90
3B		103	370	114	.308	0	33
SS		70	236	50	.212	1	22
OF		93	328	89	.271	1	31
OF		107	369	94	.255	1	45
OF		154	572	226	.395	3	90

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	125	467	118	.253	0	33
	78	264	64	.242	0	20
	65		186	55	.296	2	21
	43	164	46	.280	1	11
	40	132	30	.227	0	14
	31	109	34	.312	0	19
	26	82	16	.195	1	10
	23	70	17	.243	1	14
	24	69	19	.275	0	5
	21	55	9	.164	0	2
	20	54	11	.204	0	6
	15	54	11	.204	0	2
	20	47	11	.234	0	3
	11	30	5	.167	0	2
	11	23	4	.174	0	0
	15	18	1	.056	0	0
	6	16	0	.000	0	0
	5	8	0	.000	0	0
	2	5	0	.000	0	0
	2	3	0	.000	0	0
	1	3	0	.000	0	0
	3	2	1	.500	0	0
	1	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	37	271.2	20	13	2.59	184
	39	262.0	18	14	2.92	75
	41	246.1	12	19	3.69	104
	9	58.2	2	5	4.60	22
	2	4.2	0	1	11.57	1

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	29	163.2	5	8	2.80	94
	26	143.1	9	8	3.77	61
	29	116.0	8	4	3.18	51
	11	44.1	0	5	4.87	18
	2	13.0	1	0	2.77	3
	3	6.0	0	1	7.50	2

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	3	0	0	0	4.61	5
	1	0	0	0	6.35	1
	1	0	0	0	0.00	1
	1	0	0	0	0.00	0
	1	0	0	0	0.00	0

Awards and honors

League top five finishers

Vean Gregg

• #4 in AL in strikeouts (184)

Shoeless Joe Jackson

• MLB leader in hits (226)
• #2 in AL in batting average (.395)
• #2 in AL in on-base percentage (.458)
• #2 in AL in slugging percentage (.579)
• #3 in AL in runs scored (121)

George Kahler

• AL leader in walks allowed (121)
• #2 in AL in losses (19)
• #3 in AL in earned runs allowed (101)

Nap Lajoie

• #4 in AL in batting average (.368)

External links

• 1912 Cleveland Naps season at Baseball Reference

Notes and References

1. The Final Season, p.5, Tom Stanton, Thomas Dunne Books, An imprint of St. Martin's Press, New York, NY, 2001,
2. The Final Season, p.40
3. The Final Season, p.5