1915 Philadelphia Athletics season explained

Philadelphia Athletics
Season:	1915
League:	American League
Ballpark:	Shibe Park
City:	Philadelphia
Owners:	Connie Mack, Benjamin Shibe, Tom Shibe and John Shibe
Managers:	Connie Mack

The 1915 Philadelphia Athletics season was a season in American baseball. After the team won the American League pennant in 1914, the team dropped all the way to last place with a record of 43 wins and 109 losses.

Offseason

• December 8, 1914: Eddie Collins was purchased from the Athletics by the Chicago White Sox.^[1]
• January 1915, Nap Lajoie was purchased by the Athletics from the Cleveland Indians.^[2]

Regular season

The Federal League had been formed to begin play in 1914. As the A.L. had done 13 years before, the new league raided existing A.L. and N.L. teams for players. Athletics owner Connie Mack refused to match the offers of the F.L. teams, preferring to let the "prima donnas" go and rebuild with younger (and less expensive) players. The result was a swift and near-total collapse, a "first-to-worst" situation. The Athletics went from a 99–53 (.651) record and a pennant in 1914 to a record of 43–109 (.283) and 8th (last) place in 1915. At the time, it was the third-worst winning percentage in American League history. The infield of Whitey Witt, Charlie Pick and Nap Lajoie was derisively known as the "$10 Infield".^[3]

Season highlights

• June 23, 1915: Athletics pitcher Bruno Haas set an American League record by walking 16 Yankees in one game.^[4]

Roster

1915 Philadelphia Athletics
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		112	312	85	.272	2	31
1B		119	456	143	.314	0	49
2B		129	490	137	.280	1	61
SS		118	386	87	.225	1	33
3B		116	359	89	.248	1	44
OF		107	408	101	.248	6	42
OF		132	485	144	.297	1	45
OF		117	417	86	.206	1	20

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
	68	260	60	.231	0	17
	76	201	41	.204	1	17
	54	194	43	.222	0	15
	68	184	35	.190	0	6
	57	135	24	.178	0	11
	23	77	17	.221	0	5
	16	56	11	.196	0	3
	11	36	5	.139	1	2
	17	33	11	.333	0	2
	10	26	3	.115	0	2
	8	23	2	.087	0	1
	7	20	4	.200	0	0
	12	18	1	.056	0	0
	4	15	1	.067	0	0
	3	12	3	.250	0	0
	6	11	2	.182	0	0
	2	7	0	.000	0	2
	2	5	0	.000	0	0
	3	4	1	.250	0	0
	1	4	0	.000	0	0
	5	3	1	.333	0	4
	2	2	0	.000	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
	43	276.0	10	22	3.52	157
	25	145.2	5	15	4.14	89
	15	102.0	4	9	4.15	22
	17	100.0	6	6	4.05	56
	10	54.1	2	6	5.47	15
	10	54.0	0	5	5.50	18
	3	24.0	0	1	2.63	11
	2	18.0	0	2	3.00	1
	1	9.0	0	0	0.00	12
	1	4.0	0	1	22.50	0
	1	2.0	0	1	22.50	0
	1	0.2	0	0	40.50	0

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
	32	178.1	4	17	5.20	69
	18	100.2	4	6	3.49	24
	11	44.0	3	6	5.32	24
	8	39.1	0	5	3.43	17
	5	23.1	1	3	8.87	8
	5	21.0	0	1	4.71	13
	4	20.0	2	0	1.35	11
	4	17.2	0	0	3.57	4
	2	15.0	1	0	2.40	5
	6	14.1	0	1	11.93	7
	2	7.1	0	1	4.91	6

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
	17	0	1	0	3.38	12
	3	0	0	0	3.12	3
	2	0	0	0	6.75	0
	1	0	0	0	1.80	0

Awards and honors

League top five finishers

Rube Bressler

• #2 in AL in earned runs allowed (103)

Bullet Joe Bush

• #3 in AL in wild pitches (10)

Rube Oldring

• #2 in AL in home runs (6)

Weldon Wyckoff

• AL leader in losses (22)
• AL leader in earned runs allowed (108)
• AL leader in walks allowed (165)
• AL leader in wild pitches (14)
• #3 in AL in strikeouts (157)

External links

• 1915 Philadelphia Athletics team page at Baseball Reference
• 1915 Philadelphia Athletics team page at www.baseball-almanac.com

Notes and References

1. https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/collied01.shtml Eddie Collins page at Baseball Reference
2. https://www.baseball-reference.com/l/lajoina01.shtml Nap Lajoie page at Baseball Reference
3. Book: Hollingsworth. Harry. The Best & Worst Baseball Teams of All Time: From the '16 A's to the '27 Yanks to the Present!. 1994. SPI Books. United States. 1561713082. 187.
4. Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 25, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York,