The 1911

Cleveland Naps The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive ...

season was a season in American

major league baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

. It involved the Cleveland Naps attempting to win the

American League The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the American League (AL), is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league ...

pennant and finishing in third place (22 games back). They had a record of 80 wins and 73 losses. The Naps played their home games at League Park II.

Regular season

Addie Joss

Addie Joss Adrian "Addie" Joss (April 12, 1880 – April 14, 1911), nicknamed "the Human Hairpin", was an American professional baseball pitcher. He pitched for the Cleveland Bronchos of Major League Baseball, later known as the Naps, between 1902 and 191 ...

, the

ace An ace is a playing card, Dice, die or domino with a single Pip (counting), pip. In the standard French deck, an ace has a single suit (cards), suit symbol (a heart, diamond, spade, or club) located in the middle of the card, sometimes large a ...

starting pitcher In baseball (hardball or softball), a starting pitcher or starter is the first pitcher in the game for each team. A pitcher is credited with a game started if they throw the first pitch to the opponent's first batter of a game. Starting pit ...

for the Naps, experienced fainting spells while training for the 1911 season. He died of

tubercular meningitis Tuberculous meningitis, also known as TB meningitis or tubercular meningitis, is a specific type of bacterial meningitis caused by the ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' infection of the meninges—the system of membranes which envelop the central nerv ...

on April 14, at his home in

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and according ...

, leaving behind his wife and two young children. Joss's funeral took place on April 17 in Toledo, when the Naps were scheduled to play the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

. The players declared their intention to

strike Strike may refer to: People * Strike (surname) Physical confrontation or removal *Strike (attack), attack with an inanimate object or a part of the human body intended to cause harm *Airstrike, military strike by air forces on either a suspected ...

if the game that day was not postponed. Though American League president

Ban Johnson Byron Bancroft Johnson (January 5, 1864 – March 28, 1931) was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League (AL). Johnson developed the AL—a descendant of the mino ...

initially did not agree, he cancelled the game. Several Tigers players attended the funeral as well.

Charles Sommers Charles Sommers (20 January 1862 – 19 March 1922) was an Australian businessman and politician who was a member of the Legislative Council of Western Australia from 1900 to 1918. He was a minister in the first government of George Leake. Som ...

, the owner of the Naps, began to plan the

Addie Joss Benefit Game The Addie Joss Benefit Game was an exhibition baseball game played between the Cleveland Naps of the American League and an all-star team composed of players from the league's other teams at League Park in Cleveland, Ohio, on July 24, 1911. The ...

, which was held at

League Park League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Dunham Street (now known as East 66th Street) and Lexington Avenue in the Hough, Cleveland, Hough neighborhood. It was built ...

in Cleveland on July 24, a mutual off day for all teams in the American League. An all-star team played against Cleveland, defeating the Naps by a score of 5-3. In total, nine players from the game were later inducted into the

National Baseball Hall of Fame The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...

Cy Young Denton True "Cy" Young (March 29, 1867 – November 4, 1955) was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) pitcher. Born in Gilmore, Ohio, he worked on his family's farm as a youth before starting his professional baseball career. Young entered th ...

and

Nap Lajoie Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie (; September 5, 1874 – February 7, 1959), also known as Larry Lajoie and nicknamed "The Frenchman", was an American professional baseball second baseman and player-manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for t ...

for Cleveland,

Walter Johnson Walter Perry Johnson (November 6, 1887 – December 10, 1946), nicknamed "Barney" and "The Big Train", was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 21-year baseball career in Major League Baseball as a right-ha ...

Ty Cobb Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach", was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the las ...

Eddie Collins Edward Trowbridge Collins Sr. (May 2, 1887 – March 25, 1951), nicknamed "Cocky", was an American professional baseball player, manager and executive. He played as a second baseman in Major League Baseball from to for the Philadelphia Athlet ...

Tris Speaker Tristram Edgar Speaker (April 4, 1888 – December 8, 1958), nicknamed "the Gray Eagle", was an American professional baseball player. Considered one of the greatest players in the history of Major League Baseball (MLB), he compiled a career bat ...

Sam Crawford Samuel Earl Crawford (April 18, 1880 – June 15, 1968), nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB). Crawford batted and threw left-handed, stood tall and weighed . Born in Wahoo, Nebraska, he had a sh ...

Home Run Baker John Franklin "Home Run" Baker (March 13, 1886 – June 28, 1963) was an American professional baseball player. A third baseman, Baker played in Major League Baseball from 1908 to 1922 for the Philadelphia Athletics and New York Yankees. Althoug ...

, and Bobby Wallace for the all-stars. The game raised $12,914 for Joss's widow ($ in current dollar terms); the sum was more than double Joss's annual salary.

Season highlights

In his rookie season,

Shoeless Joe Jackson Joseph Jefferson Jackson (July 16, 1887 – December 5, 1951), nicknamed "Shoeless Joe", was an American outfielder who played Major League Baseball (MLB) in the early 1900s. Although his .356 career batting average is the fourth highest ...

hit Hit means to strike someone or something. Hit or HIT may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Hit, a fictional character from '' Dragon Ball Super'' * Homicide International Trust, or HIT, a fictional organization ...

.408, which ranked second in the American League. He also finished in the league top 10 in

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s, RBI,

runs scored In baseball, a run is scored when a player advances around first, second and third base and returns safely to home plate, touching the bases in that order, before three outs are recorded and all obligations to reach base safely on batted balls ...

, and

stolen base In baseball, a stolen base occurs when a runner advances to a base to which they are not entitled and the official scorer rules that the advance should be credited to the action of the runner. The umpires determine whether the runner is safe or ...

s. Jackson was fourth in the Chalmers MVP Award voting. Vean Gregg led the

s of the team in several categories: he had a total of 23 wins and seven losses; he pitched 244⅔ innings, yet maintained a league-leading 1.80

ERA An era is a span of time defined for the purposes of chronology or historiography, as in the regnal eras in the history of a given monarchy, a calendar era used for a given calendar, or the geological eras defined for the history of Earth. Comp ...

, while

striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...

125 batters. Young, 44 years old at the time, played part of his final season with the 1911 Cleveland Naps team.

Season standings

Record vs. opponents

Roster

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''

Other batters

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

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Other pitchers

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

Awards and honors

League top ten finishers

Vean Gregg * MLB leader in ERA (1.80) * #2 in AL in shutouts (5) * #4 in AL in wins (23) * #8 in AL in complete games (22)

* MLB leader in on-base percentage (.468) * #2 in AL in batting average (.408) * #2 in AL in slugging percentage (.590) * #2 in AL in runs scored (126) * #2 in AL in hits (233) * #2 in AL in doubles (45) * #3 in AL in triples (19) * #4 in AL in home runs (7) * #6 in AL in stolen bases (41) * #9 in AL in RBI (83)

Gene Krapp Eugene Hamlet Krapp (May 12, 1887 – April 13, 1923) was a pitcher in Major League Baseball from 1911 to 1915. He played for the Cleveland Naps and Buffalo Buffeds/Blues. In a four season career where he pitched in 118 games, Krapp had a win–lo ...

* #10 in AL in strikeouts (132)

References

External links

1911 Cleveland Naps season at Baseball ReferenceBaseball-AlmanacGame log at Baseball-Reference
Cleveland Guardians seasons Cleveland Naps season 1911 in sports in Ohio {{ClevelandGuardians-season-stub