Aloysius Joseph "Allan" Travers,
SJ, also known as Aloysius Stanislaus Travers (May 7, 1892 – April 19, 1968), was a
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), ...
pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
who made a one-game appearance during the 1912 strike of 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 ...
. He is the only
Catholic priest
The priesthood is the office of the ministers of religion, who have been commissioned ("ordained") with the Holy orders of the Catholic Church. Technically, bishops are a priestly order as well; however, in layman's terms ''priest'' refers only ...
to have played major league baseball.
Travers was only playing because the Detroit Tigers team had refused to play after their teammate
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 ...
had been suspended for attacking a heckler who called him a "half-nigger" during a game against the
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
at
Hilltop Park
Hilltop Park was the nickname of a baseball park that stood in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City. It was the home of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball from 1903 to 1912, when they were known as the "Highlanders". ...
three days earlier.
Travers does not, as is often reported, hold the major league record for most hits or runs allowed in a game, although he does hold the major league record for earned runs in a single major league game. The
Cleveland Blues'
Dave Rowe, who was primarily an outfielder, gave up 35 runs (12 earned) on 29 hits in a game played on July 24, 1882. Travers does hold the two negative records for American League play.
Career
On May 15, Cobb had entered the stands at the end of the sixth inning after being taunted with racist abuse from a heckler. Claude Lueker, who due to an industrial accident had lost one complete hand and only had three fingers on the other, had repeatedly called Cobb 'a half
nigger
In the English language, the word ''nigger'' is an ethnic slur used against black people, especially African Americans. Starting in the late 1990s, references to ''nigger'' have been progressively replaced by the euphemism , notably in cases ...
'.
When Cobb began beating him, fans pleaded with him to stop hitting a man with no hands. But Cobb reportedly shouted back, "I don't care if he has no feet!".
[
]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 ...
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 ...
, who was attending the game, responded by suspending Cobb indefinitely. Cobb's teammates voted to strike in support, refusing to play until he was reinstated. When Johnson threatened Tigers owner Frank Navin
Francis Joseph Navin (April 18, 1871 – November 13, 1935) was the president of the Detroit Tigers in Major League Baseball for 27 years, from 1908 to 1935. He was part-owner from 1908 to 1919, and principal owner from 1919 to 1935. He also ser ...
with a $5,000 fine for every game in which they failed to field a team, Navin ordered manager Hughie Jennings
Hugh Ambrose Jennings (April 2, 1869 – February 1, 1928) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won Nat ...
to find replacement players. As the Tigers were on the road in Philadelphia to play the Athletics
Athletics may refer to:
Sports
* Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking
** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport
* Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...
, Jennings recruited eight "Tigers" from a neighborhood in North Philadelphia. Each man was paid $25; Travers took on the role of pitcher
In baseball, the pitcher is the player who throws ("pitches") the baseball from the pitcher's mound toward the catcher to begin each play, with the goal of retiring a batter, who attempts to either make contact with the pitched ball or draw ...
upon learning that the position would pay $50.
Detroit Tigers
Jennings found Allan Travers on a city street corner. The 20-year-old junior from Philadelphia's St. Joseph's College was a violin
The violin, sometimes known as a ''fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone (string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in the family in regular ...
ist in the student orchestra
An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families.
There are typically four main sections of instruments:
* bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...
, but had never pitched a game in his life. He had even been unable to make the school's varsity baseball team. Instead, Travers served as the team's assistant manager, preparing game summaries for the school annual.
Yet on May 18, 1912, Travers became a starting pitcher in a major league baseball game, walking out onto the mound in front of 15,000 Philadelphia fans at Shibe Park
Shibe Park, known later as Connie Mack Stadium, was a ballpark located in Philadelphia. It was the home of the Philadelphia Athletics of the American League (AL) and the Philadelphia Phillies of the National League (NL). When it opened April 12, 1 ...
to face the two-time defending World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
champions. Over the next few hours Travers pitched to some of the best players of the era, including Frank "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 ...
, 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 ...
, and Stuffy McInnis
John Phalen "Stuffy" McInnis (September 19, 1890 – February 16, 1960) was a first baseman and manager in Major League Baseball. McInnis gained his nickname as a youngster in the Boston suburban leagues, where his spectacular playing brought ...
.
Under these unlikely circumstances, Travers pitched the sport's most unlikely complete game
In baseball, a complete game (CG) is the act of a pitcher pitching an entire game without the benefit of a relief pitcher. A pitcher who meets this criterion will be credited with a complete game regardless of the number of innings played—pitche ...
, allowing 26 hits, 24 runs, 14 earned runs, 7 walks and one strikeout
In baseball or softball, a strikeout (or strike-out) occurs when a batter accumulates three strikes during a time at bat. It usually means that the batter is out. A strikeout is a statistic recorded for both pitchers and batters, and is deno ...
. Travers faced 50 batters through 8 innings, and was tagged with the loss in the 24–2 decision.
After the embarrassing display, Johnson met personally with the striking Tigers and told them they would be banned for life if the strike continued. Ty Cobb urged his teammates to end the strike, and the Tigers complied. Accordingly, the major league career of Allan Travers and all but one of the other replacement Tigers was cut short at one game. The lone exception was Billy Maharg
William Joseph Maharg, (March 19, 1881 – November 20, 1953) was a professional boxer that has three distinct historical connections with Major League Baseball—first, as a replacement player in the 1912 Detroit Tigers' players strike; second, ...
, who later played in one game for the 1916 Philadelphia Phillies, but is best known for his off-the-field involvement in the 1919 Black Sox Scandal
The Black Sox Scandal was a Major League Baseball game-fixing scandal in which eight members of the Chicago White Sox were accused of throwing the 1919 World Series against the Cincinnati Reds in exchange for money from a gambling syndicate led ...
.
Additionally, Tigers manager Hughie Jennings
Hugh Ambrose Jennings (April 2, 1869 – February 1, 1928) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won Nat ...
(age 43) and coaches Joe Sugden
Joseph "Joe" Sugden is a fictional character from the British television soap opera ''Emmerdale'', played by Frazer Hines. He first appeared on-screen during the soap's first episode broadcast 16 October 1972 and remained in the programme until ...
(age 41) and Deacon McGuire
James Thomas "Deacon" McGuire (November 18, 1863 – October 31, 1936) was an American professional baseball player, manager and coach whose career spanned the years 1883 to 1915. He played 26 seasons in Major League Baseball, principally as a ca ...
(age 48), each of whom previously had long and distinguished careers as players, played in the game for the Tigers. For all three men, it was their only playing appearance of the 1912 season. Jennings would play in only one more major league game, in 1918. It was the final game of both Sugden's and McGuire's careers. The unplanned appearance raised McGuire's career total to 26 Major League seasons, a record which would not be surpassed until 1993, by Nolan Ryan
Lynn Nolan Ryan Jr. (born January 31, 1947), nicknamed "the Ryan Express", is an American former professional baseball pitcher and sports executive. Over a record 27-year playing career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanning four decades, Ryan ...
. McGuire (who became the last player born during the Civil War
A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country).
The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policies ...
to appear in a big-league game) also recorded two fielding assists in the game, for a career total of 1,859, which remains the all-time record for catchers.
Travers (0–1) never played again in the major leagues, preserving his career 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 ...
at 15.75 and career WHIP
A whip is a tool or weapon designed to strike humans or other animals to exert control through pain compliance or fear of pain. They can also be used without inflicting pain, for audiovisual cues, such as in equestrianism. They are generally e ...
at 4.13.
Later life and death
For years, Travers was reluctant to speak about his day as a major league ball player. But many years later, he told his story in an interview with sportswriter Red Smith. He recalled being asked to round up "as many fellows as I could find" to play for the Tigers. Travers claims to have gone to the corner of 23rd and Columbia in Philadelphia where "a bunch of fellows were standing around the corner." That "bunch of fellows" became 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 ...
for a day.
When asked about his performance on the mound, Travers told Red Smith that he threw "slow curves
A curve is a geometrical object in mathematics.
Curve(s) may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Music
* Curve (band), an English alternative rock music group
* ''Curve'' (album), a 2012 album by Our Lady Peace
* "Curve" (song), a 20 ...
" that day, because the A's were not used to them, and because manager Hughie Jennings
Hugh Ambrose Jennings (April 2, 1869 – February 1, 1928) was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won Nat ...
told Travers not to throw any fastball
The fastball is the most common type of pitch thrown by pitchers in baseball and softball. "Power pitchers," such as former American major leaguers Nolan Ryan and Roger Clemens, rely on speed to prevent the ball from being hit, and have thro ...
s as he "was afraid I might get killed."[
Travers later entered the ]Society of Jesus
, image = Ihs-logo.svg
, image_size = 175px
, caption = ChristogramOfficial seal of the Jesuits
, abbreviation = SJ
, nickname = Jesuits
, formation =
, founders ...
, also known as the Jesuits, and was ordained as a Catholic priest in 1926. He is the only priest to have played major league baseball. Travers taught at St. Francis Xavier High School in Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
and was later named Dean of Men at St. Joseph College. From 1943 to 1968, he taught Spanish and religion at Saint Joseph's Preparatory School
St. Joseph's Preparatory School, known as "St. Joseph's Prep" or simply "The Prep", is an urban, private, Catholic, college preparatory school run by the Jesuits in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. It was founded in 1851.
Curriculm
The ...
in Philadelphia.
Travers lived in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...
for almost all of his life. He died at Misericordia Hospital
Misericordia Hospital is a 3-block medical center in The Bronx, New York City. that opened in 1887 in Staten Island, moved to Manhattan in 1889, and moved to The Bronx in 1958. The hospital was renamed Our Lady of Mercy Hospital in 1985, acqui ...
in 1968 at age 75.
References
External links
''New York Times'' Obituary for Father Travers
SABR Biography of Allan Travers
{{DEFAULTSORT:Travers, Allan
1892 births
1968 deaths
20th-century American Jesuits
Major League Baseball pitchers
Baseball players from Philadelphia
Detroit Tigers players