Harry Taylor Howell (November 14, 1876 – May 22, 1956) was an American professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding tea ...

player who played as a

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 ...

for the

Brooklyn Bridegrooms The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Califor ...

Brooklyn Superbas The Brooklyn Dodgers were a Major League Baseball team founded in 1884 as a member of the American Association before joining the National League in 1890. They remained in Brooklyn until 1957, after which the club moved to Los Angeles, Californi ...

(1898 and 1900), Baltimore Orioles (1899),

Baltimore Orioles The Baltimore Orioles are an American professional baseball team based in Baltimore. The Orioles compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League East, East division. As one of the American L ...

New York Highlanders The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. They are one of ...

(1901–03), and

St. Louis Browns The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...

(1904–10).

Career

Howell helped the Superbas win the 1900

National League The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League (NL), is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, and the world's oldest extant professional team s ...

pennant. He led the National League in games finished (non-starts) in 1900 (10) and the American League in 1903 (10) and led the American League in Complete Games (35) in 1905. Howell currently ranks 82nd on the MLB All-Time ERA List (2.74), 87th on the All-Time Complete Games List (244) and 68th on the Hit Batsmen List (97). He is also the Baltimore Orioles career leader in ERA (2.06). In 13 seasons, he had a 131–146 Win–loss record, 340 Games (282 Started), 244 Complete Games, 20 Shutouts, 53 Games Finished, 6 Saves, Innings Pitched, 2,435 Hits Allowed, 1,158 Runs Allowed, 781 Earned Runs Allowed, 27 Home Runs Allowed, 677 Walks, 986 Strikeouts, 97 Hit Batsmen, 53 Wild Pitches, 7,244 Batters Faced, 1 Balk, 2.74 ERA and a 1.212 WHIP. After his playing career ended, he was an

umpire An umpire is an official in a variety of sports and competition, responsible for enforcing the rules of the sport, including sportsmanship decisions such as ejection. The term derives from the Old French nonper, ''non'', "not" and ''per'', ...

for 85 games in the

Federal League The Federal League of Base Ball Clubs, known simply as the Federal League, was an American professional baseball league that played its first season as a minor league in 1913 and operated as a "third major league", in competition with the e ...

in 1915.

1910 Chalmers Award Scandal

Howell, along with the Jack O'Connor, the Browns player-manager, was involved in the scandal surrounding efforts to help Cleveland's

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 ...

win the

batting title In baseball, batting average (AVG) is a measure of a batter's success rate in achieving a hit during an at bat. In Major League Baseball (MLB), it is calculated by dividing a player's hits by his at bats (AB). In MLB, a player in each league win ...

and the associated

1910 Chalmers Award The 1910 Chalmers Award scandal was an incident in which a Major League Baseball team, the St. Louis Browns, tried but failed to give Nap Lajoie the batting title over Ty Cobb. Background Before the 1910 Major League Baseball season, Hugh Ch ...

over

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 ...

in the last two games of the season, a doubleheader at

Sportsman's Park Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on the ...

. Cobb was leading Lajoie .385 to .376 in the batting race going into that last day. O'Connor ordered

rookie A rookie is a person new to an occupation, profession, or hobby. In sports, a ''rookie'' is a professional athlete in their first season (or year). In contrast with a veteran who has experience and expertise, a rookie is usually inexperienced ...

third baseman A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball or softball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run. In the scoring system us ...

Red Corriden John Michael "Red" Corriden (September 4, 1887 – September 28, 1959) was a player, coach, manager and scout in American Major League Baseball. A shortstop and third baseman in his playing days, Corriden appeared in 223 big league games with the ...

to station himself in shallow

left field In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

to allow what otherwise would be routine infield ground outs to be base hits. Lajoie bunted five straight times down the third base line and made it to first easily. On his last at-bat, Lajoie reached base on a fielding

error An error (from the Latin ''error'', meaning "wandering") is an action which is inaccurate or incorrect. In some usages, an error is synonymous with a mistake. The etymology derives from the Latin term 'errare', meaning 'to stray'. In statistics ...

, officially giving him a hitless at-bat and lowering his average. O'Connor and Howell tried to bribe the official scorer, a woman, to change the call to a hit, offering to buy her a new wardrobe. Cobb won the batting title by less than one point over Lajoie, .385069 to .384095. The resulting outcry triggered an investigation by 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 ...

, who declared Cobb the rightful winner of the batting title (though Chalmers awarded cars to both players). At his insistence, Browns' owner

Robert Hedges Robert Hedges may refer to: *Robert Hedges (colonial administrator), President of Bengal, 1713–1718 *Robert Hedges (baseball) Robert Hedges (born 1869 in Jackson County, Missouri – died April 1932 in St. Louis, Missouri) was the owner of the ...

fired both O'Connor and Howell, and released them as players; both men were informally banned from baseball for life. In 1981, however, research revealed that one game was counted twice for Cobb when he went 2-for-3. As a result, his 1910 batting statistics should have been shown as 194-for-506 and .383399, less than .0007 behind Lajoie at 227-for-591.

References

External links

, o
Retrosheet
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Howell, Harry 1876 births 1956 deaths Baltimore Orioles (1901–02) players Baltimore Orioles (NL) players Brooklyn Bridegrooms players Brooklyn Superbas players New York Highlanders players Baseball players from New Jersey St. Louis Browns players Major League Baseball pitchers San Francisco Seals (baseball) players 19th-century baseball players Meriden Bulldogs players Sportspeople banned for life

Career

1910 Chalmers Award Scandal

See also

References

External links