Allan Travers
Aloysius Stanislaus Travers
(Joe)
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 180 lb.
- School St. Joseph's University
- Debut May 18, 1912
- Final Game May 18, 1912
- Born May 7, 1892 in Philadelphia, PA USA
- Died April 19, 1968 in Philadelphia, PA USA
Biographical Information[edit]
Al Travers had a most bizarre major league career. One that will never be duplicated. In Philadelphia, PA on May 18, 1912, the Detroit Tigers were scheduled to play the Philadelphia Athletics after Ty Cobb had been suspended for beating a fan with a bat in New York, NY on May 15th.
The entire Tigers team protested and refused to play. Faced with a large fine if he failed to field a team, Tigers owner Frank Navin told manager Hughie Jennings to round up any players he could find. Jennings called St. Joseph's University, hoping to convince its baseball team to fill the void, but it was on the road and unavailable. He did reach Travers, who was a student there and a doing public relations for the team, and he convinced him to help round up some local amateur players. This set of random persons, including Travers, along with two Tigers coaches, made up a makeshift team.
The "Tigers" took the field to play the Athletics. The Tigers pitcher was Travers, a twenty-year-old student who had failed to make the varsity team at St. Joseph's. Travers pitched a complete game for Detroit. He gave up 26 hits, 24 runs, 14 of them earned. He walked seven A's and struck out one. He was 0 for 3 at the plate.
The baseball encyclopedia records Al Travers' ERA as 15.75 for his career.
On May 19th, after that fiasco of a game, the real Tigers returned and Travers went back to St. Joseph's University, where he was simply a student who happened to play amateur baseball on the side. After he graduated, he entered the seminary, became a Jesuit priest, and served the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as a teacher.
Further Reading[edit]
- Kevin W. Barwin: "Paper Tigers: How a Player Strike Put a Team of 'Misfits' on a Major League Field for a Day", Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Vol. 52 Number 1 (Spring 2023), pp. 5-13.
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