Lew Drill

Lewis L. Drill

• Bats Right, Throws Right
• Height 5' 6", Weight 186 lb.
• School Georgetown University, Hamline University
• High School Long Prairie High School
• Debut April 23, 1902
• Final Game October 3, 1905
• Born May 9, 1877 in Browerville, MN USA
• Died July 4, 1969 in St. Paul, MN USA

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Biographical Information

Catcher Lew Drill once outhit Ty Cobb, which is to say that the 28-year-old Drill, on the Detroit Tigers in 1905, hit .261 while the 18-year-old rookie Cobb hit .240. The team average was .243.

Drill played four years in the majors, and was an above-average hitter, especially for a catcher. He also hit .298 as a player-manager for Pueblo in 1907. He umpired a total of seven American League games in 1903 and 1904, while still an active player.

In 1909, he was the playing manager of the Superior Drillers of the Minnesota-Wisconsin League.

After his baseball career, Drill became an attorney and, as a protégé of U.S. Senator Thomas Schall (R) was appointed in 1929 to the post of United States Attorney for Minnesota. He gained notoriety when he refused to vacate his office for a Franklin Roosevelt appointee until December 1935 when Senator Schall, his sponsor, was killed in a car accident. While he held the post, however, Drill successfully prosecuted Wilbur Foshay, promoter of a holding company that underwent a spectacular crash in the Great Depression. Drill's obituary in the New York Times incorrectly claimed he won a case against Roger Touhy, a Chicago gangster accused of kidnapped William Hamm, Jr., a millionaire St. Paul brewer. Touhy was acquitted when latent fingerprint identification showed members of the Barker-Karpis gang were responsible for the kidnapping.

Related Sites

• Lew Drill at the SABR Bio Project
• Drill's obituary in NY Times, 7/7/1969

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