1915 Philadelphia Athletics
LeagueAmerican League
BallparkShibe Park
CityPhiladelphia
OwnersConnie Mack, Benjamin Shibe, Tom Shibe and John Shibe
ManagersConnie Mack
← 1914
1916 →

The 1915 Philadelphia Athletics season was a season in American baseball. After the team won the American League pennant in 1914, the team dropped all the way to last place with a record of 43 wins and 109 losses.

Offseason

Regular season

The Federal League had been formed to begin play in 1914. As the A.L. had done 13 years before, the new league raided existing A.L. and N.L. teams for players. Athletics owner Connie Mack refused to match the offers of the F.L. teams, preferring to let the "prima donnas" go and rebuild with younger (and less expensive) players. The result was a swift and near-total collapse, a "first-to-worst" situation. The Athletics went from a 99–53 (.651) record and a pennant in 1914 to a record of 43–109 (.283) and 8th (last) place in 1915. At the time, it was the third-worst winning percentage in American League history. The infield of Whitey Witt, Charlie Pick and Nap Lajoie was derisively known as the "$10 Infield".[3]

Season highlights

Season standings

American League 		W L Pct. GB Home Road
Boston Red Sox 101 50 0.669 — 55–20 46–30
Detroit Tigers 100 54 0.649 2½ 51–26 49–28
Chicago White Sox 93 61 0.604 9½ 54–24 39–37
Washington Senators 85 68 0.556 17 50–29 35–39
New York Yankees 69 83 0.454 32½ 37–43 32–40
St. Louis Browns 63 91 0.409 39½ 35–38 28–53
Cleveland Indians 57 95 0.375 44½ 27–50 30–45
Philadelphia Athletics 43 109 0.283 58½ 19–53 24–56

Record vs. opponents

1915 American League record

Sources: [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Team BOS CWS CLE DET NYY PHA SLB WSH
Boston — 12–10 16–4 14–8 10–12 17–5–1 17–5–2 15–6–1
Chicago 10–12 — 16–6 7–15 15–7 19–3 18–4 8–14–1
Cleveland 4–16 6–16 — 5–17 9–13–1 15–7–1 12–10 6–16
Detroit 8–14 15–7 17–5 — 17–5 17–5 13–9–2 13–9
New York 12–10 7–15 13–9–1 5–17 — 11–9 12–10–1 9–13
Philadelphia 5–17–1 3–19 7–15–1 5–17 9–11 — 6–16 8–14
St. Louis 5–17–2 4–18 10–12 9–13–2 10–12–1 16–6 — 9–13
Washington 6–15–1 14–8–1 16–6 9–13 13–9 14–8 13–9 —


Roster

1915 Philadelphia Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Catchers

Infielders

Outfielders Manager

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

Pos Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
C Jack Lapp 112 312 85 .272 2 31
1B Stuffy McInnis 119 456 143 .314 0 49
2B Nap Lajoie 129 490 137 .280 1 61
SS Larry Kopf 118 386 87 .225 1 33
3B Wally Schang 116 359 89 .248 1 44
OF Rube Oldring 107 408 101 .248 6 42
OF Amos Strunk 132 485 144 .297 1 45
OF Jimmy Walsh 117 417 86 .206 1 20

Other batters

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

Player G AB H Avg. HR RBI
Eddie Murphy 68 260 60 .231 0 17
Lew Malone 76 201 41 .204 1 17
Jack Barry 54 194 43 .222 0 15
Wickey McAvoy 68 184 35 .190 0 6
Chick Davies 57 135 24 .178 0 11
Thomas Healy 23 77 17 .221 0 5
Harry Damrau 16 56 11 .196 0 3
Bill Bankston 11 36 5 .139 1 2
Shag Thompson 17 33 11 .333 0 2
Socks Seibold 10 26 3 .115 0 2
Sam Crane 8 23 2 .087 0 1
Cy Perkins 7 20 4 .200 0 0
Bruno Haas 12 18 1 .056 0 0
Owen Conway 4 15 1 .067 0 0
Buck Danner 3 12 3 .250 0 0
Sam McConnell 6 11 2 .182 0 0
Henry Bostick 2 7 0 .000 0 2
Ralph Edwards 2 5 0 .000 0 0
Bill Haeffner 3 4 1 .250 0 0
Art Corcoran 1 4 0 .000 0 0
Harry Davis 5 3 1 .333 0 4
Fred Lear 2 2 0 .000 0 0
Ira Thomas 1 0 0 ---- 0 0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Weldon Wyckoff 43 276.0 10 22 3.52 157
Joe Bush 25 145.2 5 15 4.14 89
Tom Sheehan 15 102.0 4 9 4.15 22
Bob Shawkey 17 100.0 6 6 4.05 56
Cap Crowell 10 54.1 2 6 5.47 15
Jack Nabors 10 54.0 0 5 5.50 18
Jack Richardson 3 24.0 0 1 2.63 11
Harry Weaver 2 18.0 0 2 3.00 1
Elmer Myers 1 9.0 0 0 0.00 12
Bill Meehan 1 4.0 0 1 22.50 0
Tink Turner 1 2.0 0 1 22.50 0
Bob Cone 1 0.2 0 0 40.50 0

Other pitchers

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

Player G IP W L ERA SO
Rube Bressler 32 178.1 4 17 5.20 69
Tom Knowlson 18 100.2 4 6 3.49 24
Herb Pennock 11 44.0 3 6 5.32 24
Dana Fillingim 8 39.1 0 5 3.43 17
Chick Davies 5 23.1 1 3 8.87 8
Harry Eccles 5 21.0 0 1 4.71 13
Bill Morrisette 4 20.0 2 0 1.35 11
Walter Ancker 4 17.2 0 0 3.57 4
Joe Sherman 2 15.0 1 0 2.40 5
Bruno Haas 6 14.1 0 1 11.93 7
Carl Ray 2 7.1 0 1 4.91 6

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player G W L SV ERA SO
Bud Davis 17 0 1 0 3.38 12
Jack Harper 3 0 0 0 3.12 3
Squiz Pillion 2 0 0 0 6.75 0
Bob Pepper 1 0 0 0 1.80 0

Awards and honors

League top five finishers

Rube Bressler

Bullet Joe Bush

Rube Oldring

Weldon Wyckoff

References

  1. ^ Eddie Collins page at Baseball Reference
  2. ^ Nap Lajoie page at Baseball Reference
  3. ^ Hollingsworth, Harry (1994). The Best & Worst Baseball Teams of All Time: From the '16 A's to the '27 Yanks to the Present!. United States: SPI Books. p. 187. ISBN 1561713082.
  4. ^ Great Baseball Feats, Facts and Figures, 2008 Edition, p. 25, David Nemec and Scott Flatow, A Signet Book, Penguin Group, New York, ISBN 978-0-451-22363-0

External links

1915 MLB season by team
Oakland Athletics
Categories