This article
was originally written by John Saccoman
Ed Delahanty – Society for
American Baseball Research (sabr.org)
One of the greatest right-handed sluggers of all time, Ed
Delahanty dominated in the 1890s like no other hitter, batting better than .400
three times, and capturing three RBI crowns on his way to a lifetime batting
average of .346, the fifth-best mark in baseball history. Known as “Big Ed,” and the “King of Swat,”
the muscular Delahanty was more than a one-dimensional slugger; he was also a
fleet-footed, rifle-armed left fielder who was good enough to play center, and
an excellent base runner who once led the league in stolen bases, “Delahanty is an awfully even, well-balanced
player all around.” Sporting Life
once observed. “You look at his batting
and say well, that chap is valuable if he couldn’t catch the measles, and then
you look at his fielding and conclude that it wouldn’t pay to let him go if he
couldn’t hit a bat bag.” Despite such
versatility, the temperamental star was destined to make more headlines off the
field than on it, and his death less than two years into his tenure with the
Washington Senators, still is one of the most fascinating mysteries in the
annals of the sport.
The eldest and most talented of the five major-league
brothers, Edward James Delahanty was born on October 30, 1867, in Cleveland,
Ohio, to Bridget and James, Irish immigrants who had immigrated two years
earlier. Ed was their second child born
and the first to survive infancy. To
support his family, James Delahanty took on a variety of blue-collar jobs in
Cleveland, while his wife converted the family’s spacious Phelps Street home
into a boardinghouse. Young Edward and
his brothers (see also: SABR bios for Jim, Tom, Joe, Frank, and Willie)
managed to steer clear of the crowded family home by playing a variety of sports,
but especially baseball, in the neighborhood’s vacant lots. Ed’s impressive hitting caught the eye of
local scouts, who recruited him to play for the Cleveland Shamrocks, a semipro
club. His success there led to a $50 per
month contract with Mansfield of the Ohio State League, where Delahanty spent
the 1887 season, batting .351 with 90 runs scored in 83 games. After appearing in 21 games and posting a
.412 batting average for Wheeling (West Virginia) of the Tri-State League in
1888, Delahanty’s contract was picked up by the Philadelphia Phillies of the
National League for approximately $2,000.
A strapping 6’1” tall and 170 pounds, Delahanty was not an
instant success in the majors, as opposing pitchers took advantage of the
youngster’s free-swinging approach at the plate, holding him to a .228 batting
average. He improved to .293 in 1889,
then jumped to Cleveland of the Players League in 1890, where he batted .296 in
115 games. After that league failure,
Delahanty returned to Philadelphia, struggling to a .243 average, though he
scored 92 runs and drove in another 86, eighth best in the circuit. Having failed to live up to his potential
after more than three years in the minor league, Delahanty rededicated himself
to his profession in the offseason, working out every day and reporting to camp
in 1892 in the best shape of his life.
He responded with his finest season to date, batting .306 while leading
the league in triples (21) and slugging percentage (.495). It was a performance that drew praise from Sporting
Life, which credited Delahanty for his “hard and timely” batting, but the
slugger was just getting started.
From 1892 to 1901 Delahanty anchored a powerful Philadelphia
lineup that featured the likes of Billy Hamilton, Sam Thompson, Napoleon
Lajoie, and Elmer Flick.
During that span, he led the National League in a major offensive
category 24 times. In 1899 he became the
first player in major league history to bat better than .400 three times, when
he led the league with a .410 mark.
Among his league-leading 238 hits he collected that season were a career-high 55 doubles. He also captured two
home run titles during the decade, blasting 19 round-trippers in 1893 and 13 in
1896. That season he became just the
second player in history to hit four home runs in a single game, turning the
trick on July 13 against the Chicago Colts.
Two of the four homers were inside the park. Three years later, on May 13, 1899, Delahanty
hit four doubles in a single game, making him the only player to achieve both
feats.
A pull hitter who kept opposing defenses honest by
occasionally hitting to the opposite field, Delahanty once confided to a
reporter that he often liked to swing at the first pitch, because a pitcher
with good control usually tried to “do his business” with the first
offering. Nonetheless, Delahanty could
be a patient hitter too, as shown by his ranking among the league’s top ten in
walks four times in his career. When
outfielders, fearing the legendary slugger’s power, played him deeper,
Delahanty responded by place-hitting the ball over the infielder's heads. Delahanty’s ability to adjust his hitting
approach to confound opposing defenses made him, in the estimation of
Cincinnati Reds pitcher Red Ehret, “the hardest man in the league for
pitchers to puzzle.” Longtime catcher Jack
O’Conner concurred, noting, “If Del had a weakness at the bat, I never
could discover it.”
Delahanty left an impression in the field as well, where he
developed into one of the game’s finest outfielders. After spending his first years in the majors
as a subpar infielder, Delahanty found his home in the outfield in 1892,
displaying enough range to merit the occasional start in center field. At his accustomed position, left field,
Delahanty ranked among the league’s best.
He became known for his strong arm, which he used to collect 238 career
assists, and his hustling style of play, which helped him to reach balls lesser
outfielders allowed to drop in for base hits.
That same aggressiveness carried over to the basepaths, as Delahanty
swiped 455 bases in his career, including a league-best 58 in 1898.
Blessed with the ability to hit for average and power,
exceptional range in the field, a strong arm, and excellent speed, Delahanty
was a five-tool player long before the term came into use. Arguably the game’s greatest player in the
1890s, Delahanty nonetheless failed to win a pennant with the Philadelphia
Phillies, who often found themselves, despite their robust offense,
hampered by injuries and short on pitching.
While the club struggled, Philadelphia owner John Rogers also managed to
suppress the salaries of his top stars.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, the great Delahanty earned
only $3,000 per year, only a slight increase when he entered the major leagues
over a decade earlier. Nearing 34 years
of age after the 1901 campaign, in which he batted .354 with 108
RBI for the Phillies, Delahanty decided to join many of his teammates in
seeking higher pay and better treatment with the rival American League.
Indeed, during the final two months of the 1901 season,
reports circulated that Delahanty had become an agent for the upstart league,
selling his fellow players on the merits of the new circuit. Delahanty’s success can be
measured by the number of players for the 1901 Phillies who donned uniforms for
the American League the following year[?] -- a total of nine players, including
Elmer Flick, Red Donahue, Ed McFarland, Monte Cross, Harry Wolverton, Al Orth, and Delahanty
himself, who signed a $4,000 contract with the Washington Senators, including a
$1,000 signing bonus.
Following the club’s disappointing sixth-place finish in
1901, Del gave Washington instant baseball credibility, both to the fans and to
the players. He was named captain of his
new club and joined friend Jimmy Ryan in the outfield. As a result of a judge’s ruling, any players
from the Phillies were forbidden from playing in the state of Pennsylvania,
thus preventing Delahanty and his fellow Philadelphia jumpers from playing against
the Athletics. To circumvent the court
order, Del and the other jumpers would typically get off the Philadelphia train
in Delaware and head to the team’s next destination.
Big Ed battled former Phillies teammate Nap Lajoie of the
Cleveland club for the batting crown in 1902.
Though unofficial figures at season’s end showed Lajoie with a 15-point
lead, .387 to .372, the official statistics released two months later declared
Delahanty champion by a seven-point margin, which would have made Big Ed the
only player ever to win both an NL and AL batting title. However, Research in later years uncovered that Lajoie bested Delahanty, .378 to .376. By today’s standards Delahanty would have
been declared champion anyway because Lajoie had only 381 plate appearances.
Despite his continued on-field success, however, by the end
of the 1902 season, Delahanty’s personal life was beginning to unravel, as his
wife, Norine, became ill, and Delahanty squandered the couple’s financial
resources by gambling on horses and binge drinking. Looking to pay off his mounting debts,
Delahanty signed a three-year contract with the New York Giants, reported at
either $6,000 or $8,000 per season. The
deal also included an advance on his salary of $4,000.
However, the contract was never fulfilled. Before the 1903 season, the leagues agreed
to honor each other’s contracts, with the result that Delahanty’s deal with the
Giants was declared void and the rights to his contract were returned to
Washington. Even worse news for
Delahanty, he was ordered to pay back the $4,000 advance he had already
received. Since Delahanty’s 1903
contract with Washington called for a salary of $4,500, of which $600 had
already been advanced, the ruling effectively cost the already cash-strapped
Delahanty $100 to play the 1903 season for the Nats. For a man suddenly on the brink of personal
and financial ruin, it was the worst possible outcome. A few days before the start of the 1903
season, Delahanty ended a lengthy holdout when Washington agreed to pay the $4,000,
he owed New York, but in return, $2,000 per year would be deducted from the
slugger's salary in 1903 and 1904. Even
after reporting, however, Delahanty continued to see opportunities to jump from
the Senators, including a dalliance with Denver of the Western League which
never came to fruition.
Upon his return to the Senators, Del was out of shape and
soon injured his back and ankle.
Washington manager Tom Loftus sent him to a health spa in
Michigan to shape up, and he rejoined the team on May 29. Though he continued to bat well upon his
return to the lineup, posting a .333 average in 156 at bats, Delahanty feuded
with Loftus, who ordered him to play right field, while Del adamantly insisted
that he only play left. Amidst the
turmoil, Delahanty’s drinking increased, and his behavior became more
erratic. He started giving away precious
keepsakes, including his gold watch, to teammates, and it was even rumored that
he had once attempted suicide by turning the gas on in his room in
Washington. Prior to embarking on a
lengthy road trip with the Senators on June 17, Delahanty took out a life
insurance policy on himself, naming his daughter Florence as the
beneficiary. On June 25, Delahanty
played the last game of his career in Cleveland. When the following morning’s newspapers
reporters that NL President Harry Pulliam had decided to violate the
nascent peace agreement by allowing contract-jumping shortstop George Davis
to play for the Giants, Delahanty presumably saw his opportunity to finally
join the New York club. He abandoned the
Senators that morning and went on a drinking binge which left him angry,
disoriented, and in no condition to play.
He reportedly threatened to kill himself, and several teammates, fearing
for his safety, felt it necessary to keep a close watch on him at the team
hotel. Delahanty chased one of them away
with a knife.
Del went with the Senators to their next stop in Detroit,
where his mother and two brothers were summoned to help straighten him
out. He continued to drink heavily,
however, and again abandoned the team on July 2. By this time, he knew he would be unable to
jump to the Giants, as a court order issued the previous day prohibited Davis
from playing for New York. Delahanty
nonetheless boarded a train to New York that afternoon but, perhaps tellingly,
left his belongings in his Detroit hotel room.
Del misbehaved on the train, smoking when he was not supposed to,
drinking excess, and accidentally breaking the glass in front of the emergency
tool cabinet. Finally, he fell
asleep. When the train made a scheduled
stop in Bridgeburg, (now Fort Erie), Ontario, Del became disoriented and tried to
enter an already occupied berth. The
commotion seemed to confuse him more, and he had to be subdued by three
men. The conductor, John Cole, had
understandably had enough of him for the evening and ordered Del off the train.
The train crossed the International Railway Bridge over the
Niagara River into Buffalo.
In the darkness, Big Ed walked out onto the 3,600-foot-long
bridge and was standing still at its edge, staring down into the water, when he
was accosted by night watchman Sam Kingston on the lookout for smugglers. A scuffle ensued, with Kingston dragging
Delahanty back to the middle of the wide bridge, but Kingston then fell down
and Delahanty got away. Moments later,
according to Kingston – who claimed it was too dark to see what happened – Del
either jumped or drunkenly stumbled off the edge of the bridge, falling 25 feet
into the 40-foot-deeep Niagara River.
His naked body (except for tie, shoes, and socks) was found
20 miles downstream at the base of Horseshoe Falls [?] – the Canadian portion
of Niagara Falls – seven days later.
Dead at the age of 35, we were buried in Calvary Cemetery in Cleveland.
Note:
David Jones, ed., Deadball Stars of the American
League (Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, Inc.
2006).
Sources:
1. Mike Sowell. July 2, 1903. Macmillan Publishing
Co., 1992.
2. Jerrold Casway. Ed Delahanty in the Emerald Age
of Baseball University of Notre Dame Press, 2004.
3. Frederick Ivor-Campbell, Robert Tiemann, Mark
Rucker (editors) Baseball’s First Stars (SABR,
1996).
4. New York Times.
5. Cleveland Plain Dealer
Full Name: Edward James Delahanty
Born: October 30, 1867, at Cleveland, OH (USA)
Died: July 2, 1903, at Niagara Falls, ON (CAN)
