(Vol 1906, Pages 261 It is the reproduction of the old boo...)
Vol 1906, Pages 261 It is the reproduction of the old book published long back(1906) We try our level best to give you perfect book but some time, due to old books some imperfections like missing or damaged Pages left in the book. These are due to the original artefact or left at the time of scanning. We found this book important for current readers who want to know about our old treasure so we brought them back to the shelves for you. We hope you will encourage us by accepting them in this reformed condition. We do not change the contents of the book just make it more readable by removing its yellow background. A coloured Dust cover with glossy Lamination is wrapped on the book. Print on Demand
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Napoleon Lajoie was born in Woonsocket, Rhode Island, the son of Jean Baptist Lajoie and Celina Guertin. The Lajoies were French-Canadians who had come to the United States from St. Hyacinthe, Quebec, in October 1865. A carpenter and wood finisher by trade, Lajoie also raised and traded horses.
He completed the ninth grade at the Globe Public School in Woonsocket.
After his studies Napoleon Lajoie worked as a hack driver and played baseball as a catcher for the local amateur club. In 1895, Woonsocket played an exhibition game against a professional team led by Fred Woodcock, a former pitcher for the St. Louis Browns. Lajoie hit safely every time he came to bat, with two of his hits being home runs, a rare feat in baseball's "dead ball" era.
On Woodcock's recommendation, Lajoie was signed for $100 a month by Fall River of the New England League. The right-hand-hitting Lajoie combined power at the bat with speed and agility in the field. Batting . 429 in his first year in professional baseball, he led Fall River to the New England League championship in 1896. He was sold to the Philadelphia Phillies, along with outfielder Phil Geier, for $1, 500 in August 1896.
Joining the Phillies on August 12, Lajoie played the last thirty-nine games of the major league season at first base. The next year, he played first base, third base, and the outfield for the Phillies. George Tweedy Stallings made Lajoie a second baseman in 1898 in order to take full advantage of his fielding prowess. By all accounts, Lajoie was perhaps baseball's finest fielding second baseman. A hard hitter, Lajoie made stinging line drives that were the terror of opposing fielders.
In 1901, Lajoie jumped the Phillies and signed on with Connie Mack's American League Philadelphia Athletics at a salary of $4, 000 per year. It was $1, 600 more than his National League salary and made him one of the highest-paid baseball players of his era. Lajoie established himself as the premier star of the new league by leading it in batting with a . 426 average (becoming one of only eight men in baseball history to hit . 400 for a season), in runs batted in (125), and in home runs (14). The Phillies obtained a court injunction forbidding Lajoie to play in Pennsylvania for any team other than the Phillies.
The Athletics promptly traded him to the Cleveland Blues in 1902, where he was given a four-year contract at $7, 500 per year. As a result of that trade, Lajoie was cited for contempt of court but was subsequently purged of contempt when the National and American Leagues agreed to mutual recognition in 1903. With Cleveland, Lajoie led the American League in batting in 1902 (. 378), 1903 (. 344), and 1904 (. 376).
After the 1904 season, Lajoie was named manager of the Cleveland club, which changed its team name to the Naps in his honor. He missed more than half of the 1905 season when he suffered blood poisoning as the result of a spike wound. Lajoie, who enjoyed the sport and economic rewards of baseball. He did not enjoy managing, however, finishing no higher than second in the league standings (1908). After the 1909 season, he gave up managerial responsibilities, feeling that its burdens detracted from his effectiveness as a player.
The most dramatic year of Lajoie's career was 1910, when he battled Ty Cobb for the American League batting championship down to the final day of the season and became the center of a baseball scandal. The Naps were closing out their season with a doubleheader in St. Louis against the Browns. Cobb was disliked by opposing players, who felt that he deliberately tried to spike them while running the bases. Lajoie, on the other hand, always talking and joking with opposing players, was one of the most popular men in the game. Browns' manager Jack O'Connor ordered his rookie third baseman, John ("Red") Corriden, to play deep on Lajoie, ostensibly as protection against his hard line drives down the third-base line. Lajoie got eight hits in the doubleheader, six of them bunt singles down the third-base line. It was obvious that the Browns were helping Lajoie in his battle with Cobb. An investigation by American League President Ban Johnson absolved Lajoie and Corriden of wrongdoing, but O'Connor and Browns coach Harry Howell were banished from baseball. It was to no avail, though. Lajoie finished the year with a batting average of . 3841 to Cobb's . 3848.
Toward the end of his career, Lajoie was traded back to the Philadelphia Athletics (1915). After two mediocre years with the team, he retired as an active player at the close of the 1916 season. In 1917, he managed Toronto, leading the team to the International League championship. The next year, he managed Indianapolis of the American Association before quitting baseball for good and going into business. He died at Daytona Beach, Florida.
Lajoie was elected one of the nine charter members of the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937. His commemorative tablet is the only one in the Hall of Fame to bear the inscription "most graceful. " He was ranked as one of the best players of baseball's first century. His total of 3, 242 career base hits was exceeded by only five other players, his 657 career doubles places him fourth on the all-time list, and his . 338 career batting average was equaled or bettered by only sixteen others.
(Vol 1906, Pages 261 It is the reproduction of the old boo...)
Quotations: He once declared: "I can make $10, 000 a year playing baseball, while I couldn't make more than fifty cents a day at anything else. "
Quotes from others about the person
"What a ballplayer that man was!" Tommy Leach of the Pittsburgh Pirates recalled. "Every play he made was executed so gracefully that it looked like it was the easiest thing in the world. "
Napoleon Lajoie was married on September 5, 1907. They had no children. Myrtle Lajoie (maiden name unknown) died in 1954.
