Description
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Napoleon LaJoie
Born: September 5, 1874 Woonsocket, Rhode Island
Died: February 7, 1959 (aged 84) Daytona Beach, Florida
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Height: 6’1″
Weight: 195 lbs.
Positions: Second Baseman and First Baseman
Played For:
As player
Philadelphia Phillies (1896–1900)
Philadelphia Athletics (1901–1902)
Cleveland Naps (1902–1914)
Philadelphia Athletics (1915–1916)
As manager
Cleveland Naps (1905–1909)
Biography:
Lajoie led the AL in batting average five times in his career and four times recorded the highest number of hits. During several of those years with the Naps he and Ty Cobb dominated AL hitting categories and traded batting titles with each other, most notably coming in 1910, when the league’s batting champion was not decided until well after the last game of the season and after an investigation by American League President Ban Johnson. Lajoie in 1914 joined Cap Ansonand Honus Wagner as the only major league players to record 3,000 career hits. He led the NL or AL in putouts five times in his career and assists three times. He has been called “the best second baseman in the history of baseball” and “the most outstanding player to wear a Cleveland uniform. Cy Young said, “Lajoie was one of the most rugged players I ever faced. He’d take your leg off with a line drive, turn the third baseman around like a swinging door and powder the hand of the left fielder. He was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937.
As a fielder, Lajoie was special to watch. “Lajoie glides toward the ball and gathers it in nonchalantly, as if picking fruit,” commented a New York newspaper. Connie Mack elaborated: “He plays so naturally and so easily it looks like lack of effort. Larry’s reach is so long and and he’s fast as lightning.”
Following his major league playing career, Lajoie played briefly for Toronto, was a playing manager in Indianapolis, and was commissioner of the Ohio-Pennsylvania League.
Lajoie had fun playing baseball as well, according to Tommy Leach: “What a ballplayer that man was. Every play he made was executed so gracefully that it looked like it was the easiest thing in the world. He was a pleasure to play against, too, always laughing and joking. Even when the son of a gun was blocking you off the base, he was smiling and kidding with you. You just had to like the guy.”
More info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nap_Lajoie
https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/l/lajoina01.shtml
http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ac9dc07e
https://baseballhall.org/hof/lajoie-nap
