About Me

I am a long time baseball fan who became interesting in documenting the "missing" batter strikeouts a few years back as an outgrowth of my interest in the 1899 Cleveland Spiders. Grew up w/ the Big Red Machine. I now follow them and my new hometown, Detroit Tigers. Member of SABR off and on since 1979.

Thursday, May 26, 2022

Sport McAllister STARTS at all 9 positions in 1899

 

There was a bit of notice made back in 2017, in a late season “stunt”, with his team, the Detroit Tigers, going nowhere, Andrew Romine played all 9 positions in a game.   Romine became the 5th player to achieve this “feat”, joining Bert Campaneris (1965), Cesar Tovar (1968), Scott Sheldon (2000), and Shane Halter (2000).

In addition, there have been several players who have played all 9 positions during a given season, but Only One has had the wherewithal to START ALL 9 positions in a season and appropriately his nickname was “Sport”.  In fact, to show his complete versatility, he even umpired a game!

A quick aside before I profile the “historic” season – 1899 and especially the 1899 Cleveland Spiders is what got me seriously into baseball research – starting with documenting all of the 1899 lineups and leading to my obsession with researching and documenting the missing batter strikeouts of this era.  (See blog post: http://batterk.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-this-all-got-started.html )

 

Lewis William “Sport” McAllister

Born: July 23, 1874 in Austin, MS

Died: July 17, 1962 (Aged 87-359d) in Wyandotte, MI

https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcallsp01.shtml

Background:

McAllister was in his 4th season, all with Cleveland.  1899 was to be his first where he played in more than 40 games.   Right before the 1899 season (March 30), the Robison brothers, who owned both the St. Louis & Cleveland teams, transferred most of the best Cleveland players to St. Louis, in hopes of bolstering St. Louis’s chances in the 12 team National League.  Cleveland had not supported their team well, in fact they had only attracted a little over 70,000 cranks the previous year, last in the League.  Unfortunately for Sport, he was not one of those who was transferred, giving him the “opportunity” to play for what is arguably the worst team in major league history (20-134).

 

The Stats:

For the season, McAllister’s line:

G – 113 (110 starts)

AB – 418

R – 29

H – 99

RBI – 31

2B – 6

3B – 8

HR – 1

BB – 19

K – 20

SB – 5

SH – 12

HBP - 2

BA - .237

OBP - .273

SLG - .297

OPS+ - 64

 

The Starts By Position:

Pitcher – 1

Catcher – 16

First Base – 4

Second Base – 1

Third Base – 6

Shortstop – 3

Left Field – 7

Center Field – 1

Right Field – 71

(Pinch Hitter – 2)

 

The Starts:

Sport going into the 1899 campaign was already known for his versatility – having played at 8 positions in 1897 (started at 7 – all except 2b & 3b)

On March 30, it was noted that “Pitcher McAllister will play in Cleveland this coming season.   The reallocation of the St. Louis & Cleveland players by the Robison’s occurred on this day.”1

Even before the season began on April 15, McAllister suffered a broken finger during an exhibition game at Indianapolis.

Umpire (1)

April 30 – Still out with a broken finger, McAllister and Cincinnati’s Frank Dwyer umpired the game “in the absence of regular umpires”2.  The Spiders lost 9-0


Shortstop (3 starts)

When McAllister finally got healthy from his broken finger, he was first used at short for 3 games (May 9, 10, & 11) replacing Harry Lochhead who was hitting .173 with a Fielding Percentage of .887 (next to last in league) (Cl Leader 5/8/99)

Despite Lochhead’s poor past performance, he was back at SS on the 12th and ended up playing 148 of the team’s 154 games, posting a terrible 56 OPS+!

 

Right Field (71)

This was McAllister’s primary position during the season.  Starting on May 15th, McAllister assumed his primary station out in the right garden.  Prior to that, the Exiles had mainly employed Suter Sullivan & Louis Sockalexis.  Sockalexis played the 5 games in RF prior to McAllister’s 1st start, in what turned out to be the last 5 major league games of Sockalexis’ fateful career.  By this time, McAllister was considered the team’s utility man.

 

Left Field (7)

Dick Harley was the primary left fielder for the Spiders, starting 141 games there.

From May 24-26, McAllister started in his place after Harley was spiked in the knee by Washington’s Dick Padden in the 1st inning on an errant catcher throw during an attempted steal attempt.  The injury turned out to be not as bad as first anticipated and Harley was back for the May 29th game.

Subsequently, McAllister started in place of Harley in left field on June 1 (swapping positions w/ Harley), August 22 & 23, and September 12.

 

Third Base (6)

On June 5, with Lave Cross (.286) & Willie Sudhoff (3 wins) doing too well for the Wanderers, the Robisons transferred the two to St. Louis.  As a result, McAllister was called upon to take over 3b in the interim which lasted for the next 4 games.  Jack Stivetts played 1 game at 3b on June 9, and then Suter Sullivan took over 3b for the greater part of the rest of the season.

Sport was called upon to assume the hot corner on three more occasions.  The first one was part of a 3 team doubleheader in St. Louis on July 9 – the Perfectos played Louisville in game 1 and their “sister” club, Cleveland, in the 2nd game.  Louisville, ironically, ended its season much like Cleveland, on the road.  Its home park, Eclipse Park (III), burned to the ground on September 2nd, causing the Colonels to play their last 31 games on the road.  Cleveland, due to extremely poor attendance, starting August 31st played its last 36 games on the road.   

On August 16th, McAllister was playing rightfield when Sullivan was injured in the 6th inning.  Sport moved from RF to 3b with Charlie Hemphill taking Sport’s previous spot in rightfield.  Sullivan was back in action on the 19th, but McAllister did not resume his position in rightfield as Hemphill took over rightfield for the remainder of the season.

 

Catcher (16)

McAllister 1st start at catcher was on August 9th, starting instead of Joe Sugden.

Once he lost his RF spot to Hemphill, he began platooning w/ Sugden, catching on the 19th, 20th , 24th, 26th.

Jim Duncan joined the squad on August 28th and it became a 3 way platoon w/ Sugden & McAllister, with Sport having 11 more starts in September & October.


Pinch Hitter  (2)

On August 28th, McAllister pinch hit for Jim Hughey in the 9th inning of a 6-4 home game loss against Boston.  His at-bat resulting in an out.   And on October 14th, he again pinch-hit for Hughey in the 9th of a 12-4 loss to Cincinnati, again producing an out.

 

First Base (4)

On August 29, McAllister started both games of a doubleheader versus Boston in place of regular 1b Tommy Tucker as well as the single game on the 30th.   Harry Colliflower (better known for his 1-11, 8.17 record that season) played the 31st and Tucker returned to his post on September 1.

McAlister played one more game at 1b on October7 versus Pittsburg.   He moved to C late in the game, replacing Duncan with Colliflower taking over 1b.  Tommy Tucker had been released on September 17th and the Spiders were using primarily Duncan with Colliflower and Sullivan helping out.

 

Second Base (1)

On August 31st, Sport took the place of manager Joe Quinn at second base – it is not clear why Quinn did not play, but he was run into by umpire (and former Spider) Chippy McGarr in the previous game while trying to field a groundball off the bat of Hugh Duffy in the 3rd inning.  Quinn was back the next game.

 

Center Field (1)

On September 5, in the first game of doubleheader at Cincinnati, Sport started in place of regular Tommy Dowd (the team “MVP”).  The previous game, Harry Colliflower had started in centerfield and in game 2 of the doubleheader, pitcher Crazy Schmitt patrolled the center garden (it was that type of season!)  Dowd was back in CF on 7th.

 

Pitcher (1)

October 15, 1899 – The last day of the Spiders’ long, long season was a doubleheader at Cincinnati.  McAllister got the nod in the 1st game and a cigar stand clerk named Eddie Kolb was scooped off the street (almost literally) to pitch the 2nd and final game of the season.   For McAllister’s part, he gave up 17 hits, walking 3, and striking out 1 in a 16-1 shellacking.  Kolb was even worse, losing 19-3 to end the Wanderers misery.

 

Additionally, McAllister started in 8 of the 9 batting positions – never starting in the 3rd hole!

Batting order splits:

1st – 1

2nd – 3

4th – 7

5th – 72

6th – 5

7th – 6

8th – 15

9th – 1

 

Following his 1899 Exile experience, McAllister continued his versatility for a couple more seasons - playing 8 positions (no 1b) for the minor league 1900 American League Detroit Tigers, then starting at 6 positions for Detroit in 1901 & 7 for Detroit/Baltimore in 1902.  Interestingly, his “primary” position shifted from rightfield to c/2b in 1900, c/1b in 1901, and then 1b in 1902.

 

APPENDIX – Starts By Position Detail by Game:

Starts by Position Detail

team

date

dseq

player

fieldpos

CL4

18990509

0

McAllister

6

CL4

18990510

0

McAllister

6

CL4

18990511

0

McAllister

6

CL4

18990515

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990520

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990521

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990522

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990523

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990524

0

McAllister

7

CL4

18990525

0

McAllister

7

CL4

18990526

0

McAllister

7

CL4

18990529

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990530

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990530

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990531

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990601

0

McAllister

7

CL4

18990602

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990603

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990605

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990606

0

McAllister

5

CL4

18990607

0

McAllister

5

CL4

18990608

0

McAllister

5

CL4

18990612

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990613

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990614

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990615

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990617

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990619

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990620

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990621

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990622

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990623

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990624

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990625

B

McAllister

9

CL4

18990626

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990627

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990629

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990630

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990701

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990701

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990703

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990704

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990704

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990706

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990708

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990708

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990709

B

McAllister

5

CL4

18990711

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990712

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990713

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990714

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990715

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990715

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990717

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990717

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990718

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990718

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990719

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990719

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990720

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990721

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990721

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990727

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990727

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990728

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990728

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990730

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990730

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990801

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990801

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990802

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990803

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990803

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990805

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990806

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990806

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990808

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990809

0

McAllister

2

CL4

18990812

1

McAllister

9

CL4

18990812

2

McAllister

9

CL4

18990814

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990815

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990816

0

McAllister

9

CL4

18990817

0

McAllister

5

CL4

18990818

0

McAllister

5

CL4

18990819

2

McAllister

2

CL4

18990820

A

McAllister

2

CL4

18990822

0

McAllister

7

CL4

18990823

0

McAllister

7

CL4

18990824

0

McAllister

2

CL4

18990826

0

McAllister

2

CL4

18990829

1

McAllister

3

CL4

18990829

2

McAllister

3

CL4

18990830

0

McAllister

3

CL4

18990831

0

McAllister

4

CL4

18990901

1

McAllister

2

CL4

18990903

B

McAllister

2

CL4

18990904

1

McAllister

2

CL4

18990905

2

McAllister

2

CL4

18990905

1

McAllister

8

CL4

18990907

0

McAllister

2

CL4

18990908

0

McAllister

2

CL4

18990910

A

McAllister

2

CL4

18990912

1

McAllister

2

CL4

18990912

2

McAllister

7

CL4

18990914

0

McAllister

2

CL4

18990916

0

McAllister

2

CL4

18990918

2

McAllister

2

CL4

18991007

0

McAllister

3

CL4

18991015

1

McAllister

1

Footnotes:


2 – Cleveland Leader, May 1, 1899, page 6

Primary Sources:

Cleveland Leader

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Jonathan Frankel 1899 Lineup MS Access Database:  https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B4NEDe8uYbdlNjgwMDViYTgtYTlhMS00OGU2LTg4NTUtODFiMGMxNmNhNGU0?resourcekey=0-uvHBrU1Q679524Wy5gwafw

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