Lave Cross

In the previous post I mentioned that there were 2 players that were the main "toughest to strike out" in this era.
I profiled Willie Keeler, and now I will profile the other the player, Lave Cross.

Not many times will one associate Cross with this category.  He was mainly known as a solid fine thirdbaseman with the National and American League Philadelphia teams.  Cross was also briefly a member of the infamous 1899 Cleveland Spiders, before he made the mistake of playing too well and was (rescued) recalled to St. Louis.

One can see from the existing B-R data that Cross had a good record in the K category - 7 in 593 at-bats in 1894 and 8 in 589 at-bats in 1895.   He continued this in through the 20th century.

His totals:

1897 - 15 k's in 344 at bats
1898 - 8 k's in 602 at bats
1899 - 3 k's in 557 at bats
1900 - 5 k's in 522 at bats
1901 - 6 k's in 424 at bats
1902 - 4 k's in 559 at bats
1903 - 17 k's in 559 at bats
1904 - 9 k's in 607 at bats
1905 - 12 k's in 587 at bats
1906 - 17 k's in 494 at bats
1907 - 6 k's in 161 at bats


His BK+ numbers show just how

1898 NL - 444 (2nd)
1899 NL - 991 (2nd)
1900 NL - 557 (2nd)
1901 AL - 459 (2nd)
1902 AL - 809 (1st)
1903 AL - 326 (2nd)
1904 AL - 744 (1st)
1905 AL - 517 (1st)
1906 AL - 300 (3rd)

Keeler and Cross were 1-2 (or 2-1) in 1898, 1899, 1900, 1903, 1904, and 1905.  They both led their respective leagues in 1902 (Keeler - NL, Cross - AL)



Here are the leaders for all seasons, 1897-1909:

	Best BK+ [lowest K rate/G, min 100 g] (K's)
	NL		AL
1897	Keeler	595 (5)
1898	Keeler	731 (4)
1899	Keeler	1487 (2)
1900	Keeler	814 (4)
1901	Keeler	1052 (5)	Dungan	786 (4)
1902	Keeler	397 (13)	L Cross	809 (4)
1903	Beckley	325 (13)	Keeler	463 (12)
1904	Wolverton	561 (7)	L Cross	744 (9)
1905	Dobbs	325 (14)	L Cross	517 (12)
1906	Leach	251 (20)	Keeler	1148 (5)
1907	Evers	325 (16)	Elberfeld	599 (8)
1908	Ritchey	308 (13)	T Jones	262 (21)
1909	Bridwell	344 (14)	Lajoie	271 (18)