Addie Joss’ Benefit Game

98 years ago yesterday, the first ‘all-star game’ in the major league history took place. While not recognized as an official all-star game by Major League Baseball, the game was one of the first of its kind and featured the American League all-stars against the Cleveland Naps in a benefit game for the fallen Addie Joss.

It was hard to fathom. Eleven days earlier, on the 3rd of April, the Cleveland Naps took the field for warm ups before a scheduled exhibition game against the Chattanooga Lookouts. Cleveland star pitcher, Addie Joss, sought out an old friend of his, Chattanooga shortstop Rudy Hulswitt. While catching up with Hulswitt, Joss fainted and he was later returned to his doctor in Toledo. Now, eleven days later, baseball players and fans awoke to the news that Joss had died from tubercular meningitis, only two days after his 31st birthday.

Joss’ funeral was held on April 17th in Toledo. The funeral fell in the midst of a three game series in Detroit against the Tigers. Originally, American League president Ban Johnson ordered the Naps to play their scheduled game but after Cleveland captain George Stovall threaten to strike if Johnson didn’t postpone the game, the president relented and postponed the game. Around 11 o’clock, all twenty-five members of the Naps as well as a handful of Tiger players, arrived in Toledo for the funeral of Adrian C. Joss.

The fact that members of the opposition arrived at his funeral showed how high Joss’ character was perceived around the league. After receiving the news he passed away, Stovall said, “No better man lived than Addie.” Added Napoleon Lajole, “In Joss’s death, baseball loses one of the best pitchers and men that has ever been identified with the game.”

Shortly after the funeral, members of the Cleveland club decided to organize a benefit game for Joss’ widow, Lillian, and their two children. Players and coaches off the Naps began recruiting players off the other seven American League teams to form the opposition team that would play the Naps, July 24th in Cleveland. Jimmy McAleer, manager of the Washington Senators, gladly volunteered to lead the all-star team on the field as the skipper. He said of Joss, ““The memory of Addie Joss is sacred to every one with whom he ever came in contact. The man never wore a uniform who was a greater credit to the sport than he.”

15,270 fans stuffed inside Cleveland’s League Park to watch one of the greatest ensembles of talent ever to play on the same baseball field. One of those spectators was eighteen-year old George Sisler, who had traveled to Cleveland to visit his uncle and take in his first major league baseball game. Four years later, Sisler would make the St. Louis Browns and begin a career that would eventually land him in the Hall of Fame. He said of the game: “When I saw those great players, the first big leaguers I ever had seen, I made up my mind I was going to be a big league player and, I might confess, I wanted to be on the Cleveland team.”

The talent on the all-star club was amazing and that was due to Joss’ popularity around the league. When asked if he would attend the contest by his Washington manager McAleer, star pitcher Walter Johnson replied, “I’ll do anything they want for Addie Joss’ family.” That sentiment was echoed across the league. Here is what McAleer penciled in for one of the easiest starting lineup he ever wrote:

AMERICAN LEAGUE ALL-STARS
1. CF Tris Speaker, Boston Red Sox (1911 stats: .370 AVG, 8 HR, 70 RBI. HoF Class of 1937 )
2, 2B Eddie Collins, Philadelphia Athletics (.365, 3, 73. HoF Class of 1939 )
3. RF Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers (.420, 8, 127. HoF Class of 1936 )
4. 3B Frank “Home Run” Baker, Philadelphia Athletics (.334, 11, 115. HoF Class of 1955 )
5. LF Sam Crawford, Detroit Tigers (.378, 7, 115. HoF Class of 1957 )
6. 1B Hal Chase, New York Yankees (.315, 3, 62)
7. SS Bobby Wallace, St. Louis Browns (.232, 0, 31. HoF Class of 1953 )
8. C Gabby Street, Washington Senators (.222, 0, 14)
9. P “Smokey” Joe Wood, Boston Red Sox (23-17, 2.02)

RESERVES: 2B Germany Schaefer, Washington (.334, 0, 45); C Paddy Livingston, Philadelphia (.239, 0, 8); CF Clyde Milan, Washington (.315, 3, 35); P Russ Ford, New York (22-11, 2.27); P Walter Johnson, Washington (25-13, 1.90. HoF Class of 1936 ).

The home team featured their share amount of talent as well. The great Lajole was in his 16th season and was hitting .365. Shoeless Joe Jackson was in his first full major league season and was on his way to hitting above .400 and pitcher Vean Gregg was on his way to having an MVP type season (23-7, 1.80 ERA). Here would be the starting lineup player-coach Stovall would fill out of the contest:

CLEVELAND NAPS
1. LF Jack Graney, (.269, 1, 45)
2. SS Ivy Olson, (.261, 1, 50)
3. RF “Shoeless” Joe Jackson, (.408, 7, 83)
4. 1B George Stovall, (.271, 0, 79)
5. CF Joe Birmingham, (.304, 2, 51)
6. 2B Neal Ball, (.296, 3, 45)
7. 3B Terry Turner, (.252, 0, 28)
8. C Syd Smith, (.299, 1, 21)
9. P Cy Young, (3-4, 3.88. HoF Class of 1937 )

KEY RESERVES: INF Nap Lajole, (.365, 2, 66. HoF Class of 1937 ); UTIL Ted Easterly, (.324, 1, 37); P Vern Gregg, (23-7, 1.80); P Gene Krapp, (13-9, 3.41).

No expenses were required for this game and all profit would be delivered to Joss’ family after the contest was over. All participants, workers, and grounds crew members volunteered their services. The owners of the Cleveland club leased out League Park for the day free of cost. One reporter stated that, “…all the varied interests of organized baseball united in the noble purpose of giving such assistance as lay in their power to the bereaved family of a man who was universally beloved.”

The game took one hour and thirty-two minutes to complete and when it was complete, the all-star club walked away with a 5-3 victory. Hal Chase went 3-for-3 and Ty Cobb, who wore a Cleveland uniform when his Detroit Tiger jersey got lost on the way to the park, drove in a pair of runs for the AL team. Ivy Olson led the Naps, going 2-for-4 and scoring a run. And in all, close to $13,000 was raised for Joss’ family.

After the game, Cleveland secretary E.S. Barnard, issued this statement:

“It seemed as if every player in the league were anxious to show how much he loved Joss by doing something to help in making the day a success. If all the volunteers who offered their services for the Joss day could have been accepted we would have had enough players to furnish several teams. It merely went to show how universally Addie was esteemed by his fellow players.

”To every one who took part in Addie Joss day, whether in the spectacular role of player or the more humble province of mere spectator, must come the satisfaction of knowing that he has done his part however obscure in bringing about the day when baseball shall not be selfish nor grasping in any sense, but kind and generous and beneficent as becomes the favorite pastime of the most generous people in the world.”

Joss is laid to rest at the Woodlawn Cemetery in Toledo. In 1978, the Baseball Hall of Fame waived the 10-year service rule and elected Joss into the Hall. It is the only time that the rule has been waived.