Before the 1910 Major League Baseball season

1910 Major League Baseball season

-Statistical leaders:-External links:*...

, Hugh Chalmers of the Chalmers Automobile Company announced a promotion in which a Chalmers Model 30

Chalmers Automobile

Chalmers Motor Car Company was a United States based automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. It was named after Hugh Chalmers of the National Cash Register Company. The brand is currently owned by Chrysler.-History:...

 automobile

Automobile

An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...

 would be given to the batting champion

Batting average

Batting average is a statistic in both cricket and baseball that measures the performance of cricket batsmen and baseball hitters. The two statistics are related in that baseball averages are directly descended from the concept of cricket averages.- Cricket :...

s for Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball

Major League Baseball is the highest level of professional baseball in the United States and Canada, consisting of teams that play in the National League and the American League...

's American

American League

The American League of Professional Baseball Clubs, or simply the American League , is one of two leagues that make up Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada. It developed from the Western League, a minor league based in the Great Lakes states, which eventually aspired to major...

 and National League

National League

The National League of Professional Baseball Clubs, known simply as the National League , is the older of two leagues constituting Major League Baseball, and the world's oldest extant professional team sports league. Founded on February 2, 1876, to replace the National Association of Professional...

s.

Controversy

At the start of the final day of the 1910

1910 in baseball

-Champions:*World Series: Philadelphia Athletics over Chicago Cubs -Awards and honors:*Chalmers Award**Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers, OF**Nap Lajoie, Cleveland Naps-MLB statistical leaders:-American League final standings:-National League final standings:...

 season, Ty Cobb

Ty Cobb

Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb , nicknamed "The Georgia Peach," was an American Major League Baseball outfielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia...

 of the Detroit Tigers

Detroit Tigers

The Detroit Tigers are a Major League Baseball team located in Detroit, Michigan. One of the American League's eight charter franchises, the club was founded in Detroit in as part of the Western League. The Tigers have won four World Series championships and have won the American League pennant...

 held a slim lead in the race for the American League batting title, just a few percentage

Percentage

In mathematics, a percentage is a way of expressing a number as a fraction of 100 . It is often denoted using the percent sign, “%”, or the abbreviation “pct”. For example, 45% is equal to 45/100, or 0.45.Percentages are used to express how large/small one quantity is, relative to another quantity...

 points ahead of the Cleveland Indians

Cleveland Indians

The Cleveland Indians are a professional baseball team based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are in the Central Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Since , they have played in Progressive Field. The team's spring training facility is in Goodyear, Arizona...

' Nap Lajoie. While Cobb did not play in the Tigers' final two games of the season, Lajoie played in two successive games on the last day of the season for the Indians.

Because Cobb did not have a plate appearance

Plate appearance

In baseball statistics, a player is credited with a plate appearance each time he completes a turn batting. A player completes a turn batting when: He strikes out or is declared out before reaching first base; or He reaches first base safely or is awarded first base ; or He hits a fair ball which...

, his batting average did not change finishing with an average of .38507. However, Lajoie hit safely eight times in the Indians' doubleheader

Doubleheader (baseball)

A doubleheader is a set of two baseball games played between the same two teams on the same day in front of the same crowd. In addition, the term is often used unofficially to refer to a pair of games played by a team in a single day, but in front of different crowds and not in immediate...

 against the St. Louis Browns. With eight hits in eight at-bats, Lajoie finished the season with a .384 batting average (227 hits

Hit (baseball)

In baseball statistics, a hit , also called a base hit, is credited to a batter when the batter safely reaches first base after hitting the ball into fair territory, without the benefit of an error or a fielder's choice....

 in 591 at bats

At bat

In baseball, an at bat or time at bat is used to calculate certain statistics, including batting average, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. It is a more restricted definition of a plate appearance...

).

Aftermath

Browns' manager

Manager (baseball)

In baseball, the field manager is an individual who is responsible for matters of team strategy on the field and team leadership. Managers are typically assisted by between one and six assistant coaches, whose responsibilities are specialized...

 Jack O'Connor

Jack O'Connor (catcher)

John Joseph O'Connor , also known as Peach Pie, was a utilityman in Major League Baseball in the American Association, the National League, and the American League, primarily used as an outfielder. He began his career as a left fielder and catcher for the Cincinnati Red Stockings, and he soon moved...

 had ordered rookie

Rookie

Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of their sport or has little or no professional experience. The term also has the more general meaning of anyone new to a profession, training or activity Rookie is a term for a person who is in his or her first year of play of...

 third baseman

Third baseman

A third baseman, abbreviated 3B, is the player in baseball whose responsibility is to defend the area nearest to third base — the third of four bases a baserunner must touch in succession to score a run...

 Red Corriden

Red Corriden

John Michael "Red" Corriden was a player, coach, manager and scout in American Major League Baseball. A shortstop and third baseman in his playing days, Corriden appeared in 223 major league games with the St. Louis Browns , Detroit Tigers and Chicago Cubs , batting .205...

 to play on the outfield grass. This all but conceded a hit for any ball Lajoie bunted. Lajoie's final at-bat resulted in a wild throw to first base

First baseman

First base, or 1B, is the first of four stations on a baseball diamond which must be touched in succession by a baserunner in order to score a run for that player's team...

, which was scored as an error

Error (baseball)

In baseball statistics, an error is the act, in the judgment of the official scorer, of a fielder misplaying a ball in a manner that allows a batter or baserunner to reach one or more additional bases, when such an advance would have been prevented given ordinary effort by the fielder.The term ...

. After news broke of the scandal, a writer for the St. Louis Post

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch is the major city-wide newspaper in St. Louis, Missouri. Although written to serve Greater St. Louis, the Post-Dispatch is one of the largest newspapers in the Midwestern United States, and is available and read as far west as Kansas City, Missouri, as far south as...

claimed: "All St. Louis is up in arms over the deplorable spectacle, conceived in stupidity and executed in jealousy." The issue was brought to American League president Ban Johnson

Ban Johnson

Byron Bancroft "Ban" Johnson , was an American executive in professional baseball who served as the founder and first president of the American League ....

, who declared all batting averages official, and Cobb the champion (.385069 to .384095). The Chalmers people, however, awarded automobiles to both Cobb and Lajoie. Cobb ultimately won the Chalmers Award in 1911

1911 in baseball

-Champions:*World Series: Philadelphia Athletics over New York Giants -Awards and honors:*Chalmers Award**Ty Cobb, Detroit Tigers, OF**Wildfire Schulte, Chicago Cubs, OF-MLB statistical leaders:-American League final standings:...

 in his best year, hitting .420.

Modern revision

In 1978, Pete Palmer

Pete Palmer

Pete Palmer is a major contributor to the applied mathematical field referred to as sabermetrics. Along with the Bill James Baseball Abstracts, Palmer's book The Hidden Game of Baseball is often referred to as providing the foundation upon which the field of sabermetrics was built.Palmer began his...

 discovered a discrepancy in Cobb's career hit total, and the story was broken by The Sporting News

The Sporting News

Sporting News is an American-based sports magazine. It was established in 1886, and it became the dominant American publication covering baseball — so much so that it acquired the nickname "The Bible of Baseball"...

 in April 1981. Initially recorded at 4,191 (still the total on MLB.com), researchers say that a Detroit Tigers box score was counted twice in the season-ending calculations. The statisticians gave Cobb an extra 2-for-3. Not only did this credit Cobb with two non-existent hits, it also raised his 1910 batting average from .383 to .385. As Lajoie is credited with a .384 average for the 1910 season, the revised figure would have cost Cobb one of his 12 batting titles and reduced his career average to .366.

O'Connor and coach Harry Howell, who tried to bribe the official scorer to change the error to a hit, were banned from baseball for their role in the affair. The ensuing mathematical mess was described by one writer as follows: "It could be said that 1910 produced two bogus leading batting averages, and one questionable champion."