1915 Philadelphia Athletics season

The 1915 Philadelphia Athletics season was a season in American baseball. After the team won the American League pennant in 1914, the team dropped all the way to last place with a record of 43 wins and 109 losses.

Offseason

December 8, 1914: Eddie Collins was purchased from the Athletics by the Chicago White Sox.
January 1915, Nap Lajoie was purchased by the Athletics from the Cleveland Indians.

Regular season

The Federal League had been formed to begin play in 1914. As the A.L. had done 13 years before, the new league raided existing A.L. and N.L. teams for players. Athletics owner Connie Mack refused to match the offers of the F.L. teams, preferring to let the "prima donnas" go and rebuild with younger players. The result was a swift and near-total collapse, a "first-to-worst" situation. The Athletics went from a 99–53 record and a pennant in 1914 to a record of 43–109 and 8th place in 1915. At the time, it was the third-worst winning percentage in American League history. The infield of Whitey Witt, Charlie Pick and Nap Lajoie was derisively known as the "$10 Infield".

Season highlights

June 23, 1915: Athletics pitcher Bruno Haas set an American League record by walking 16 Yankees in one game.

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C		112	312	85	.272	2	31
1B		119	456	143	.314	0	49
2B		129	490	137	.280	1	61
SS	Larry Kopf	118	386	87	.225	1	33
3B	Wally Schang	116	359	89	.248	1	44
OF		107	408	101	.248	6	42
OF	Amos Strunk	132	485	144	.297	1	45
OF	Jimmy Walsh	117	417	86	.206	1	20

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
	68	260	60	.231	0	17
Lew Malone	76	201	41	.204	1	17
Jack Barry	54	194	43	.222	0	15
Wickey McAvoy	68	184	35	.190	0	6
Chick Davies	57	135	24	.178	0	11
Thomas Healy	23	77	17	.221	0	5
Harry Damrau	16	56	11	.196	0	3
Bill Bankston	11	36	5	.139	1	2
	17	33	11	.333	0	2
	10	26	3	.115	0	2
	8	23	2	.087	0	1
Cy Perkins	7	20	4	.200	0	0
	12	18	1	.056	0	0
Owen Conway	4	15	1	.067	0	0
Buck Danner	3	12	3	.250	0	0
	6	11	2	.182	0	0
Henry Bostick	2	7	0	.000	0	2
Edwards	2	5	0	.000	0	0
Bill Haeffner	3	4	1	.250	0	0
Art Corcoran	1	4	0	.000	0	0
	5	3	1	.333	0	4
	2	2	0	.000	0	0
Ira Thomas	1	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	43	276.0	10	22	3.52	157
	25	145.2	5	15	4.14	89
Tom Sheehan	15	102.0	4	9	4.15	22
Bob Shawkey	17	100.0	6	6	4.05	56
	10	54.1	2	6	5.47	15
Jack Nabors	10	54.0	0	5	5.50	18
Jack Richardson	3	24.0	0	1	2.63	11
Harry Weaver	2	18.0	0	2	3.00	1
Elmer Myers	1	9.0	0	0	0.00	12
Bill Meehan	1	4.0	0	1	22.50	0
	1	2.0	0	1	22.50	0
	1	0.2	0	0	40.50	0

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
	32	178.1	4	17	5.20	69
	18	100.2	4	6	3.49	24
Herb Pennock	11	44.0	3	6	5.32	24
	8	39.1	0	5	3.43	17
Chick Davies	5	23.1	1	3	8.87	8
	5	21.0	0	1	4.71	13
	4	20.0	2	0	1.35	11
	4	17.2	0	0	3.57	4
Joe Sherman	2	15.0	1	0	2.40	5
	6	14.1	0	1	11.93	7
	2	7.1	0	1	4.91	6

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
	17	0	1	0	3.38	12
	3	0	0	0	3.12	3
	2	0	0	0	6.75	0
Bob Pepper	1	0	0	0	1.80	0

Awards and honors

League top five finishers

Rube Bressler

#2 in AL in earned runs allowed

Bullet Joe Bush

#3 in AL in wild pitches

Rube Oldring

#2 in AL in home runs

Weldon Wyckoff

AL leader in losses
AL leader in earned runs allowed
AL leader in walks allowed
AL leader in wild pitches
#3 in AL in strikeouts