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Who Won the AL Batting Title?
The American League chase for the 1910 batting champion makes quite a story. `On the final day of the season, Ty Cobb was leading the league with a .383 average, 7 points ahead of Nap Lajoie’s .376. Both teams were finishing the season with a doubleheader. Since the pennant had already been clinched by the A’s, Cobb of the Tigers decided he would sit out the games and protect his lead. The Cleveland Naps were playing the lowly Browns. Having slashed a double on his first at bat, Lajoie had a glimmer of hope. When he came to the plate for his second at bat, he noticed that Brown’s third baseman was playing off the line and on the edge of the outfield grass. Nap laid down a bunt and easily beat the throw to first for his second hit. This strange defensive positioning occurred the next six times he came to bat, and Nap beat out six more bunts, ending up going 7 for 8, just enough to beat out Cobb .3849 to .3841. It was obvious that it was premeditated by the Brown’s manager, Jack O’Connor, who hated Ty Cobb. The players went along with the scheme as they did not care for Cobb either. American League President Ban Johnson ruled it a fraud and declared Cobb the batting champ. One of the bunts was changed to an error, making the final averages .3841 Cobb to .3833 Lajoie. Both O’Conner and his assistant manager were banned from baseball. Seventy-one years later, 1981, a reporter for Sporting News discovered that a 2 for 4 hit game early in the season by Cobb was counted twice, thereby lowering his BA to .382 compared to Nap’s .383, but it was too late as Cobb had been officially ruled the 1910 batting champion which kept his batting title streak intact.