Ed Delahanty - Major League Career

Major League Career

Ed Delahanty began his career on May 22, 1888, with the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League, playing 74 games that season with an uncharacteristically low .228 average, 1 HR, and 31 RBIs. The next year, in 56 games, he raised his average to .293. In 1890 he jumped to the Players' League, but returned to the Phillies the next year when that league folded. After a healthy .306, 6 HR, 91 RBI season in 1892, Delahanty blossomed in 1893 with .368, 19 HRs and 146 RBIs, narrowly missing the Triple Crown (teammates Billy Hamilton and Sam Thompson led the league in batting with .380 and .370 respectively).

Between 1894 and 1896 Delahanty compiled astonishing batting marks: .407, 4 HR, 131 RBI; .404, 11 HR, 106 RBI; .397, 13 HR, 126 RBI. In 1894 despite his high average of .407, the batting title went to Hugh Duffy with a major league record-setting .440. The 1894 Phillies outfield featuring Delahanty had a big season, with all four players averaging over .400. That season, Delahanty hit .407, Sam Thompson batted .407, Billy Hamilton .404 and spare outfielder Tuck Turner finished second to Hugh Duffy in hitting at .416. Delahanty won his first batting title in 1899 with a .410 batting average, adding nine homers and 137 RBIs and becoming the first player in major league history to hit .400 three times.

On July 13, 1896, Delahanty hit four home runs in a game, being only the second player to do so (Bobby Lowe was the first in 1894), the only player ever to do so with four inside-the-park homers, and the first one to do so in a losing effort. (The Phillies lost the game, 9–8.) Bob Horner, in 1986, is the only other MLB player to have hit four home runs in a losing effort. Later, in 1899, Delahanty hit four doubles in the same game. He remains the only man with a four-homer game to his credit to also have a game in which he hit four doubles. The same year Delahanty collected hits in 10 consecutive at bats, and in the 1890 and '94 seasons, he tallied six-hit games. After switching to the new American League in 1902, playing for the Washington Senators, Delahanty won his second batting title with a .376 mark. To date, he is the only man to win a batting title in both major leagues.

In his 16 seasons with Philadelphia, Cleveland and Washington, Delahanty batted .346, with 101 HRs and 1464 RBIs, 522 doubles, 185 triples and 455 stolen bases. He also led the league in slugging average and runs batted in three times each, and batted over .400 three times. In the years since, Rogers Hornsby has been the only 3-time .400-hitter in the National League (1922, 1924–25). His lifetime batting average of .346 ranks fifth all-time behind Ty Cobb (.366), Rogers Hornsby (.359), Joe Jackson (.356). and Lefty O'Doul (.349).

While with the Phillies, Delahanty played under manager Harry Wright, the man who assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, the 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. Wright managed the Phillies with Delahanty for four seasons, from 1890 to 1893, with the two and their fine supporting cast leading the Phils to "first division" finishes during those years, though the team never won a pennant.