# 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 (and less expensive) players. The result was a swift and near-total collapse, a "first-to-worst" situation. The Athletics went from a 99–53 (.651) record and a pennant in 1914 to a record of 43–109 (.283) and 8th (last) 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.

### Season standings

vteAmerican League :
| Team | W | L | Pct. | GB | Home | Road |
| Boston Red Sox | 101 | 50 | .669 | — | 55‍–‍20 | 46‍–‍30 |
| Detroit Tigers | 100 | 54 | .649 | 2½ | 51‍–‍26 | 49‍–‍28 |
| Chicago White Sox | 93 | 61 | .604 | 9½ | 54‍–‍24 | 39‍–‍37 |
| Washington Senators | 85 | 68 | .556 | 17 | 50‍–‍29 | 35‍–‍39 |
| New York Yankees | 69 | 83 | .454 | 32½ | 37‍–‍43 | 32‍–‍40 |
| St. Louis Browns | 63 | 91 | .409 | 39½ | 35‍–‍38 | 28‍–‍53 |
| Cleveland Indians | 57 | 95 | .375 | 44½ | 27‍–‍50 | 30‍–‍45 |
| Philadelphia Athletics | 43 | 109 | .283 | 58½ | 19‍–‍53 | 24‍–‍56 |

### Record vs. opponents

1915 American League recordvte Sources: :
| Team | BOS | CWS | CLE | DET | NYY | PHA | SLB | WSH |
| Boston | — | 12–10 | 16–4 | 14–8 | 10–12 | 17–5–1 | 17–5–2 | 15–6–1 |
| Chicago | 10–12 | — | 16–6 | 7–15 | 15–7 | 19–3 | 18–4 | 8–14–1 |
| Cleveland | 4–16 | 6–16 | — | 5–17 | 9–13–1 | 15–7–1 | 12–10 | 6–16 |
| Detroit | 8–14 | 15–7 | 17–5 | — | 17–5 | 17–5 | 13–9–2 | 13–9 |
| New York | 12–10 | 7–15 | 13–9–1 | 5–17 | — | 11–9 | 12–10–1 | 9–13 |
| Philadelphia | 5–17–1 | 3–19 | 7–15–1 | 5–17 | 9–11 | — | 6–16 | 8–14 |
| St. Louis | 5–17–2 | 4–18 | 10–12 | 9–13–2 | 10–12–1 | 16–6 | — | 9–13 |
| Washington | 6–15–1 | 14–8–1 | 16–6 | 9–13 | 13–9 | 14–8 | 13–9 | — |

### Roster
## 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 | Jack Lapp | 112 | 312 | 85 | .272 | 2 | 31 |
| 1B | Stuffy McInnis | 119 | 456 | 143 | .314 | 0 | 49 |
| 2B | Nap Lajoie | 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 | Rube Oldring | 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 |
| Eddie Murphy | 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 |
| Shag Thompson | 17 | 33 | 11 | .333 | 0 | 2 |
| Socks Seibold | 10 | 26 | 3 | .115 | 0 | 2 |
| Sam Crane | 8 | 23 | 2 | .087 | 0 | 1 |
| Cy Perkins | 7 | 20 | 4 | .200 | 0 | 0 |
| Bruno Haas | 12 | 18 | 1 | .056 | 0 | 0 |
| Owen Conway | 4 | 15 | 1 | .067 | 0 | 0 |
| Buck Danner | 3 | 12 | 3 | .250 | 0 | 0 |
| Sam McConnell | 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 |
| Harry Davis | 5 | 3 | 1 | .333 | 0 | 4 |
| Fred Lear | 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 |
| Weldon Wyckoff | 43 | 276.0 | 10 | 22 | 3.52 | 157 |
| Joe Bush | 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 |
| Cap Crowell | 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 |
| Tink Turner | 1 | 2.0 | 0 | 1 | 22.50 | 0 |
| Bob Cone | 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 |
| Rube Bressler | 32 | 178.1 | 4 | 17 | 5.20 | 69 |
| Tom Knowlson | 18 | 100.2 | 4 | 6 | 3.49 | 24 |
| Herb Pennock | 11 | 44.0 | 3 | 6 | 5.32 | 24 |
| Dana Fillingim | 8 | 39.1 | 0 | 5 | 3.43 | 17 |
| Chick Davies | 5 | 23.1 | 1 | 3 | 8.87 | 8 |
| Harry Eccles | 5 | 21.0 | 0 | 1 | 4.71 | 13 |
| Bill Morrisette | 4 | 20.0 | 2 | 0 | 1.35 | 11 |
| Walter Ancker | 4 | 17.2 | 0 | 0 | 3.57 | 4 |
| Joe Sherman | 2 | 15.0 | 1 | 0 | 2.40 | 5 |
| Bruno Haas | 6 | 14.1 | 0 | 1 | 11.93 | 7 |
| Carl Ray | 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 |
| Bud Davis | 17 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 3.38 | 12 |
| Jack Harper | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3.12 | 3 |
| Squiz Pillion | 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 (103)
Bullet Joe Bush
* #3 in AL in wild pitches (10)
Rube Oldring
* #2 in AL in home runs (6)
Weldon Wyckoff
* AL leader in losses (22)
* AL leader in earned runs allowed (108)
* AL leader in walks allowed (165)
* AL leader in wild pitches (14)
* #3 in AL in strikeouts (157)