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Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie
Second Base
Born: September 5, 1874(1874-09-05)
Died: February 7, 1959 (aged 84)
Batted: Right	Threw: Right
MLB debut
August 12, 1896 for the Philadelphia Phillies
Final game
August 26, 1916 for the Philadelphia Athletics
Career statistics
Batting average	.338
Hits	3242
Runs scored	1504
Teams
As Player Philadelphia Phillies (1896-1900) Philadelphia Athletics (1901-1902;1915-1916) Cleveland Naps (1902-1914) As Manager Cleveland Naps (1905-1909)
Career highlights and awards
1901 American League Triple Crown
Member of the National
Baseball Hall of Fame
Elected	1937
Vote	83.58% (second ballot)

Napoléon "Nap" Lajoie [la-ZHWAH] (September 5, 1874 – February 7, 1959), also known as Larry Lajoie, was an American professional athlete of French Canadian descent from Woonsocket, Rhode Island. In his career as a second baseman in Major League Baseball, he was considered one of the greatest players of the fledgling American League in the early 20th century and the most serious of Ty Cobb's challengers.

Lajoie started his career in the National League with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1896. In 1901, he jumped to the crosstown Philadelphia Athletics, owned by Connie Mack. Lajoie's batting average that year was .426, still a league record. The same year Lajoie became the second major leaguer to be intentionally walked with the bases loaded after Abner Dalrymple in 1881.

The next year the Phillies obtained an injunction, effective only in Pennsylvania, barring Lajoie from playing baseball for any team other than the Phillies. The American League responded by transferring Lajoie's contract to the Cleveland Indians, then known as the Broncos and subsequently renamed the "Naps" in Lajoie's honor for several seasons before adopting their current name in 1915 when Lajoie left the team. For the remainder of 1902 and most of 1903, Lajoie and teammate Elmer Flick traveled separately from the rest of the team, never setting foot in Pennsylvania so as to avoid a subpoena. The issue was finally resolved when the leagues made peace through the National Agreement in September 1903.

Lajoie won three and might have won a fourth if he had not contracted blood poisoning from an untreated spike injury in 1905. With Cobb's arrival in the majors in 1905, however, Lajoie faced real competition.

Main article: 1910 Chalmers Award

Their rivalry reached a peak in 1910, when the Chalmers Auto Company promised a car to the batting leader (and MVP) that year. Cobb took the final 2 games of the 1910 season off, confident that his average was high enough to win the AL title—unless Lajoie had a near-perfect final day.

Lajoie, a far more popular player than Cobb, was allowed by the opponent St. Louis Browns to go 7-for-8 in a season-ending doubleheader. After a ‘sun-hindered’ fly went for a triple and another batted ball landed for a cleanly hit single, Lajoie had five subsequent 'hits'—bunt singles dropped in front of the (manager-ordered) deep-fielding third baseman. With one more hit, Lajoie would pass Cobb and win the title outright.

On his 8th at-bat that day, Lajoie’s bunt safety was ruled an error. The subsequent chicanery involved the Browns’ manager and a coach offering to change the decision of the official scorer, who was a woman, to whom they offered to buy a new wardrobe. Considering the uproar that followed, the Browns fired their manager and coach.

Nap Lajoie on a 1911 American Tobacco Company baseball card.

As it turns out, Lajoie's average is not the only one tainted by controversy - Cobb's average might have been inflated by counting a single game twice in his statistics, as researchers discovered 70 years later. In the end, the Chalmers Auto Company avoided taking sides in the dispute by awarding cars to both Cobb and Lajoie.

Lajoie ended his career in 1915 and 1916 with a return to the Athletics, finishing with a lifetime .339 average. His career total of 3242 hits was the second best in major league history at the time, behind only Honus Wagner's total. Lajoie's 2521 hits in the AL was the league record until Cobb surpassed it in 1918.

Lajoie was among the second group of players elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1937, being inducted when the Hall opened in 1939. He died in Daytona Beach, Florida in 1959 at the age of 84.

In 1999, he ranked number 29 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.

• List of major league players with 2,000 hits
• List of Major League Baseball RBI Records
• List of Major League Baseball Hit Records
• List of Major League Baseball doubles records
• List of Major League Baseball players with 400 doubles
• List of Major League Baseball players with 100 triples
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 runs
• List of Major League Baseball players with 1000 RBI
• 3000 hit club
• Hitting for the cycle
• Triple Crown
• List of Major League Baseball RBI champions
• List of Major League Baseball batting champions
• List of Major League Baseball home run champions
• List of Major League Baseball runs scored champions
• List of Major League Baseball doubles champions
• Major League Baseball titles leaders

• Baseball Hall of Fame biography
• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference
• Nap Lajoie Memorial at Find A Grave