Zalusky: Cobb's attack on fan sparked baseball's first walkout

Decades before Major League Baseball players held their first strike, the Detroit Tigers staged a walkout.

They weren't protesting wages or pensions or even meal money.

The 18 Detroit Tigers who refused to suit up May 18, 1912 at Philadelphia's Shibe Park acted in support of a teammate suspended for entering the stands during a game and pummeling a heckling fan. Beyond that, they were declaring their right to protection from abusive fans.

On May 15, in the fourth inning of a contest with the New York Highlanders at the Hilltop grounds, as the papers reported using the lavish language of the day, Ty Cobb, the Georgia Peach, "resenting an opprobrious epithet directed at him by a spectator ... leaped into the grandstand and administered a first class beating to the man who had made the remark."

Cobb was immediately ejected, but the Tigers still prevailed 8-4.

The victim, Claude Lucker, denied saying anything offensive, but admitted he joined in booing the center fielder.

He said it turned ugly when one fan called Cobb "dopey." Cobb replied that he was dopey "because I was out with a member of your family last night" and followed the remark with "vile talk."

A man near Lucker hurled a racial slur at Cobb, who, shortly after, vaulted over the fence and went after Lucker, slugging him in the forehead, knocking him down, jumping him, spiking him, and booting him behind his ear.

Lucker was disabled, having lost one hand and most of the other the year before while working as a pressman.

When someone shouted that Lucker had no hands, Cobb reportedly responded, "I wouldn't care if he had no feet."

Cobb apologized when he arrived with the team in Philadelphia the next day. He said the victim was the aggressor and had "annoyed" him on other occasions.

"Yesterday," he told reporters, "I tried to avoid the man, but when his language became too much for me to stand I lost my head."

Cobb's outburst earned him an indefinite suspension from American League President Ban Johnson.

Cobb objected to the lack of due process, saying, "I should at least have had an opportunity to state my case."

Cobb may have had differences with his fellow Tigers in the past, but his teammates rallied around their star player, protesting his suspension.

The players sent Johnson a telegram, stating they refused to play another game unless Cobb was reinstated.

They said, "He was fully justified in his action, as no one could stand such personal abuse from anyone." They added, "If players cannot have protection, we must protect ourselves."

And thus began what the press called "the first real baseball strike in the history of the organized game."

Tigers manager Hughie Jennings, fearing the club would be fined $5,000 for a forfeit, fielded a replacement team against the Athletics on May 18 for the second game of the series. The lineup included 41-year-old coach Joe Sugden, who had not played a major league game since 1905. He had a hit in four at-bats.

The replacement Tigers also included several players from the local St. Joseph's College.

The result was dubbed a "farce," a 24-2 drubbing at the hands of a strong Athletics team led by Eddie Collins and Home Run Baker.

The next matchup with the Athletics was postponed, and Tigers owner Frank Navin met with his players.

Navin convinced the players to return to the diamond without Cobb, promising he would work to secure Cobb's return, do all he could to have the American League give better protection from unsportsmanlike spectators, and pay the players' fines, which would eventually amount to $100 per player.

The players, sans Cobb, beat Washington and Walter Johnson 2-0 on May 21.

Cobb was reinstated and returned to the lineup May 26 against the White Sox, having been fined $50.

Johnson put the blame for the incident on Cobb's shoulders, saying he did not appeal to the umpire but "took the law into his own hands."

Still, Johnson said the league had arranged to increase "police powers" at each American League park.

The dust had settled, but baseball's prophet, Hugh Fullerton, the man who ferreted out the Black Sox scandal, predicted, "There will be a strike of players some day that will cripple organized baseball."