A year without Joy: part one

 I wrote a crazy long post about the 1907 Honolulu League season which I feel compelled to break up; this is the first part of three. 
Part one 

Part two
Part three

The Honolulu Athletic Club Reds had utterly dominated the Honolulu Baseball League in 1906. They won the first half of the season with a record of 7-1, and the second half with a record of 7-3. Their success was fueled by pitcher Barney Joy, who was the league's best pitcher and best batter that year by a mile. At the plate, he led the league in batting average (.438 - 63 points higher than anyone else), in hits (32), doubles (5), and triples (7). On the mound, he led the league in wins and winning percentage with a 13-4 record, strikeouts with 159, and runs allowed per nine innings with 3.11 - the pitcher's triple crown. 

He was a wonder.

 But in 1907 Joy signed to pitch for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League. The Seals gained a starter, but the Honolulu Athletic Club lost its star. (It could have been worse; the Seals were also going to sign En Sue, star third baseman for the Honolulu Athletic Club and star sprinter for the Chinese Athletic Club, but ended up passing on him when they decided they had too many unexperienced players on their roster.) 

Honolulu Advertiser, 1907-2-17, p.13

San Francisco Call and Post, 1906-10-19, p.6

With Joy gone, the H.A.C. changed its name to the St. Louis College Alumni team, as a number of its players had gone to St. Louis School, a Roman Catholic prep school in Honolulu founded in 1846 that still exists today. (Alumni notable in sports include recent major leaguers Benny Agbayani, Chad Santos, Brandon League, Rico Garcia, Jordan Yamamoto, Ka'ai Tom, and star quarterback Tua Tagovailoa.)

The H.A.C. had lost its star and changed its name, but around the league even greater changes were taking place. The 1906 league had been a five-team affair, with the H.A.C. Reds, the Punahou Colts, the Maile Ilima Zebras, the Oahus, and the Kamehamehas. 

The Oahus, who had finished second overall in 1906 with a record of 10-7, sold their franchise to the Diamond Head Athletic Club for $500. The Diamond Head Athletic Club was described by the Honolulu Advertiser as "one of the largest purely athletic associations in the city." It was best known for its soccer, football, track and swimming, but its baseball team had won the championship of the Winter League in 1906. (The Winter League was only for players who had not played in the Honolulu League; its goal was to give younger/more inexperienced players a chance to play.)

 The Diamond Head team seemed to have a fair chance at glory - and profit - in the Honolulu League.

 The Advertiser reported on January 25 that:     

    "It was stated that figuring on last season's gate receipts the Diamond Heads might safely count on $350 a year as their share of the season's profits. The expenses of running a team for the season will be about $200, which will leave a net profit of $150. The franchise has six years to run, so that investment looks, at this distance, to be a good one." 

Notice the low expense figure for running a team. In the same article, the Chairman of the Diamond Head Athletic Club exhorted his club to "do all they could to keep the game clean from the taint of professionalism." No pesky player payroll needed in the Honolulu League.

On April 12 the Honolulu League decided to buy back Maile Ilima's franchise for $500 so they could have a four team league. There had been rumors of replacing Maile Ilima with either the Honolulu Rapid Transit Co.'s team, the Ding Dings, or the Tenth Infantry team, but nothing came of it. After three months of wrangling, from January to April, the league line-up was finally decided: St. Louis, Punahou, Kamehameha, and Diamond Head. 

John Wise: manager of Kamehameha, Hawaiian politician, and member of the unsuccessful 1895 armed uprising against the blatantly illegitimate Republic of Hawaii. Advertiser, 1907-5-19, p.13

St. Louis, Punahou, and Kamehameha were all prep-school alumni teams. St. Louis was founded in 1846 (see above), Punahou was founded in 1841, and Kamehameha was founded in 1887. All still exist today. (Kolten Wong, former St. Louis Cardinal second baseman, went to Kamehameha.) 

The alumni teams were not exclusively for alumni, but their cores were made of alumni. As an athletic club, Diamond Head was the odd man out.

The schedule was drawn up by mid-April. Double-headers would be played every Saturday from May 11 to August 17, for an eighteen-game season. Bert Bowers would umpire all the games, C.L. Cutting would keep score, and the league president would miss all of it. 

Advertiser, 1907-5-26, p.13

The league president was Daniel Paul Rice Isenberg, known as Paul Jr., the son of a German businessman who had owned sugarcane plantations in Hawaii. Paul Isenberg attempted to resign at the league meeting in early March because he would be on a trip to Europe for several months of the season, but Charlie Falk, St. Louis manager, proposed a resolution keeping him as president, and it was passed. 

Why, I cannot hope to fathom. 

Paul Jr. was a big dude. Hawaiian Star, 1907-3-07, p.6

Isenberg did indeed a leave for Europe April 23, "for a visit of several months", and the season started without him on May 11. The teams would be playing for the Senior League cup, "a handsome trophy presented to the Honolulu Baseball League by E.O. Hall & Son."

Honolulu Advertiser, 1907-5-11, p.6

The Honolulu Advertiser wrote on May 11:

    "The lemmo man lies in waiting in the grandstand's graceful shade, the fat policemen are guarding the gentlemen in the press box, the peanuts are crisp and salty.

    "All is ready.

    "Play ball!"

(Lemmo was a species of lemonade, conceived of and sold by G.A.E. Miller, a Honolulu entrepreneur/street-preacher.)

Opening day went well. "The band was there, the girls were there, in fact everybody seemed to be there." In the first game, St. Louis beat Kamehameha 7-1 as Paul Burns, St. Louis' replacement for Barney Joy, threw a 1-hitter and didn't walk a single batter. (Dick Reuter, Burns' mound opponent, hit a single in the third for the only hit. ) Burns was just a rookie, but had good speed and control.

The Punahous beat the Diamond Heads 5-1 in the second game, looking like a championship team. Five-ninths of their line-up had one of two last names.

There were five Deshas who played baseball for Punahou at one time or another: Eddie, Dave, Jack, George, and William. Eddie, Dave, George, and William were all brothers, and I'm pretty sure Jack was their cousin. Punahou had Eddie, Dave, and Jack in their 1907 opening day lineup. (George, who had hit .307 for Punahou the last year, played in Hilo in 1907. W. Desha would play two games for Punahou later in the year.) The Deshas were speedsters: pitcher-third baseman Eddie Desha stole ten bases in 1906 and 12 in 1907, shortstop Jack Desha stole 16 bases in 1906 and 11 in 1907 (while hitting below .160 both years), and George had stolen 14 bases in 1906. There were a lot of stolen bases in the Honolulu League, but stealing more than 10 in a season was still very good.

Eddie was the controversial Desha, at least in May 1907. After the first game, Diamond Head manager Eddie Fernandez submitted a protest, complaining that Desha had violated the rule against players signing contracts with two teams. There was no doubt that Desha had signed contracts with both Diamond Head and Punahou before the season; the trouble was figuring out when he had signed with Diamond Head.

The rule banning players signing with two different teams was only passed on April 17, 1907. If Desha had signed his contract with Diamond Head before April 17, signing with Punahou after changing his mind would be fine (it was reasoned.)  It would have been easy to figure out when Desha signed the contract - except that the Diamond Head contract had no date on it. Desha claimed he signed with Diamond Head before April 17, before he changed his mind and signed with Punahou - Eddie Fernandez claimed Desha signed after. The question was which one was telling the truth. 

The league's response to the protest was... silence. A majority of the trustees were abroad, and a decision could not be made. As things turned out, they would wait a long time for a response from the league.

Did the Honolulu League higher-ups have their act together or what? 

But back to the players...There were five Williamses in the Honolulu League: Alfred, Johnnie, Jimmy, Harry, and William. Alfred, Johnnie, and Jimmy were brothers - Harry and William were not related to them as far as I know. None of them hit a lick in 1907.

Punahou had Alfred as their shortstop, and Johnnie as a pitcher/infielder; they hit .143 and .136 respectively. Johnnie would later become the first Hawaiian to reach the majors, losing two games for the Detroit Tigers in 1914, but on opening day 1907 he was just a seventeen-year-old. He still managed to three-hit the Diamond Heads, and collect three hits himself. (He would only get five more hits the rest of the season, in 13 games.) 

Meanwhile, St. Louis had Jimmy Williams at second base (.205), William Williams in rightfield for three games (.182), and Diamond Head had Harry Williams in left field for one game. (He went 0-for-4.) In 174 at-bats, the Williamses combined for zero extra base hits. 

To be fair, the Honolulu League was a serious pitcher's league in 1907: the league as a whole batted .204 with a slugging percentage of .257. But it was definitely not a good year for Williamses. 

St. Louis got off to a hot start, winning their first three games. On May 18, they beat Punahou 6-4, and on May 25 they beat Diamond Head 7-2. Burns pitched a gem against Diamond Head, striking out 10 and allowing three hits. One spectator said the Diamond Heads were "worse than the Mailes." (The Mailes had lost all their twelve games in 1906.) Harsh words, yes, but not undeserved. The Diamond Heads were 0-3, and had collected a total of 13 hits and five runs. Bill Chillingworth had pitched all of their games, and was adequate, but certainly no match for St. Louis. 

En Sue, St. Louis' "doughty little Chinese" third baseman, led off the game with the first home run of the season, entitling him to the $5 suit from E.O. Hall & Son given to home run hitters. 

Pat Gleason, captain and first baseman for St. Louis. Advertiser, 1907-5-26, p.13.

The Punahou Colts, meanwhile, were 2-1, and acting as if they were trying to corner the market on pitchers. Not only did they have Johnnie Williams and Eddie Desha, who had a 6-6 record in 1906; on May 18 they added Bill Hampton, who the previous season, pitching for Oahu, had won eight games, lost seven, allowed a scanty 3.24 runs per nine innings (just .13 behind Barney Joy), walked just 23 batters in 128 innings, and led the league in shutouts with three. He was "the headiest pitcher in Hawaii," according to the Advertiser, June 3. Of the four pitchers who had pitched over 20 innings in 1906 and were still in the league, the Punahous now had three of them. (Dick Reuter was the only exception.)

The Honolulu Advertiser thought this was hardly cricket. "It is to be hoped that [Punahou's] efforts to secure a leadpipe cinch on the pennant will be frustrated. This sort of thing is not looked on with favor by fair-minded adherents of the game." (1907-5-18, p.5) Whether the Advertiser's prayers were answered shall be seen.

Advertiser, 1907-5-25, p.6 (In his pitching debut of the season, Hampton would allow eight runs, but the Punahous scored nine so he got the win. 

Besides giving the Punahous three solid pitchers while they only played once a week, the signing of Bill Hampton also helped wreck a league in Wailuku. Before the Punahous grabbed him, Hampton had been playing infield for the Kahuluis of the league in Wailuku, Maui. Hampton's departure to Honolulu, along with an injury to the Kahuluis' pitcher, the frustration of playing their hearts out but not receiving any pay for it, and the players having to pay $15 to get to and from Wailuku, was a factor in the Kahuluis withdrawing from the league. And after they withdrew, the league fell apart. 

But look at it on the bright side: "The churchgoers will hail the dissolution with especial delight, for there will be no more hideous noises heard at Wells' Park between the hours of two and four in the afternoon on Sunday." And the churchgoers were very serious about preserving the silence of the Sabbath.

For the game of April 28, in which Hampton played at second and the Kahuluis trounced the Waikapus 14-2, there was a large crowd but no cheering. There had been "a letter addressed to the association asking that all noise be stopped." The crowd was dutiful, but the hush sounded more like a funeral than a ball game. 

St. Louis finally lost Thursday, May 30, in spectacular fashion, to the Kamehamehas. The Saints scored three runs in the first inning and four in the third to take a sudden 7-0 lead. But then they fell apart. "The Saints began to make errors and they were wonders at it after they started." The Kams scored four in the fourth, and in the fifth inning Andy Bushnell came in from left field to replace Paul Burns. Joe Fernandez went out in left, and immediately "misjudged a fly which [Nani] Lemon stretched into a three-bagger and which also brought [H.] Sheldon home." En Sue made a poor throw on a grounder, scoring Lemon, and suddenly the Kams were just down by one. 

The Kams finally tied the game at seven-all in the seventh on two singles, a stolen base, and a groundout. Then in the ninth H. Sheldon made second on an error by Lo On, St. Louis right fielder, got to third on a fly to right, and scored on a passed ball by George Bruns. 

St. Louis was not invincible after all. 

Pat Gleason, St. Louis captain, and Charlie Falk, St. Louis manager. Advertiser, 1907-6-02, p.13

Bill Vannatta, captain and second baseman of Kamehameha, wearing his famous black hat. 

Advertiser, 1907-6-02, p.13

The same day, Punahou beat Diamond Head 4-3, as Johnnie Williams allowed just four hits. St. Louis and Punahou were now tied at 3-1 in the standings.