It’s been 103 years since Bruno Haas’ dubious record
Bruno Haas had the distinction — the dubious distinction in his case — of having put his name his name into baseball’s record books the first day he played. One hundred and three years have passed since he did it, and his name is still there.
Haas was a baseball and football star at Worcester Academy in Worcester, Mass. before graduating in 1915. He was also a classmate of Roy McGillicuddy, a son of Connie Mack, the manager and part-owner of the Philadelphia Athletics. Mack signed the youngster right off the campus and on June 23 sent him to the mound to pitch the second game of a doubleheader against the New York Yankees.
Haas went the distance of a 15-7 loss. He allowed 13 hits, all of which were singles, and threw three wild pitches. But his name went into the record books because he also issued 16 walks, a mark which has never been surpassed. Only eight of the Yankees’ runs were earned because his fielders contributed seven errors to the mess.
The A’s were in seventh place the day this occurred, but they were also the defending American League champions.
In fact, the A’s had been World Champions in 1910, 1911 and 1913. They had won the pennant again in 1914 but, shockingly, were swept by the underdog Boston Braves in the World Series.
They dynasty ended abruptly after that World Series defeat. Star second baseman Eddie Collins was sold to the Chicago The legendary Connie Mack managed pitcher Bruno Haas in his one major-league season with the Philadelphia Athletics.
White Sox for the staggering sum of $50,000. Third baseman Frank “Home Run” Baker sat out the 1915 season over a salary dispute. Mack released star pitchers Eddie Plank and Chief Bender rather than match offers they had received from the rival Federal League. Another pitcher, Bob Shawkey, was sold to the Yankees.
Mack never explained what allowed the team to fall apart after the 1914 campaign. People have suggested that he suspected his players intentionally dumped the Series against the Braves. If so, he might have been right, although no one has ever proven that a scandal occurred.
More likely, it was just an economic calculation.
The Phillies, whose stadium was only six blocks away from his own, were fielding a National League contender. The rival Federal League was attempting to lure established ballplayers into its fold by offering them increased salaries. Mack probably figured that he didn’t want to compete with the Phillies for fans and the Federal League for players and that the best path to riches would be to sell his players and pocket the money.
That meant starting all over again in 1915. The season resembled a yearlong tryout camp. The maximum roster size at the time was 18 players, but somehow 56 wore the Athletics uniform at various points during the season. One of them was Haas.
The A’s were riding a brief winning streak at the start of play on June 23. Two days earlier, a Monday, they had swept a doubleheader against the fourth-place Yankees. A rainout on Tuesday meant they had to play another doubleheader on Wednesday. The Yankees ended that winning streak when they won the first game, 3-2, in 10 innings. Then it was Haas’s turn on the mound.
No play-by-play details of the game have survived, but the boxscore tells us that the A’s actually held a 2-1 lead after three innings. The Yankees, however, scored in every remaining inning as they ran up the score. Or, should we say, they walked up the score?
Haas had some help, especially from third baseman Owen Conway, was also making his major league debut that day. He managed to commit two errors in the first game and added four more in the nightcap.
Mack gave Haas another start a week later, but relieved him after he walked four more batters in an inning and a one-third. After that he pitched in relief four more times. He played three other games in left field and pinch hit three times, giving him a major league career of 12 games during which he compiled a career batting average of .056, an earned run average of 11.93. Still, he achieved a permanent spot in the record books.
But all was not inglorious.
Haas played 11 games as a single-wing tailback for three National Football League teams, making him one of only 67 athletes to have played Major League Baseball and NFL football. Rushing and passing statistics were not recorded at that time but the records show that he scored one touchdown during the 1921 season.
Meanwhile, he continued his baseball career in the high minors, where he played 21 years, mostly as an outfielder. He also managed nine seasons in the minors.
Finally, Connie Mack hired him one more time when he made him a scout in 1951. There was no stipulation that he had to walk to work.