Cobb did not play in the Tigers' final two games of the season, and he finished with a batting average of.385. Lajoie played in a doubleheaderon the last day of the season against the St. Louis Browns. Browns managerJack O'Connor ordered rookiethird basemanRed Corriden to play on the outfield grass. This all but conceded a hit for any ball Lajoie bunted. Lajoie had eight hits in eight at bats and finished the season with a.384 batting average. His final at bat resulted in a wild throw to first base, which was scored as an error. Under baseball rules, when a player reaches base on an error, it is treated as a hitless at-bat, thus lowering his batting average.
Aftermath
After news broke of the scandal, a writer for the St. Louis Post claimed: "All St. Louis is up in arms over the deplorable spectacle, conceived in stupidity and executed in jealousy." The issue was brought to American League presidentBan Johnson, who declared all batting averages official, and Cobb the champion. Chalmers, however, awarded automobiles to both Cobb and Lajoie. O'Connor and coach Harry Howell, who tried to bribe the official scorer to change the error to a hit, were banned from baseball for their role in the affair. The following season, Chalmers gave an award to the league's most valuable player instead of the player with the highest batting average. Cobb won the Chalmers Award in 1911 in his best year, hitting.420. Chalmers continued the award through the 1914 season, after which it was discontinued. Chalmers ceased to exist in 1923, however it is a direct predecessor to modern-day Chrysler. Both Cobb and Lajoie were eventually elected into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Modern revision
In 1978, Pete Palmer discovered a 1910 discrepancy in Cobb's career hit total, and the story was broken by The Sporting News in April 1981. Cobb is credited with 4,191 lifetime hits, but researchers say that a 1910 Detroit Tigers box score was counted twice in the season-ending calculations. The mistake caused the statisticians to give Cobb an extra 2-for-3. This credited Cobb with two non-existent hits, and erroneously raised his 1910 batting average from.383 to.385. As Lajoie had a.384 average for the season, the revised figure would have cost Cobb one of his 12 batting titles, reduced his career average to.366, and given the 1910 batting championship to Lajoie due to the last-game shenanigans by the St. Louis Browns. The mathematical mistake was described by one writer as follows: "It could be said that 1910 produced two bogus leading batting averages, and one questionable champion."
