Emmet Carlin
by Martín Abresch
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A complete hitter on one of the best teams of his era, Emmet Carlin lined baseballs to all alleys and corners of a ballpark. A typical season would see him hit over .300 with around 25 doubles, 15 triples, and 10 home runs. He set the single-season record by scoring 199 runs in 1894.
Carlin was born in 1865 in Dansville, New York. The small town in western New York was famous for its mineral spa, known then as Our Home on the Hillside. The health resort was one of the largest in the world, and people from around the world visited. The ideas of the spas owner, James Caleb Jackson, influenced Carlin's parents. Carlin was raised a vegetarian, and he grew up eating Jackson's granula cereal (the world's first breakfast cereal) for breakfast each day.
Carlin was both athletic and intelligent. He enrolled in Cornell University, a pioneer in the elective system of education, in which students were free to choose their own course of study. It also helped that Cornell was among the nation's earlier adopters of coeducation. Indeed, Carlin met his wife, Emily, when she was studying in the veterinary school and he was studying pre-med. They married in May of 1886.
Carlin played shortstop on Cornell's college baseball team and played it well. The Buffalo Beavers sent a scout, Ed Horrigan, and on Ed's recommendation made Emmet an offer. However, Carlin had different plans. After college, he and his wife moved to Binghamton, to be near to his wife's family. He set up a practice there, but his medical recommendation to abstain from tobacco was not welcomed by employees of Binghamton's many growing cigar companies.
With his practice struggling, and with his second child on the way, Carlin reconsidered an athletic career. In the autumn of 1959, he took a train to Philadelphia to attend an open try-out. The Franklins (now known as the Quakers) liked what they saw and signed him.
Carlin never made an appearance for the City of Brotherly Love. Ed Horrigan, the scout who had recommended Carlin to the Beavers, got wind of the signing. Now scouting for the New York Knickerbockers, Horrigan recommended to his bosses that they try to trade for him, stressing to "do it now, before Philly gets a good look at him!" To avoid tipping their hand, the Knickerbockers inquired after pitcher Catfish Peabody. When a trade of Peabody for outfielder Darins Grace was nearly worked out, New York's General Manager asked if Philly could throw in a young middle infielder. Philly threw in Carlin.
Knickerbocker management got their first look at Carlin in spring training. They loved his ability to line the ball to all areas of the park, but they were skeptical that a free-thinking doctor would stick in the majors. "Baseball is for working men," wrote the New York Post, "How many spikes-up slides or chin-buzzing fastballs will he tolerate before he gives the team his regards and bids farewell?"
New York also had the best offense in the league, and Carlin had to fight for playing time. Veteran Julius Kaatman held down second base. Carlin played 78 games, mostly in right field, but he couldn't secure a starting spot: the corner outfield spots were held down by future Hall of Famer Pierre Ellsworth and three-time RBI champion and team leader Mike O'Sullivan. Carlin acquitted himself well, but playing time became even more scarce in 1892 after New York signed another promising young second basemen, Russel Fankester. Rumors circulated that management was looking to trade Carlin. Carlin, meanwhile, found himself enjoying the city, apart from baseball. He rented a flat in Greenwich Village and assisted at the local clinic on his off-days. "Purged of pecuniary problems," he recalled, "Practicing medicine proved a positive pleasure."
Late in 1892, O'Sullivan sprained his ankle. Carlin stepped in and hit .293 in 123 at-bats down the stretch. (O'Sullivan, despite missing 20 games, still won his fourth consecutive RBI crown.) New York finished first and squared off against American Base Ball Association champions Brooklyn in a nine-game World Series. The neighboring cities split the first eight games. Hitting in the middle of the lineup, Carlin played a major role in New York's wins. For the first and only time in history, a game nine would be played. The ninth game of the 1892 season proved to be one of the most exciting games in World Series history. It featured six lead changes. Carlin, however, went 0-for-5, and Brooklyn emerged victorious, winning 8-6.
When O'Sullivan began 1893 in a slump, Carlin was given a chance to start. He seized it. He .310 and scored 133 runs. Fellow phenom Fankester also got a chance to play every day: New York traded Kaatman to Brooklyn mid-season, and Fankester was installed at the keystone position.
Carlin followed up his fine 1893 with a record-setting 1894. The 1894 season was the biggest offensive season in league history. The entire league batted .304, and teams averaged more than six runs per game. Carlin hit .366, slugged 18 home runs (one fewer than league-leader Mark Gardner), and stole 125 bases. He also set a single-season record by scoring 199 runs. Teammate Ellsworth tied for the league lead with a then-record 140 RBIs.
Carlin was also one of five players to have a 30+ game hitting streak in 1894. Cleveland's Fletcher Burgess sprinted out of the gate and set a record, still standing, by hitting in 44 straight games. Ellsworth and Philadelphia's Uriah Beach hit in 33 straight games, Detroit's Clinton Boston and Carlin in 35. Almost immediately after his 35-game hit streak was snapped, Carlin went to work on a 28-game hit streak. Burgess and the Bobcats also bested Carlin and the Knickerbockers in the World Series, winning four games of five.
Having lost the World Series three times in five years, New York management pushed hard to win it all in 1895. The star-studded 1895 Knickerbockers had five future Hall of Famers on their squad, but the new personalities clashed with the old ones. Veteran John Grace, serious and hard-headed, had set the tone in recent seasons. Quiet Pierre Ellsworth was no challenge to his authority, and Russel Fankester was a level-headed team player. By contrast, pitcher Valentine Voss, acquired in a mid-season trade the previous year, sought the spotlight and reveled in New York's nightlife. Shortstop Arnold Church, signed in the off-season, played with a furious and selfish passion. With no love lost between Grace and Church, and with Voss's late night antics a constant source of distraction, it fell to the easy-going Bohemian doctor, Emmet Carlin, to keep the peace. Never one to pass up a hot-foot opportunity when it presented itself, Carlin's pranks and good humor kept the team loose. He also hit .334 and scored 159 runs. Playing Cincinnati in the World Series, the Knickerbockers lost the first game, then rattled off four straight wins. In game four, he went 2-for-2, walked four times, stole three bases, and tied a playoff game record by scoring four runs, going 2-for-2 with four walks and three stolen bases.
The star-studded Knickerbockers played together just the one season. Church moved on to Brooklyn; Grace played just 24 games in 1896, then retired; Fankester was traded to Pittsburgh for three players, none of whom panned out in New York. Voss had several more successful years in New York, but it was Ellsworth and Carlin who would play together and lead the Knickerbocker offense for the next decade. With Fankester gone, Carlin also became the starting second baseman. He proved to be much better at picking ground balls than at shagging fly balls.
In the late 1890s and early 1900s, Philadelphia supplanted New York as the dominant team in the East, finishing first six times in seven years. Philly's wins in 1900, 1901, and 1902 were particularly close, and New York finished within three games of first each season. Carlin had probably his best overall season in 1897. He hit .351, drove in 107 runs, scored 145 runs, drew 106 walks, and stole 44 bases. In 1898, he led the league with 12 home runs.
By 1903, Carlin and Ellsworth were aging veterans, but a new team had been assembled around them. With players like the humble Simon Hand, hard-working Moe Niemann, good ol' boy Mark James, and loyal Phineas Flint, the team pulled in the same direction. To cap it off, the sudden emergence of charismatic ace Cookie Whaley took the spotlight off of Carlin and Ellsworth. "In the papers, I was the veteran leader of men," Carlin recalled about that time in his career, "But the men I purportedly led were themselves of sound, independent character. Never was I more relaxed, and never was it more a joy to come to the ballpark."
The Knickerbockers won the East each year from 1903 to 1906. The 1904 World Series against Pittsburgh began with a 15-inning marathon, and Carlin went 4-for-5 with three walks, two doubles, and three RBIs. New York won in seven games, then repeated in 1905 by winning in seven against Detroit. Carlin's final at-bat for New York came in game three of the 1906 World Series. Down by two to Chicago, with two outs and a runner on in the ninth inning, the 40-year old hit a pinch-hit triple, then scored the tying run when Simon Hand singled through the left side of the infield. Chicago, however, won the game in the bottom of the ninth and swept New York.
New York released Carlin, and he joined up with Brooklyn as a backup infielder. Brooklyn finished first, and Carlin watched from the bench as his teammates won the World Series.
Carlin retired. He, his wife, and the three youngest of their five children moved to Ithaca, New York where he was hired as Cornell's baseball coach.
Carlin led the league in plate appearances (1894), runs scored (1894-95, 1897), home runs (1898), walks (1897, 1902), and stolen bases (1894). He hit in 35 straight games (1894) and set the single-season record for runs scored. For his career, Carlin batted .307 with 2,383 hits. He had over 300 doubles, 200 triples, and (in a low home run era) 100 home runs. He walked 1,184 times (seventh all-time) and scored 1,542 runs (fifth all-time). He stole 654 bases. He was awarded Player of the Week twice and Batter of the Month four times. He played on four World Series winning teams (New York 1895, 1904-05, Brooklyn 1907).
In 1908, the New York Knickerbockers retired No. 3 in Emmet Carlin's honor. In 1956, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame.