Carl Catlin
by Steve McCarthy
| |
|
|
|
Baseball is a game of numbers, seemingly endless statistics that when viewed over time help us seperate the truly elite players from the pack. However, sometimes over a short period of time, a truly ordinary player may just do a thing or two in an otherwise non-descript career that can only be described as extraordinary. One such player is Carl Catlin, an unassuming middle infielder who was a career .272 hitter in 656 games for the Chicago Traders between 1917 and 1922. What makes Catlin stand out from the pack is the fact he had a 38 game hitting streak during the 1920 season. The streak is 4th longest of all-time and no one since 1901 has hit safely in more consecutive games than Catlin did that summer. Even with that streak, getting at least one hit a game for well over a month, Catlin still managed to bat just .287 that season, and it was his career high.
Catlin, who was born in Jamestown, New York in 1890, would be signed out of the PONY League by the Traders in May of 1917. He was brought in to replace an aging and struggling Nelson Napier at second base. The now 26 year old Catlin would play 120 games that season, batting .261 and providing decent defense as the Traders edged St Louis by a game to win the Western Division. It was in the World Series that year that Catlin experienced his first moment of fame. Knotted at 3 games apiece with the Eastern Division champs from Philadelphia, Catlin would become the Game Seven hero when he hit a run scoring triple in the top of the ninth inning to snap a 2-2 tie. He would socre on a Carl Kessler base knock and the final score would be 4-2 in Chicago's favour giving the Traders their 9th World Series title. It would be the only series Catlin would play in but he acquainted himself very well in post-season play, batting .346 in the 7 games with just 1 rbi but it was the series clincher.
Injuries would cost him time each of the next two seasons as Catlin was limited to 104 games in 1918 and 101 the following season. He hit .278 in 1918 and .265 in 1919. By 1920 Catlin was back to full health and started the season on fire. Game after game a hit would be listed beside his name in the boxscore and it stretched to 38 games before being ended by Cincinnati pitching in late May. Only 3 men had longer hitting streaks in the history of the game: Fletcher Burgess had a 44 game streak in 1894 while with Cleveland, Pierre Ellsworth's 43 game streak for New York in 1896 and Albert Poling had a 39 game streak also for New York in 1900.
In 1921 Catlin again was the everyday second sacker for the Traders and hit a respectable .275 but by 1922, at age 31, he had lost his starting job and was in the minors by the end of the season. He would kick around various minor leagues for the next 4 seasons before finally retiring from the game in October of 1926 just 4 days before his 36th birthday.
For someone who was just an average ballplayer and spent less than the equivalent of six full seasons in the major leagues Carl Catlin had a pair of historic moments in his career. World Series hero and the longest hitting streak since 1901 are certainly things to share with his grandchildren, and baseball history lovers.