May 12, 1915: Browns ride Carl Weilman’s shutout pitching to win over Athletics

The 1915 Detroit Tigers owed their long, quiet offseason in part to pitcher Carl Weilman of the St. Louis Browns. The Tigers finished in second place in the American League, 2½ games behind the Boston Red Sox, and the Browns’ left-hander beat Detroit eight times that season – including three times in the span of one week in June1 – against only one defeat.

If Weilman could repeatedly humble the legendary likes of Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, and Bobby Veach, it stands to reason that he could probably handle the last-place Philadelphia Athletics, who limped to a 43-109 record.2 And, on May 12, 1915, Weilman did, tossing a shutout at Connie Mack’s team as the Browns cruised to a 3-0 victory at Sportsman’s Park.

Entering the game, Mack’s Athletics – despite their 8-13 record with one tie – were actually ahead of Branch Rickey’s Browns, who had gotten off to an abysmal 6-18 start. The teams occupied the bottom two rungs of the AL standings. The Browns had gone 3-15 in their previous 18 games, earning them a clubhouse lecture from manager Branch Rickey before the game on May 12.3

Philadelphia had been AL champions in 1914 with a 99-53 record, their fourth pennant in five years, but Mack had sold off some of his stars and seen others jump to the upstart Federal League.4 Starting in 1915, the talent-gutted Athletics lost 100 games in five of the next seven seasons, and did not finish above .500 again until 1925.5

The Browns, in contrast, had consistently been cellar-dwellers – though they had shown modest signs of improvement. Between 1910 and 1914 they lost 107, 107, 101, 96, and 82 games. They retreated in 1915, closing the season with a 63-91 record and five ties. Rickey, at 33 years old, was in his second full season managing the Browns. He was moved back into a talent-scouting role after the season.6

Weilman, in his fourth major-league season at age 25, had lost his first three starts – including a 7-6 decision against the Chicago White Sox on Opening Day – before rebounding for a pair of wins, including a complete-game defeat of Detroit in his previous start on May 8. He’d gone 17-12 with a 2.08 ERA the season before, leading the Browns with 7.0 Wins Above Replacement. Described as a control artist with excellent stuff, Weilman stood 6-feet-5, tall for the time, and did not drink, smoke, or chew tobacco.7

Another lefty in his fourth big-league season took the mound for Philadelphia. Twenty-one-year-old Herb Pennock had gone 11-4 with a 2.79 ERA for the previous season’s AL champs, and had pitched shutout ball for the final three innings of the season in relief of Bob Shawkey as the Braves won the clinching Game Four of the World Series. Pennock entered the start against the Browns with a 3-2 record and a 3.41 ERA in six appearances. On game day, a Philadelphia newspaper reported that Mack would make a late decision between Pennock and right-hander Weldon Wyckoff as his starter, depending on how Pennock looked while warming up.8

A modest Wednesday afternoon crowd of somewhere between 600 and 1,000 fans turned out for the matchup.9 They saw shutout ball for an inning and a half, although Weilman yielded a single, a walk, and a double to three of the first four hitters in the top of the first.10 Eddie Murphy, who led off with a single, was caught stealing. One out later, Amos Strunk walked and Wally Schang doubled, but Nap Lajoie’s foul pop to the catcher ended the inning.

In the bottom of the second, leadoff batter Tillie Walker worked Pennock for a walk. On a hit-and-run play, Dee Walsh’s single to right field advanced Walker to third. Walsh took off for second on Pennock’s first pitch to Sam Agnew, and Athletics catcher Schang threw the ball into center field. Walker scored and Walsh continued to third base. Agnew’s single into center field brought home Walsh for a 2-0 Browns advantage.11

Pennock, charged with five hits, two earned runs, and a walk, left the game after two innings and was replaced by Wyckoff. It was Wyckoff’s eighth appearance of the year and second in relief. He’d lost his first four decisions, then won two straight, entering with a 3.15 ERA.

Wyckoff “had the Brownies at his mercy” in the third and fourth innings but surrendered another run in the fifth.12 He went on to lead led the AL in 1915 with 165 walks in 276 innings. This included six free passes this afternoon, and wildness got him into trouble.13

Burt Shotton, the 1915 Browns’ stolen-base leader with 43, drew a leadoff walk and was cut down trying to steal second – one of 10 stolen-base attempts by St. Louis that afternoon.14 Jimmy Austin also walked and attempted to steal second, this time successfully. Del Pratt followed with a grounder to third baseman Larry Kopf, whose throw to first pulled Stuffy McInnis off the base. While McInnis argued with first-base umpire George Hildebrand, Austin – who had moved to third on the grounder – alertly sneaked home for a 3-0 Browns lead.15

“Stuffy McInnis, than whom there are few better first-sackers, was guilty of a boner that assayed more pure ivory than anything Old Bone himself – Fred Merkle – ever perpetrated,” the St. Louis Post-Dispatch rhapsodized. “McInnis held the ball while Austin filched a run from second on an infield out. Hoop-la!”16

Meanwhile, Weilman set the Athletics down in order from the second inning through the fifth. In the sixth, Rube Oldring grounded a single to third and reached second base when Austin, the Browns’ third baseman, threw wildly. This error represented the only Philadelphia baserunner after the first inning, and the Athletics went meekly in the seventh, eighth, and ninth.17 Weilman “had the Mackmen guessing,” one account reported.18 He struck out five.

Contemporary news accounts and box scores in St. Louis and Philadelphia papers, as well as The Sporting News, reported that Weilman threw a two-hitter, with Murphy and Schang collecting the hits.19 But as of February 2025, box scores in Baseball-Reference and Retrosheet credited Murphy, Schang, and Oldring with hits for the Athletics, giving Weilman a three-hit shutout. This was one of three three-hit complete games Weilman pitched in his eight-season career.

The game ended in 1 hour and 56 minutes. Weilman and Pennock evened their records at 3-3 with the win and loss respectively. Pennock pitched only four more games for Philadelphia, losing three, before Mack – convinced the pitcher wasn’t trying hard enough – released him. The Boston Red Sox snapped up Pennock, and he blossomed in 1919, winning 16 games. Traded to the New York Yankees in January 1923, Pennock pitched 11 seasons with the Yankees – appearing on four World Series champions – before pitching a final season in 1934 with the Red Sox. All told, he won 241 games over 22 seasons and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1948. Mack reportedly referred to Pennock’s release in later years as his greatest mistake.20

Weilman ended the 1918 season with an 18-19 record and a 2.34 ERA in 47 games, including 31 starts. He led the 1915 Browns for the second straight season with 5.9 Wins Above Replacement, well ahead of Del Pratt’s 4.6. Weilman pitched parts of eight major-league seasons before ill health forced his retirement after the 1920 season; tuberculosis took his life four years after that.21

Acknowledgments and author’s note

This story was fact-checked by Gary Belleville and copy-edited by Len Levin. It is part of a project by the author to write stories on all eight American, National, and Federal League games played on May 12, 1915.

Photo credit: Carl Weilman, SABR-Rucker Archive.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author used the Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org websites for general player, team and season data and the box scores for this game.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/SLA/SLA191505120.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1915/B05120SLA1915.htm

Notes

1 Weilman pitched complete-game wins against Detroit on June 20 and June 26, and also picked up a win against the Tigers in relief on June 22.

2 Weilman posted four wins and one loss against the Athletics in 1915.

3 Harry F. Pierce, “Speed on Paths and Weilman’s Pitching Wins for Brownies,” St. Louis Star, May 13, 1915: 12.

4 Doug Skipper, “Connie Mack,” SABR Biography Project, accessed February 2024. The stars who either jumped to the Federal League or were sold by Mack included Eddie Plank, Charles Bender, Eddie Collins, Home Run Baker, and Jack Barry. Baker sat out the 1915 season in a contract dispute, while Barry was still with the Athletics at the time of this game but was subsequently sold to the Boston Red Sox in July. The 1914 Athletics were swept by the Boston Braves in the World Series in one of the greatest upsets of its generation.

5 The A’s narrowly missed a sixth 100-loss season in 1917, losing 98 games.

6 Andy McCue, “Branch Rickey,” SABR Biography Project, accessed February 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/branch-rickey/.

7 Stephen V. Rice, “Carl Weilman,” SABR Biography Project, accessed February 2024. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Carl-Weilman/.

8 “Pennock or Wyckoff to Oppose Browns,” Philadelphia Evening Ledger, May 12, 1915: 12.

9 Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference list the game’s attendance at 1,000. The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported the crowd as 600. W.J. O’Connor, “Since His 1-Day Lay-Off, Walker Is Playing Ball,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 13, 1915: 23. An account in the Reading (Pennsylvania) Times reported, “An estimate of 1,000 is liberal.” “Browns Blank Athletics, Hit Pennock Hard,” Reading (Pennsylvania) Times, May 13, 1915: 9.

10 Quinn, “Breezy Baseball Babble,” St. Louis Star, May 13, 1915: 8; Pierce, “Speed on Paths and Weilman’s Pitching Wins for Brownies.”

11 Pierce, “Speed on Paths and Weilman’s Pitching Wins for Brownies”; “Browns Blank Athletics, Hit Pennock Hard.” Retrosheet has Agnew’s single going to right field, but Pierce’s story says center.

12 Pierce, “Speed on Paths and Weilman’s Pitching Wins for Brownies.”

13 Wyckoff also led the AL with 14 wild pitches, 108 earned runs given up, and 22 losses.

14 News accounts at the time credited the Browns with nine stolen-base attempts; this total is based on the Retrosheet box score.

15 Pierce, “Speed on Paths and Weilman’s Pitching Wins for Brownies.” Kopf was not charged with an error on the play.

16 O’Connor, “Since His 1-Day Lay-Off, Walker Is Playing Ball.”

17 Pierce, “Speed on Paths and Weilman’s Pitching Wins for Brownies”; Quinn, “Breezy Baseball Babble.”

18 “Browns Blank Athletics, Hit Pennock Hard.” The Philadelphia Evening Ledger, cited above, also said that Weilman retired the Athletics in order in seven of the game’s nine innings.

19 “Barrett Analyzes Change in Browns,” The Sporting News, May 20, 1915: 2. The box score for the game, fuzzy but readable, is on page 5 of the same issue. Retrosheet and Baseball-Reference did not offer play-by-play summaries of the game as of March 2024.

20 Frank Vaccaro, “Herb Pennock,” SABR Biography Project, accessed February 2024. https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/Herb-Pennock/.

21 Rice, “Carl Weilman.”