July 27, 1907: Larry McLean’s arm, bat propel Reds over Giants

As the tying run was about to cross the plate on New York Giants veteran Bill Dahlen’s ninth-inning single on July 27, 1907, Dahlen tried to take an extra base on the throw home from the Cincinnati Reds left fielder. Reds catcher John “Larry” McLean,1 who had earlier tossed out three Giants attempting to steal, gunned Dahlen down at second base to end the inning.

Moments later, McLean was batting in the bottom of the ninth with a runner on second and nobody out. With two strikes on him, the recently-turned-26-year-old backstop slammed a pitch from Hooks Wiltse down the left-field line, driving in the winning run.2 It was another step toward McLean’s establishing himself as Cincinnati’s primary backstop and, for a time, one of the best catchers in baseball.

The Canadian-born and New England-raised McLean had burst onto the major-league scene in 1901 as a 19-year-old spring-training invitee of the Boston Americans (later Red Sox).3 Renowned baseball writer Tim Murnane raved about the raw rookie after an early spring workout. “[McLean] gave an exhibition of throwing to the bases from the home plate that was simply phenomenal,” Murnane wrote. “I have never seen his exhibition for throwing equaled.”4

McLean beat the odds and made Boston’s Opening Day roster. In the inaugural game for the Boston Red Sox franchise, McLean’s run-scoring double in the ninth inning was the first pinch hit in American League history.5 But Boston had two experienced catchers, and McLean was dispatched to the minors after hitting .211 in just 19 plate appearances.6

After failing to stick with the Chicago Cubs in 1903 and St. Louis Cardinals in 1904,7 McLean played for the Pacific Coast League’s Portland Beavers in 1905-06. Early in the 1906 season, the Beavers traveled to San Francisco to play the Seals.8 The morning after the series opener, the Great San Francisco Earthquake hit, killing over 3,000 people and destroying more than 28,000 buildings.9 The 6-foot-5 McLean made headlines – and earned the admiration of the Bay Area’s sporting community − by rescuing several people from the team’s severely damaged hotel.10

McLean hit .355 for Portland in 1906,11 attracting the attention of several major-league teams.12 The Reds purchased his contract in August, upsetting Portland fans, who were concerned that the Beavers might relinquish their lead in the pennant race without their popular backstop for the final 65 games.13 McLean appeared in 12 games with the Reds in September 1906, with limited success.14

Despite having hired future Hall of Famer Ned Hanlon to manage the team in 1906, the Reds finished in sixth place, a whopping 51½ games behind the juggernaut Cubs. Coming into the 1907 season, the Cubs were heavy favorites to repeat as National League champions.15 Cincinnati, which had rejigged its lineup in a youth movement,16 quickly fell off the pace. The bottom fell out of the Reds’ season when they lost 16 of their first 20 games in July, dropping them to seventh place with a dismal 33-51-1 record. Fed up with the criticism from the press and fans, Hanlon announced before the July 27 game against the Giants that he was retiring from baseball at the end of the season.17

The Giants, weakened in 1907 by the absence of contract holdout Turkey Mike Donlin, managed to stay close to the Cubs for the first eight weeks of the season.18 Their pennant hopes went south in early June when the Cubs swept New York in a three-game series in Chicago. The Giants came into July 27 in second place with a .617 winning percentage − 10½ games behind the marauding Cubs.

Luther Taylor, a key contributor in the Giants’ back-to-back pennant-winning seasons of 1904-05, got the start for New York.19 The 32-year-old right-hander had won his last three decisions, raising his record to 6-3.

Taylor limited the Reds to a harmless walk in the first inning, but the free pass he issued to rookie Art Kruger with one out in the second cost him. After Kruger advanced to second on a groundout, Fred Odwell launched a ball over the head of center fielder Cy Seymour and into the spacious outfield of the Palace of the Fans.20 Seymour’s triple gave Cincinnati a 1-0 lead.

Andy Coakley (9-9), a 24-year-old righty picked up on waivers in the offseason, was on the mound for Cincinnati.21 Five Giants reached base against Coakley in the first four innings on two singles, two walks, and an error, but McLean’s strong throwing arm helped keep New York off the scoreboard. He threw out three baserunners attempting to steal second base: Roger Bresnahan and Dahlen in the second inning and George Browne in the fourth.

McLean played the game wearing shin guards, “a very stylish pair of tan leather ones,” for the first time.22 (Shin guards were still a rarity in 1907 – Cubs fans had mocked Bresnahan for wearing them less than two months earlier.)

Taylor settled down after Odwell’s two-out triple in the second and he retired the next 10 men he faced.23 Reds second baseman Miller Huggins opened the sixth with a nifty bunt down the third-base line and Bresnahan, playing with an injured leg, was unable to reach it.24 Third baseman Art Devlin retrieved the ball too late to make a throw and Huggins had a bunt single.25 One out later, Huggins stole second on “a very clever twisting slide” to avoid the tag.26 Rookie right fielder Mike Mitchell singled sharply to right and Huggins scored, giving the Reds a 2-0 lead.27

Coakley settled into a groove and held the Giants to two singles and a walk from the fifth inning to the eighth. The southpaw Wiltse came on in relief of Taylor in the eighth and pitched a one-two-three inning.28

Devlin doubled to open the ninth and advanced to third on Seymour’s grounder.29 After Bresnahan’s groundout failed to score Devlin, first baseman Frank Bowerman, playing for an injured Dan McGann, came to the plate with the Giants down to their last out.30 Bowerman doubled to left-center field, plating Devlin and putting the potential tying run in scoring position. The next batter, Dahlen, fouled off roughly 10 of Coakley’s pitches before he singled into left field.31 Odwell’s throw home was too late to get Bowerman, but McLean relayed the ball to Huggins at second, nailing Dahlen and sending the game to the bottom of the ninth tied, 2-2.

Mitchell led off with a walk and he narrowly stole second. The Giants, “mad as hornets” at the safe call by base umpire Bill Carpenter, thought otherwise.32 After fouling off two sacrifice attempts, McLean drove a pitch from Wiltse down the left-field line and Mitchell raced home with the winning run.33 Cincinnati earned a 3-2 victory despite registering just four hits.

The Giants’ loss dropped them into third place behind the Pittsburgh Pirates. New York played sub-.500 baseball for the remainder of the season and finished in fourth place with an 82-71-2 record, 25½ games behind the pennant-winning Cubs.34

Cincinnati improved in the second half and climbed to sixth place, ending the season with a 66-87-3 mark. McLean hit .289 with 54 RBIs in 374 at-bats and displayed skills that made him an above-average catcher in his first full season in the big leagues.35 Reds beat writer Jack Ryder raved about McLean’s play in 1907. “He is a star in every department of the game, an extremely steady and accurate thrower to all bases, a perfect backstop, and a [free-swinging] batter of the Hans Wagner type,” Ryder wrote. “Larry is an ideal team worker, always cheerful and willing to do his full share and then some.”36

First baseman John Ganzel took over the managerial duties from Hanlon in 1908 and the Reds improved by seven wins, although they still finished in the second division. Clark Griffith managed Cincinnati from 1909 to 1911, a period coinciding with the best years of McLean’s career. In those three seasons, McLean hit .282 and was easily the best defensive catcher in the major leagues.37 He twice led the NL in caught-stealing percentage and in two seasons he tied for the major-league lead in double plays by a catcher.38 In September 1911 McLean threw out a remarkable 14 consecutive baserunners attempting to steal.

Unfortunately, McLean, like many of his contemporaries, struggled to control his alcohol use during a significant portion of his career. Drinking incidents hastened his departure from Cincinnati in September 1912 and abruptly ended his baseball career in June 1915.39

In his 13 big-league seasons, McLean compiled a .262 batting average, threw out 48.3 percent of attempted basestealers, and turned 105 double plays in just 761 games at catcher. In his peak five years (1907-11), he accumulated 12.7 Baseball-Reference Wins Above Replacement, more than all major-league catchers other than future Hall of Famer Bresnahan.40

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Thomas E. Merrick and copy-edited by Len Levin. Thanks to Cassidy Lent of the Giamatti Research Center in Cooperstown for providing a copy of John McLean’s Hall of Fame file.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, Stathead.com, Ancestry.ca, and the SABR biographies of Larry McLean, Ned Hanlon, and Mike Donlin. Unless otherwise noted, all detailed play-by-play information for this game was taken from the article “Giants Lose at Cincinnati in Tight Game” in the July 27, 1907, edition of the New York Evening World.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CIN/CIN190707270.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1907/B07270CIN1907.htm    

Photo credit

The photo of Larry McLean is courtesy of the Trading Card Database.

Notes

1 John Bannerman McLean was known as Jack early in his playing career. He earned the nickname “Larry” because of his resemblance to Napoleon “Larry” Lajoie. The nickname may have resulted from an observation made by University of Pennsylvania baseball coach and former major-league player and manager Arthur Irwin in 1901 at the inaugural spring training of the Boston Americans. “Arthur Irwin, who was present, declared the young Cambridge player [McLean] had the exact movements at the bat that Lajoie had,” wrote Tim Murnane. Incidentally, both McLean and Irwin were born in Canada. T.H. Murnane, “Practice in the Mud,” Boston Globe, April 4, 1901: 5.

2 Jack Ryder, “Thought They Had It on Our Boys,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 28, 1907: 8; “Giants Drop Game, Score the Umpire,” New York Times, July 28, 1907: 26.

3 McLean was born on July 18, 1881, in Fredericton, New Brunswick. The birthplace of two younger siblings indicate that his family was living in Maine in 1882 and Watertown, Massachusetts, in 1883. McLean went to grammar school in Cambridge, Massachusetts, before attending Cambridge Manual Training School. Ted Jones, “Touching Base with the Legendary Tartars,” Fredericton Daily Gleaner, October 23, 2004: B-4.

4 T.H. Murnane, “McLean Opens Everyone’s Eyes,” Boston Globe, April 5, 1901: 4.

5 Page 18 of the Hall of Fame file of John Bannerman McLean.

6 McLean did not catch in any games for the Americans. Boston’s two catchers were Ossee Schrecongost and Lou Criger. McLean pinch-hit four times and appeared at first base in five games. Boston’s regular first baseman was slugger Buck Freeman.

7 McLean was part of a blockbuster trade on December 12, 1903, when he was traded by Chicago with pitcher Jack Taylor to the St. Louis Cardinals for Mordecai Brown and catcher Jack O’Neill.

8 “Giants Lose By Costly Errors,” Oregon Daily Journal (Portland), April 18, 1906: 15.

9 “San Francisco Earthquake of 1906,” History.com, February 27, 2025, https://www.history.com/articles/1906-san-francisco-earthquake.

10 “Portland Catcher Proves Hero During Earthquake,” Oregon Daily Journal, May 4, 1906: 16; “Seattle Manager Here,” The Oregonian (Portland), April 24, 1906: 12; “Ball League’s Fate,” The Oregonian, April 20, 1906: 19.

11 McLean missed the final 65 games of the PCL season after his contract was sold to Cincinnati, so he did not qualify for the batting title. The PCL title was won by the Beavers’ Mike Mitchell, who had a .351 batting average, 4 percentage points lower than McLean’s average. Mitchell and McLean were also teammates in Cincinnati from 1907 to 1912.

12 The Boston Americans and St. Louis Cardinals were also interested in signing McLean. “Beavers Strong in Pennant Race,” The Oregonian, August 28, 1906: 7.

13 There were 175 games in the PCL season. “Beavers Strong in Pennant Race.”

14 McLean went 7-for-35 (.200) with 2 RBIs with the Reds in September 1906. His defense was below average in his 12 games at catcher.

15 “Cubs to Play Cardinals,” Boston Globe, April 11, 1907: 9.

16 McLean became the Reds’ primary catcher in 1907, while Hans Lobert took over at shortstop from the veteran Tommy Corcoran. Other young regulars on the Reds that season included rookie third baseman Mike Mowrey, rookie right fielder Mike Mitchell, and pitcher Andy Coakley

17 “Ned Hanlon’s Last Season,” Washington Post, July 28, 1907: 1; “Reds Defeat Giants,” New York Tribune, July 28, 1907: 8.

18 Donlin sat out the entire 1907 season and performed on the vaudeville circuit with his wife. He returned to the Giants in 1908.

19 Luther Taylor, who was deaf and mute, was commonly referred to as Dummy Taylor during his playing career. The Giants refused to play Boston, the American League pennant winner, in the World Series in 1904. They defeated the Philadelphia Athletics in the 1905 World Series, although Taylor did not appear in the Series.

20 Ryder, “Thought They Had It on Our Boys.”

21 Coakley was put on waivers by the Philadelphia Athletics. He had gone 31-23 with a 2.51 ERA in parts of five seasons with the Athletics. He started against the Giants in Game Three of the 1905 World Series. Coakley gave up nine runs (three earned) in a 9-0 loss to Christy Mathewson.

22 “Notes of the Game,” Cincinnati Enquirer, July 28, 1907: 8; “Hanlon to Quit,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, July 28, 1907: 20.

23 Taylor walked Kruger for the second consecutive time with two out in the fourth. He ended the inning by picking Kruger off first base.

24 “Reds Defeat Giants.”

25 Ryder, “Thought They Had It on Our Boys.”

26 “Thought They Had It on Our Boys.”

27 “Thought They Had It on Our Boys.”

28 Veteran Sammy Strang pinch-hit for Taylor in the eighth. He hit into a force out.

29 Ryder, “Thought They Had It on Our Boys.”

30 McGann’s finger was injured by a hot grounder on July 25, his first game since he suffered a wrist injury on a hit-by-pitch from Andy Coakley on June 18. “Giants Lose at Cincinnati in Tight Game,” New York Evening World, July 27, 1907: 2; “Bresnahan Badly Hurt,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, June 19, 1907: 8.

31 Ryder, “Thought They Had It on Our Boys.”

32 “Giants Drop Game, Score the Umpire.”

33 It is unclear if the bunt attempts came before or after Mitchell stole second. “Giants Drop Game, Score the Umpire”; Ryder, “Thought They Had It on Our Boys.”

34 The Cubs went on to defeat the Detroit Tigers in the 1907 World Series, winning their first of two consecutive World Series championships.

35 McLean compiled 2.0 bWAR, the sixth best mark for a catcher on one of the 16 major-league teams.

36 “Larry M’Lean’s Great Career,” Paterson (New Jersey) Morning Call, February 12, 1908: 3; Jack Ryder, “Long Larry; Rattling Good Catcher,” Cincinnati Enquirer, November 18, 1907: 3.

37 McLean compiled a major-league-leading 6.0 Baseball-Reference defensive WAR (dWAR) from 1909 to 1911. George Gibson of the Pittsburgh Pirates was next with 5.4 dWAR.

38 In 1909 McLean led the NL with 53.9 percent caught stealing and in 1911 he was tops in the majors with 61 percent. McLean tied for the major-league lead in double plays by a catcher with 18 in 1910 and 16 in 1911.

39 McLean wore out his welcome in Cincinnati in September 1912 when he got into a heated argument with manager Hank O’Day after missing an exhibition game in Syracuse. McLean’s career came to an abrupt halt in June 1915 after a nasty fight with John McGraw’s right-hand man, Sinister Dick Kinsella, and a few of his New York Giants teammates. McLean was upset at Kinsella for telling manager McGraw that he had been drinking, which cost him a $1,000 bonus in his contract for good behavior. McLean considered it “a scheme [for the club] to save $1,000.” McGraw was also involved in the scrap with McLean. “No Gas Pipe; Fists Beat McGraw et al., McLean Says,” Chicago Tribune, June 13, 1915: 3-3.

40 Bresnahan accumulated 17.7 bWAR from 1907 to 1911.