Sport McAllister Starts at all Nine Positions in 1899

In addition, several players have played all nine positions during a given season, but only one has had the wherewithal to start all nine positions in a season. Appropriately, his nickname was “Sport,” and in fact, to show his complete versatility, he even umpired a game and was a ticket taker!

LEWIS WILLIAM “SPORT” MCALLISTER

• Born: July 23, 1874 in Austin, Mississippi
• Died: July 17, 1962 in Wyandotte, Michigan (Aged 87 years, 359 days)1

BACKGROUND

Sport McAllister was in his fourth season in 1899, all with Cleveland. It was to be the first in which he played in more than 43 games. Right before the 1899 season (March 28), the Robison brothers, who owned both the St. Louis and Cleveland teams, transferred most of the best Cleveland players to St. Louis, in hopes of bolstering St. Louis’s chances in the 12-team National League. Cleveland had not supported their team well; in fact they had only attracted a little over 70,0 cranks the previous year, last in the league. Unfortunately for Sport, he was not one of those who was transferred, giving him the “opportunity” to play for what is arguably the worst team in major league history (20-134).

THE STATS

For the season, McAllister’s line:

 

 

Starts by Position (Team W-L in his starts)

 

THE STARTS

Going into the 1899 campaign, Sport was already known for his versatility, having played at eight positions in 1897, starting at seven (all except second and third base).

On March 30, it was noted that “It is officially announced by [manager] Pat Tebeau that Pitchers McAllister and Wilson will play in Cleveland during the coming season.”2

Before the season began on April 15, McAllister broke his finger during an exhibition game at Indianapolis. He would miss the first 17 games of the season.

Umpire (1)

On April 30, still out with a broken finger, McAllister and Cincinnati’s Frank Dwyer umpired the game “in the absence of regular umpires.”3 The Spiders lost 9-0.

Shortstop (3)

When McAllister finally healed from his broken finger, he was first used at short for three games (May 9, 10, and 11), replacing Harry Lochhead, who was hitting .172 with a fielding average of .912 (next to last in league).4

Despite Lochhead’s poor past performance, he was back at shortstop on May 12 and ended up playing 148 of the team’s 154 games, posting a horrendous 56 OPS + !

Right Field (71)

This was McAllister’s primary position during the season, starting on May 15. Prior to that, the Exiles had mainly employed Suter Sullivan & Louis Sockalexis. Sockalexis played the immediate five games in right field prior to McAllister’s first start, which turned out to be the last five major league games of Sockalexis’ fateful career. By this time, McAllister was considered the team’s utility man.

Left Field (7)

Dick Harley was the primary left fielder for the Spiders, starting 141 games there.

From May 24-26, McAllister started in his place after Harley was spiked in the knee by Washington’s Dick Padden in the first inning on an errant catcher throw during an attempted steal attempt. The injury turned out to be not as bad as first anticipated and Harley was back for the May 29 game.

Subsequently, McAllister started in place of Harley in left field on June 1 (swapping positions with Harley), August 22 and 23, and September 12 (second game).

Third Base (6)

On June 5, with utilityman Lave Cross (.286) and starting pitcher Willie Sudhoff (3 wins) playing too well for the Wanderers, the Robisons transferred the two to St. Louis. As a result, McAllister was called upon to take over third base, which lasted for the next three games. Jack Stivetts played one game at third on June 9, and then Suter Sullivan took over third base for the greater part of the rest of the season.

Sport was called upon to assume the hot corner on three more occasions. The first one was part of a three-team doubleheader in St. Louis on July 9—the Perfectos played Louisville in game 1 and their “sister” club, Cleveland, in the second game. Louisville, ironically, ended its season much like Cleveland: on the road. Its home park, Eclipse Park (III), burned to the ground on September 2, causing the Colonels to play their last 36 games on the road. Cleveland, due to extremely poor attendance, played its last 36 games on the road starting August 31.

On August 16, McAllister was playing right field when Sullivan was injured in the sixth inning. Sport moved from right field to third base with Charlie Hemphill taking Sport’s previous spot in right field. Sullivan was back in action on August 19, but McAllister did not resume his position in right field as Hemphill took over the spot for the remainder of the season. In fact, he was used more sparingly, playing only 28 of the 48 remaining games after playing 85 of the previous 89.

Catcher (16)

McAllister’s first start at catcher was on August 9, sitting behind home plate instead of Joe Sugden.

Once McAllister lost his right field spot to Hemphill, he began platooning with Sugden, catching in games on August 19, 20, 24, and 26.

Jim Duncan joined the squad on August 28 and it became a three-way platoon with Sugden and McAllister, with Sport having 11 more starts in September and October.

Pinch Hitter (2)

On August 28, McAllister pinch hit for Jim Hughey in the ninth inning of a 6-4 home game loss against Boston. His at-bat resulted in an out. And on October 14, he again pinch-hit for Hughey in the ninth inning of a 12-4 loss to Cincinnati, again producing an out.

First Base (4)

On August 29, McAllister started both games of a doubleheader versus Boston in place of regular first baseman Tommy Tucker as well as the single game on the 30th. Harry Colliflower (better known for his 1-11, 8.17 record that season) played the 31st and Tucker returned to his post on September 1.

McAllister played one more game at first base on October 7 versus Pittsburgh. He moved to catcher late in the game, replacing Duncan, with Colliflower taking over first base. Tucker had been released on September 16 and the Spiders were using primarily Duncan with Colliflower and Sullivan helping out.

Second Base (1)

On August 31, Sport took the place of player-manager Joe Quinn at second base. It is not clear why Quinn did not play, but he was run into by umpire (and former Spider) Chippy McGarr in the previous game while trying to field a ground ball in the third inning. Quinn was back the next game.

Center Field (1)

On September 4, in the first game of doubleheader at Cincinnati, Sport started in place of regular Tommy Dowd. The previous game, Harry Colliflower had started in center field and in game two of the doubleheader, pitcher Crazy Schmitt patrolled the center garden. (It was that type of season!) Dowd was back in center field two days later. He also came in as a fourth-inning replacement for Colliflower in the on September 15—the “vegetable” taking the mound in place of Schmitt.

Pitcher (1)

The last day of the Spiders’ long, long season—October 15, 1899—was a doubleheader at Cincinnati. McAllister got the nod in the first game and a cigar stand clerk named Eddie Kolb was scooped off the street (almost literally) to pitch the second and final game of the season. It makes you wonder if player-manager Joe Quinn came to him before the game and said “Hey Sport, you’ve played everywhere else this miserable season, you want to take a hand at pitching today?” For McAllister’s part, he gave up 17 hits, walking 5, and striking out 1 in a 16-1 shellacking. Kolb was even worse, losing 19-3 to end the Wanderers’ misery.

Ticket Taker(?)!

According to McAllister’s SABR BioProject entry: “Because of his business background, Cleveland’s management utilized Sport as a ticket taker at League Park during the season.”5

Additionally, while McAllister started in eight of the nine batting positions, he never started batting third!

 

 

Following his 1899 Exiles experience, McAllister continued his versatility for a couple more seasons, playing eight positions (except first base) for the 1900 minor league Detroit Tigers, then starting at six positions for now major league Detroit in 1901. Then he played seven positions for Detroit/Baltimore in 1902 (he was “loaned” to Baltimore for 3 games.) Interestingly, his “primary” position shifted from right field to catcher/second base in 1900, catcher/first base in 1901, and then first base in 1902.

Sport McAllister was known as versatile player during his career, and as a result he was used and started all over the diamond, and during one historically infamous season, he did something that no one has done before or since: start all nine positions during the season. 

JONATHAN FRANKEL has been an on-and-off SABR member since 1979. He has researched extensively to fill the gap of the missing late nineteenth/early twentieth century batter strikeouts in the record. In addition, he has contributed articles to prior SABR publications—BRJ (2007) and TNP (2013) as well as recently collaborating with Herm Krabbenhoft on a series of “turn of the century” strikeout research articles for various SABR newsletters. He is a recently retired Process Improvement Consultant and currently resides outside of Detroit.

 

Author’s Note

The 1899 season, especially the 1899 Cleveland Spiders, is what got me seriously into baseball research, starting with documenting all of the 1899 lineups and leading to my obsession with researching and documenting the missing batter strikeouts of this era. (See blog post: http://batterk.blogspot.com/2010/11/how-this-all-got-started.html.)

 

Sources

Baseball Reference

Cleveland Leader

Cleveland Plain Dealer

Jonathan Frankel 1899 Lineup MS Access Database

 

Notes

1. Sport McAllister,” Baseball Reference, accessed July 5, 2026, https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/m/mcallsp01.shtml.

2. “Things That Won’t Happen,” Cleveland Leader, March 31, 1899, 6, newspapers.com.

3. “Dropped Another,” Cleveland Leader, May 1, 1899, 6, newspapers.com.

4. “Public Unmoved,” Cleveland Leader, May 8, 1899, 6, newspapers.com

5. Jimmy Keenan, “Sport McAllister,” SABR Bioproject, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/sport-mcallister/.