Flame Delhi: Arizona’s First Big Leaguer

In the spring of 1912, Arizona was still growing up. After all, the former territory had only gained statehood in February and most of the country still thought of Arizona as the untamed Wild West. It’s not surprising that on April 16th the first major league appearance by Flame Delhi, a rookie pitcher for the Chicago White Sox, went largely unnoticed.

It probably wasn’t even noted in any newspaper that Delhi was the first-born Arizonan to play big league baseball. Born in the mining town of Harqua Hala in 1892, Delhi had come up through the ranks of the Pacific Coast League and was getting his chance with the White Sox. The headlines of the Chicago newspapers on April 16th were dominated by the sinking of the Titanic which had gone down just a day earlier.

The next day, with the news of the Titanic disaster still dominating the headlines, the Chicago American reported on the Tigers-White Sox match-up by noting that the day was “too cold to play baseball” and the White Sox performed as if they knew it.” About 3,000 fans braved the cold and the threat of rain to watch the Sox take on the Detroit Tigers, who were without the services of the great Ty Cobb. The Georgia Peach was on a train headed back to Detroit. It seems that the room Cobb was assigned at the Chicago Beach Hotel was next to the Illinois Central Railroad tracks. When Cobb complained about the noise and was told that he couldn’t be moved to another hotel, he became furious. He demanded that the whole team be moved and when his demand was declined, he refused to play and jumped a train home to Detroit. A young outfielder named Hank Perry replaced Cobb in the Detroit lineup that day.

Perry would be the first batter to face Delhi in the hurler’s Major League debut. Lee William Delhi, nicknamed “Flame” because of his shock of red hair, came on to pitch in the top of the seventh inning with Chicago already trailing 4-0. Hank “Socks” Perry had himself just made his big league bow only six days earlier. His career, like Delhi’s, would be brief. For Perry, 1912 would be his only big league season. It was a year that saw him play in only 13 games and this would be his greatest day in baseball as he went 2 for 6 against the Chisox. He ended the season with six hits in 36 at-bats, a .167 average.

So, as the seventh opened, it was two youngsters trying to make their mark. One in the lineup replacing the legendary Ty Cobb, the other thrown in to save the regular pitchers’ arms on a blustery Chicago day. Flame showed the smoke that had gotten him to the big leagues when he struck out Perry. It would be the high point of his Major League career.

The next batter was future Hall-of-Famer Sam Crawford. “Wahoo” Sam slammed a shot back through the box past Delhi’s ankles and into center field for a single. Del “Sheriff” Gainer, the Tiger first baseman, followed by grounding softly to shortstop Buck Weaver who made the play at first, sending Crawford to second—two outs. With Donie Bush at the plate, Crawford stole third, one of his 41 steals on the season. Bush then worked Delhi for a walk. It was one of the light-hitting shortstop’s league leading 117 free passes that year. Bush, in spite of a lifetime average of only .250, led the American League in walks five times including four years in a row from 1909-12.

At 5’6″ and 140 pounds, the diminutive infielder used his size to his advantage. Charlie O’Leary stepped to the plate with runners at the corners. O’Leary had been the Tigers’ regular shortstop from 1904-07, but by 1912 he was playing second base and was in decline. He would play in only three games that season before being released. In the off-season O’Leary and former teammate Germany Schaefer would work a vaudeville act together.

On the first pitch to O’Leary, Bush took off for second. When catcher Bruno Block threw down, Crawford raced towards the plate. The relay home was late and both runners were safe having pulled off the double steal. Delhi then struck out O’Leary to end the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh inning, trailing 5-0, the Sox tried to rally as Callahan and Bodie singled. Matty McIntyre then pinch hit for Chick Mattick. McIntyre lined a shot that was speared by O’Leary. He flipped the ball to Bush at second to double off Callahan and the relay to first was in time to catch Bodie off base—triple play!

It was the second time in his career that Delhi’s club had been victimized by a triple play. Flame was the pitcher of record for the Los Angeles Angels of the PCL on July 19, 1911, when teammate Roy Akin hit into an unassisted triple play. It was one of the strangest plays in baseball history as the fielder that turned the trick was the center fielder Walter Carlisle.

With the Detroit triple play in the books, any chance the Sox had for a comeback seemed to vanish. In the eighth inning it appeared the club had lost all of its spark. Flame was unable to get the bottom of the order out. Light-hitting catcher Oscar Strange led off with a single up the middle followed by a single by pitcher, Ed Willet, a .165 hitter on the year. It was his third hit of the game in a season in which he recorded only 19 hits. The leadoff hitter, Ossie Vitt, grounded to Weaver with Willett moving to second and Strange holding at third. Baldy Louden drew a walk to load the bases and bring up Perry. It looked like Delhi might escape the inning when Perry grounded back to the box and Flame threw home to force Stange for the second out, but big Sam Crawford grounded a shot past Weaver, scoring Willett and Louden. Perry tried for third but was thrown out by Callahan to end the inning.

After the White Sox failed to score in the eighth, Delhi returned to the mound for the ninth. Gainor reached on Weaver’s error, Bush walked, O’Leary grounded out advancing the runners and Strange singled to center to drive in two runs. Willett and Vitt singled to load the bases and Louden singled past Delhi to score another run. Perry then hit back to Delhi who threw home for the force. Crawford mercifully flied to right to end the inning with three runs scoring. Of the nine outs Delhi recorded, four were accounted for by Perry who had struck out, grounded into two force plays, and been thrown out trying to go to third base.

When Flame left the mound he surely didn’t realize that there wouldn’t be another day. His career as a Major Leaguer was over. Delhi was pinch hit for to lead off the ninth and never again would appear in a big league game. The White Sox lost that day 10-1 but Arizona had seen their first native son play big league baseball.

Delhi had also left another legacy behind in Chicago. He was part of the composite that made up Jack Keefe, the bush leaguer in Ring Lardner’s “You Know Me Al” stories. In an interview with Ping Bodie that was published in 1940, Bodie talked about his role in Lardner’s work: “Naw, I wasn’t the Al in (sic) ‘You Know Me Al’ series that Ring Lardner wrote. I was the stoolie for Lardner. That character was a combination of Flame Delhi (he’s president of Western Pipe and Steel now) and old Reb Russell. I roomed with both of them at different times and I’d tell Lardner what they said and he’d use it in those letters. That Lardner could write a bit, too.”

Delhi returned to the PCL with San Francisco but his arm was clearly shot. Although he had some success bouncing around the minors with Great Falls and Kansas City, his chance had passed him by. He did get a brief tryout with the Pirates and even roomed with the great Honus Wagner, but another big league appearance was not to be.

Finally in 1916, he returned to his roots in Arizona to play for a mining team in Ray. He played there for two seasons in exchange for the company giving him a education in engineering. He went on to become an executive in the shipbuilding industry, pioneering the use of underwater welding. At the height of the depression, he was earning $80,000 a year.

In retirement, Flame would tell baseball stories to his grandchildren while sipping on lemonade and gin. He died at Marin County Hospital on May 9, 1966, at the age of 75.

Rodney Johnson is the president of the Arizona Flame Delhi Chapter of SABR. He has written extensively about the history of Arizona baseball.