Hagerty: How a dead guy won the PCL batting title

From SABR member Tim Hagerty at The Sporting News on March 29, 2016:

Heinie Heitmuller won the Pacific Coast League batting title a month after he died.

Heitmuller was having a magnificent offensive season for the Los Angeles Angels in 1912, but so was his teammate Pete Daley. The two sluggers volleyed the league’s batting average lead back and forth throughout the season.

On September 27, Heitmuller went 6-for-6. He almost caught Daley but his body caught typhoid fever. Heitmuller’s illness forced him to leave the team on September 29. He intended to miss only a few games but his condition worsened and he passed away on October 8. The Angels canceled their game that day and other ballparks held moments of silence in Heitmuller’s honor.

“The entire team is depressed in the loss of Heitmuller. We have lost one of the best-liked members of our baseball family,” Angels’ manager Pop Dillon told the Los Angeles Times.

Read the full article here: http://www.sportingnews.com/mlb-news/4699925-heinie-heitmuller-1912-batting-title-death-athletics-los-angeles-angels-pete-daley



Originally published: March 29, 2016. Last Updated: March 29, 2016.