Today in sports history

Forty-five years ago today, our man Elmer Flick was elected to the Hall of Fame, along with Sam Rice, Eppa Rixey and John Clarkson.

Who was Elmer Flick? He was a dead-ball-era outfielder, born in Bedford, Ohio, in 1876. He made his major-league debut in 1898 with the Phillies, and after four years with them, he broke his contract and signed the crosstown Athletics, now, of course, in Oakland. After 11 games, the Phillies obtained a court order stopping him and other players who were under contract to them from playing for the A's. They were undoubtedly hoping he'd come back to them, but instead, he signed with Cleveland. He spent the remainder of his career with his hometown club, finishing up in 1910.

He was a .313 career hitter, winning one batting title (1905, .308; the second-lowest number for a batting champion in major-league history) and one slugging title (also in 1905, .462). He'd put up far better numbers in other seasons, but there wasn't a lot of hitting in the American League in 1908, for whatever reason. He also won three straight triples titles (1905-07), and is now 30th on the all-time triples list. He won an RBI title in Philly (1900, 110) and two stolen base titles (1904 and 1906).

After the 1907 season, the Tigers offered Cleveland a young outfielder named Ty Cobb for Flick, but the Indians refused because of Cobb's prickly reputation. As much as I dislike Ty Cobb, that was pretty stupid. Cobb was 21 years old and coming off the first of his 11 batting titles, and he remains the career leader in batting average to this day. Flick was 31 and on the decline. He wound up playing just 79 more games for the Tribe.

Elmer Flick is, by any measure, a marginal Hall of Famer; there are numerous men with better numbers who are still on the outside looking in, and there are very few Hall of Famers who played as briefly as he. I cannot hazard a theory as to why he was elected over some others (perhaps his memorable name?), but he went in 53 years after he played his last game. He was still alive to enjoy the honor, and January 27, 1963, was surely one of the best days of his life. He died in 1971 in Bedford, two days shy of his 95th birthday.