1916 Philadelphia Athletics season

The 1916 Philadelphia Athletics season was the 16th season of the Philadelphia Athletics baseball franchise. The team concluded the season in eighth place within the American League, achieving a record of 36 wins against 117 losses. Baseball historians frequently regard the 1916 Athletics as the poorest-performing team in the history of the American League,^[1] with a winning percentage of .235, which remains the lowest for any modern major league team since 1900. The 117 losses recorded by the team stood as a Major League Baseball record until the expansion New York Mets surpassed it in 1962, finishing with 120 losses but a slightly better winning percentage of .250.^[2][3][4]

1916 Philadelphia Athletics
League	American League
Ballpark	Shibe Park
City	Philadelphia
Record	36–117 (.235)
League place	8th
Owners	Connie Mack, Benjamin Shibe, Tom Shibe, and John Shibe
Managers	Connie Mack
← 1915 1917 →

Regular season

Season standings

• v
• t
• e

American League

Team	W	L	Pct.	GB	Home	Road
Boston Red Sox	91	63	.591	—	49‍–‍28	42‍–‍35
Chicago White Sox	89	65	.578	2	49‍–‍28	40‍–‍37
Detroit Tigers	87	67	.565	4	49‍–‍28	38‍–‍39
New York Yankees	80	74	.519	11	46‍–‍31	34‍–‍43
St. Louis Browns	79	75	.513	12	45‍–‍32	34‍–‍43
Cleveland Indians	77	77	.500	14	44‍–‍33	33‍–‍44
Washington Senators	76	77	.497	14½	49‍–‍28	27‍–‍49
Philadelphia Athletics	36	117	.235	54½	23‍–‍53	13‍–‍64

Record vs. opponents

1916 American League record v t e Sources:
Team	BOS	CWS	CLE	DET	NYY	PHA	SLB	WSH
Boston	—	14–8	15–7	14–8	11–11	16–6	10–12–1	11–11–1
Chicago	8–14	—	13–9	13–9	10–12	18–4	15–7	12–10–1
Cleveland	7–15	9–13	—	11–11	12–10	18–4	11–11–2	9–13–1
Detroit	8–14	9–13	11–11	—	14–8–1	18–4	13–9	14–8
New York	11–11	12–10	10–12	8–14–1	—	15–7	9–13	15–7–1
Philadelphia	6–16	4–18	4–18	4–18	7–15	—	5–17	6–15–1
St. Louis	12–10–1	7–15	11–11–2	9–13	13–9	17–5	—	10–12–1
Washington	11–11–1	10–12–1	13–9–1	8–14	7–15–1	15–6–1	12–10–1	—

Roster

1916 Philadelphia Athletics
Roster
Pitchers Rube Bressler Bullet Joe Bush Cap Crowell Michael Driscoll George Hesselbacher Jing Johnson Axel Lindstrom Bill Morrisette Elmer Myers Jack Nabors Rube Parnham Carl Ray Jack Richardson Socks Seibold Tom Sheehan Harry Weaver Walt Whittaker Marsh Williams Weldon Wyckoff		Catchers Doc Carroll Raymond Haley Billy Meyer Mike Murphy Val Picinich Infielders Sam Crane Roy Grover Thomas Healy Nap Lajoie Otis Lawry Lew Malone Lee McElwee Stuffy McInnis Charlie Pick Harland Rowe Whitey Witt		Outfielders Jim Brown Moxie Divis Charlie Grimm Bill Johnson Lee King Red Lanning Ralph Mitterling Rube Oldring Wally Schang Bill Stellbauer Amos Strunk Shag Thompson Buck Thrasher Jimmy Walsh Other batters Harry Davis		Manager Connie Mack

Player stats

Batting

Starters by position

Note: Pos = Position; G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Pos	Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
C	Billy Meyer	50	138	32	.232	1	12
1B	Stuffy McInnis	140	512	151	.295	1	60
2B	Nap Lajoie	113	426	105	.246	2	35
SS	Whitey Witt	143	563	138	.245	2	36
3B	Charlie Pick	121	398	96	.241	0	20
OF	Wally Schang	110	338	90	.266	7	38
OF	Amos Strunk	150	544	172	.316	3	49
OF	Jimmy Walsh	114	390	91	.233	1	27

Other batters

Note: G = Games played; AB = At bats; H = Hits; Avg. = Batting average; HR = Home runs; RBI = Runs batted in

Player	G	AB	H	Avg.	HR	RBI
Lee McElwee	54	155	41	.265	0	10
Rube Oldring	40	146	36	.247	0	14
Lee King	42	144	27	.188	0	8
Otis Lawry	41	123	25	.203	0	4
Val Picinich	40	118	23	.195	0	5
Raymond Haley	34	108	25	.231	0	4
Roy Grover	20	77	21	.273	0	7
Bill Stellbauer	25	48	13	.271	0	5
Jim Brown	14	42	10	.238	1	5
Ralph Mitterling	13	39	6	.154	0	2
Harland Rowe	17	36	5	.139	0	3
Red Lanning	19	33	6	.182	0	1
Buck Thrasher	7	29	9	.310	0	4
Mike Murphy	14	27	3	.111	0	1
Thomas Healy	6	23	6	.261	0	2
Doc Carroll	10	22	2	.091	0	0
Charlie Grimm	12	22	2	.091	0	0
Shag Thompson	15	17	0	.000	0	0
Bill Johnson	4	15	4	.267	0	1
Moxie Divis	3	6	1	.167	0	1
Lew Malone	5	4	0	.000	0	0
Sam Crane	2	4	1	.250	0	0
Harry Davis	1	0	0	----	0	0

Pitching

Starting pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Elmer Myers	44	315.0	14	23	3.66	182
Bullet Joe Bush	40	286.2	15	24	2.57	157
Jack Nabors	40	212.2	1	20	3.47	74
Jing Johnson	12	84.1	2	8	3.74	25
Rube Parnham	4	24.2	2	1	4.01	8

Other pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; IP = Innings pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	IP	W	L	ERA	SO
Tom Sheehan	38	188.0	1	16	3.69	54
Marsh Williams	10	51.1	0	6	7.89	17
Cap Crowell	9	39.2	0	5	4.99	15
George Hesselbacher	6	26.0	0	4	7.27	6
Red Lanning	6	24.1	0	3	8.14	9
Socks Seibold	3	21.2	1	2	4.15	5
Weldon Wyckoff	7	21.1	0	1	5.48	4
Rube Bressler	4	15.0	0	2	6.60	8
Carl Ray	3	9.1	0	1	4.82	5

Relief pitchers

Note: G = Games pitched; W = Wins; L = Losses; SV = Saves; ERA = Earned run average; SO = Strikeouts

Player	G	W	L	SV	ERA	SO
Harry Weaver	3	0	0	0	10.13	2
Michael Driscoll	1	0	1	0	5.40	0
Axel Lindstrom	1	0	0	0	4.50	1
Bill Morrisette	1	0	0	0	6.75	2
Walt Whittaker	1	0	0	0	4.50	0
Jack Richardson	1	0	0	0	40.50	1

Awards and honors

League top five finishers

• Bullet Joe Bush: #4 in AL in strikeouts (157)
• Bullet Joe Bush: #3 in AL in shutouts (8)
• Bullet Joe Bush: #3 in AL in complete games (25)
• Bullet Joe Bush: MLB leader in losses (24)
• Bullet Joe Bush: MLB leader in wild pitches (15)
• Bullet Joe Bush: #2 in AL in walks allowed (130)
• Elmer Myers: #2 in AL in strikeouts (182)
• Elmer Myers: #2 in AL in complete games (31)
• Elmer Myers: #2 in AL in losses (23)
• Elmer Myers: MLB leader in earned runs allowed (128)
• Elmer Myers: #2 in AL in hits allowed (280)
• Elmer Myers: MLB leader in walks allowed (168)
• Elmer Myers: #2 in AL in home runs allowed (7)
• Elmer Myers: #2 in AL in wild pitches (13)
• Elmer Myers: #2 in AL in hit batsmen (14)
• Jack Nabors: #3 in AL in losses (20)
• Amos Strunk: #4 in AL in batting average (.316)

See also

• List of worst Major League Baseball season records