He Rewrote the Rules

Today is the birthday of Herman “Germany” Schaefer, born February 4th, 1876 in Chicago, Illinois.

Schaefer grew up on Chicago’s Southside, an area of the city that even then had a reputation for crime and vice. While his love of the game of baseball kept him out of trouble, and then took him to Kansas, St. Paul, and Seattle before landing in the major leagues, Germany managed to bring a seemingly innate mischievousness with him wherever he went.

Schaefer’s antics — bullying umpires at bars, wearing raincoats on the field in attempts to have games called for weather, and carrying his bat around the bases while pretending to shoot at the pitcher he’d just hit off of — earned him both admiration among the press and fans, as well as the friendship of his teammates. But Schaefer’s most lasting impact on the sport came from just one game.

In the bottom of the ninth, with one run down, and a man on third, Schaefer stole second in an attempt to draw a throw from the catcher and allow the runner on third to steal home. Schaefer made it to second, but didn’t draw the throw. Not willing to give up on the plan, he then reversed order and stole first on the next pitch. Back at first, he then ran for second on the following pitch, finally drawing a throw, and allowing the runner on third to head for home. The plan didn’t work — both were thrown out.

In 1919, Schaefer would die suddenly of a hemorrhage at just 42 years old. After his death, baseball’s official rulebook would be updated to clarify the loophole he’d exploited 9 years earlier; 5.09b(10), “After he has acquired legal possession of a base, he runs the bases in reverse order for the purpose of confusing the defense or making a travesty of the game. The umpire shall immediately call 'Time' and declare the runner out."

Betting Umps, Pitchers Return, and More

• Good for Business, Bad for the Sport – One of the most statistically accurate umpires has been fired for sharing betting accounts with a pro poker player. A 2024 estimate showed that the MLB could expect to earn upwards of $1 billion a year from the gaming industry.

• Commissioner Fay Vincent Dies at 86 – The former Columbia Pictures, and Coca-Cola executive headed the league from 1989 to 1992 after Bart Giammatti’s death. While he managed to facilitate the continuation of 1989 World Series after the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, he wasn’t able to save baseball owners from themselves and was pushed out of the office in 1992.

• Detroit Gets Their Guy Back – After a late-in-the-season trade to the Dodgers in 2024 that brought the Tigers shortstop Try Sweeney and catcher Thayron Liranzo, pitcher Jack Flaherty has signed a 2-year, $35 million deal to land back with the Tigers. The deal includes an opt-out after the first year, which will pay $25 million, and a second year that could double a guaranteed $10m to $20m if he starts at least 15 games. All in all, it looks like a great deal for the Tigers.

• More to Cook on the Hot Stove – With Jack at Detroit, and Scherzer signing with the Blue Jays, the question of where Alex Bergman, Pete Alonso, Nick Pivetta, Andrew Heaney, Alex Verdugo, and Jose Quintana will go is still up in the air.

• South Dakota, Alaska…You OK? — Someone put together a map of 2024 MLB players by home counties. They wrote, “Unsurprisingly, areas that contributed a ton of players include: Southern California, Atlanta metro, DFW metro, Houston metro, and Florida. There are also a ton of guys from Chicago, and across dozens of small towns in the south.” Seems about right. South Dakota and Alaska — hang in there. It’ll happen.

The Birth of Free Agency, The Pitcher’s Award, and More

• 1956 — Ford Frick introduces the Cy Young Memorial Award in memory of the Hall of Fame pitcher who died in 1955. For the first ten years, there were two separate awards — one for the American League, and one for the National League.

• 1976 — Federal Judge John W. Oliver of the U.S. district court of Western Missouri upheld the decision of an arbitrator and granted free agency to pitchers Andy Messersmith and Dave McNally, effectively bringing an end to the reserve clause, and ushering in the era of free agency. (Watch more about the reserve clause here.)

• 1991 — The Hall of Fame Board of Directors voted unanimously to exclude any player placed on the permanently ineligible list from consideration on the Hall of Fame ballot, preventing Pete Rose from ever being elected.