Benny Kauff
| Benny Kauff | |||
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| Outfielder | |||
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Born: January 5, 1890 Pomeroy, Ohio |
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Died: November 17, 1961 (aged 71) Columbus, Ohio |
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| MLB debut | |||
| April 20, 1912, for the New York Highlanders | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| July 2, 1920, for the New York Giants | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .311 | ||
| Home runs | 49 | ||
| Runs batted in | 454 | ||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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Benjamin Michael Kauff (January 5, 1890 – November 17, 1961) was a professional baseball player, who played centerfield and batted and threw left-handed. Kauff was known as the "Ty Cobb of the Feds." Though he appears on many lists of Jewish baseball players, such as Harry Stein's 1976 Esquire magazine article "All Time All-Star Argument Starter", Kauff was not Jewish. Kauff was banned from baseball in 1921 amid charges of auto theft; despite his acquittal, baseball commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis refused to overturn the ban.
Kauff played his first game in the majors with the New York Highlanders on April 20, 1912. He played only five games with the Highlanders before being sent down to the minors.
After spending the 1913 season in the minors, he appeared with the Indianapolis Hoosiers of the short-lived third major league, the Federal League. Indianapolis rode his league-leading bat to the first league crown in 1914, but traded him to the Brooklyn Tip-Tops before the 1915 season. The Tip-Tops, unable to capitalize on Kauff's hitting, finished seventh in the Federal League's second, and last, season.
Kauff was called "Ty Cobb of the Feds" for his dominant hitting during both years of the Federal League's existence. In 1914, he led the league in batting average (.370; still the rookie record for league-leading batting average), on-base percentage (.447), runs (120), hits (211), total bases (305), doubles (44) and stolen bases (75), while finishing 2nd in slugging percentage (.534) and 3rd in RBIs (95) and walks (72).
He followed with an almost equally impressive season in 1915. That year he led the Federal League in batting average (.342), obp (.446), slugging percentage (.509) and steals (55) while finishing 2nd in walks (85), 3rd in home runs (12) and 4th in RBIs (83), runs (92) and hits (165).
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