Larry Doyle (baseball)
| Larry Doyle | |||
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| Second baseman | |||
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Born: July 31, 1886 Caseyville, Illinois |
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Died: March 1, 1974 (aged 87) Saranac Lake, New York |
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| MLB debut | |||
| July 22, 1907, for the New York Giants | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| October 2, 1920, for the New York Giants | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .290 | ||
| Home runs | 74 | ||
| Runs batted in | 793 | ||
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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Lawrence Joseph Doyle (July 31, 1886 – March 1, 1974), nicknamed "Laughing Larry", was an American second baseman in Major League Baseball from 1907 to 1920 who played almost his entire career for the New York Giants. The National League's outstanding second baseman during the 1910s, he was awarded the 1912 Chalmers Award as the league's best player, and won the 1915 batting title with a .320 average. The team captain and top everyday star on three consecutive pennant winners (1911–13), his .408 career slugging average was the top mark by an NL second baseman when he retired, as were his career totals in hits (1887), doubles (299), triples (123), total bases (2654) and extra base hits (496). He ended his career among the major league leaders in career games (5th, 1730), putouts (9th, 3635), assists (9th, 4654), total chances (9th, 8732) and double plays (5th, 694) at second base, and set Giants franchise records for career games, at bats and doubles, each of which was broken by Bill Terry.
Born in Caseyville, Illinois, Doyle was a third baseman in the minor leagues before his contract was purchased by the Giants for a then-record $4,500. He debuted with the Giants on July 22, 1907, arriving late after taking the wrong boat across the Hudson River; he cost his team the game with a ninth-inning error, though he also had a pair of hits. Doyle moved to Breese, Illinois, where his family owned a motel next to the current city hall. He expected to be returned to the minor leagues; instead, he was retained by manager John McGraw, who named him the team's field captain in 1908 – a year in which he finished third in the batting race with a .308 average. Doyle, who also became the roommate of Christy Mathewson for several years, followed up with a 1909 season in which he led the NL in hits (172) and was among the league's top four players in batting (.302), slugging (.419), home runs (6) and total bases (239). 1910 saw a slight dropoff, though he was still third in the NL in home runs (8) and fourth in runs scored (97). He then entered the strongest part of his career; in 1911 he finished third in the voting for the initial Chalmers Award after hitting .310 and finishing second in the league with a .527 slugging average – the highest by an NL second baseman since Ross Barnes slugged .590 in the league's inaugural 1876 campaign. Doyle also led the league with 25 triples, the most by an NL player since 1899; it remains the highest total by a Giant since 1900. He stole 30 bases for the third consecutive year, and finished fourth in the league in home runs (13) and fifth in runs (102). In the 1911 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics, he batted .304; with the Giants facing elimination in Game 5, he went 4 for 5, doubling and scoring an intensely disputed run in the 10th inning for a 4–3 victory. He again doubled and scored for a 1–0 lead in the first inning of Game 6, but the Giants lost the game 13–2, and with it the Series.
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