An early spitballer, Howell was the workhorse of the 1904-08 Browns pitching staff,
averaging 308 innings and 15 wins a season. In three of those years, his ERA was
1.98 or less. He lost his job as a Browns scout when he tried to pressure the St.
Louis official scorer to give an extra hit to Cleveland's Nap Lajoie on the last
day of the 1910 season. Lajoie and Ty Cobb were in a tight race for the batting title;
Lajoie had eight hits against the Browns that day, but Cobb took the title by a point.
Howell became a minor league umpire.
(NLM)
FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY
»July 1, 1902: Rube Waddell wins his first game for the Athletics, blanking Baltimore on two hits 2–0. He fans the side three times, once on nine pitches in the 3rd, and faces only 27 batters, as C Ossee Schreckengost throws out the two base runners. In fanning the side in the 3rd, 6th, and 9th, Waddell strikes out the same three men each time: Billy Gilbert, Harry Howell, and John Cronin.
»July 29, 1903:
Cy Young goes all the way as Boston loses to the Highlanders, 15-14. The New Yorkers had been shut out in their two previous matches in the series. Patsy Dougherty leads the Boston offense by hitting for the cycle, but Cy gets little defense as Boston makes eight errors behind him. New York starter Jack Chesbro is lifted in the 6th for Harry Howell, while Willie Keeler has four hits to lead the Highlander offense. The game lasts two hours: 10 minutes.
»June 23, 1906:
The Browns' Harry Howell allows 11 hits in shutting out Cleveland, 9-0.
»October 3, 1907: The Red Sox end their 16-game losing streak by nipping the Browns 1–0. Cy Morgan is the victor over Harry Howell.
»October 15, 1910: St. Louis manager Jack O'Connor is fired by Browns president Hedges for his role in the Lajoie batting-title travesty. Also fired is coach Harry Howell for allegedly delivering an offer to the official scorer E.V. Parrish to change his error call to a hit.
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