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Popular and witty Charley O'Leary was the regular shortstop for the Tigers from 1904 through 1907 and played on the 1907-09 Detroit pennant winners. In the off-season, he and Tiger prankster Germany Schaefer worked a comic vaudeville act. O'Leary coached for the Yankees from 1920 to 1930, then worked for the Cubs and Browns. He was 51 in 1934 when he asked the Browns for one last chance to improve on his lifetime .226 average. Appearing as a pinch hitter, he singled, raising his average by .00024. (JK)

FROM THE BASEBALL CHRONOLOGY » October 10, 1908: In the World Series Opener, Ed Reulbach, coasting with a 5–1 lead, tires in the 7th. Brown is unable to stop the Tigers from taking a 6–5 lead in the last of the 8th. But the Cubs jump on reliever Ed Summers, a 24-game winner, for six straight hits and five runs in the 9th, and Brown gets the win 10–6. For umpire Bill Klem, it is the first of 15 World Series he will officiate. Detroit's Ira Thomas, batting for Charley O'Leary, hits the first World Series pinch hit when he singles in the 9th. There had been 12 previous pinch-hit attempts in World Series play, including the batter before Thomas. » September 30, 1934: Coach Charley O'Leary scores a run as a pinch hitter for the Browns at age 52--the oldest ML player ever to do so.