Flick, Elmer H.
Baseball
b. Jan. 11, 1876, Bedford, OH
d. Jan. 9, 1971
A virtually forgotten baseball player, Flick briefly achieved fame in 1963, when he was elected to the hall of fame, and again in 1968, when Carl Yastrzemski broke Flick's dubious record by winning a batting title with a .301 average. Flick had previously had the lowest average ever to lead a league, a .308 mark in 1905.
But Flick's lifetime average was 5 points better than that and 28 points better than Yastrzemski's lifetime average. And he once hit .367 without leading the league.
Flick became a major leaguer with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1898, batting .302. A left-handed hitter but right-handed thrower, he was an outfielder who occasionally played second base in his later years. He hit .342, .367, and .333 during his next three years and led the NL in RBI with 110 in 1900, when he also scored 106 runs.
In 1902, Flick jumped to the Philadelphia team in the AL, which was just a year old. However, a state court ruled that no member of the 1901 Phillies could play for any other team in the state, so Flick was sent to the Cleveland Indians, along with the better-known Lapoleon Lajoie.
When he led the league with a .308 average in 1905, he was also the leader in triples with 18 and in slugging percentage with .462. The following year, he led in triples again with 22 and in runs scored with 98, while batting .311. And in 1907, he had a league-leading 18 triples.
A stomach problem that was never clearly diagnosed limited Flick to just nine games in 1908 and, in effect, ended his career. He appeared in 90 games the next two seasons with the Indians and then spent two years in the minor leagues before leaving baseball.