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# On This Date: Ty Cobb and Frank Schulte Win Baseball's First MVP Award, and Each Gets a Car (Oct. 11, 1911)
- URL: https://www.grumpybuck.com/on-this-date-ty-cobb-and-frank-schulte-win-baseballs-first-mvp-award-and-each-gets-a-car-oct-11-1911/
- Published: 2026-10-12T01:33:12.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-12T01:39:18.000Z
- Description: 115 years ago today, Ty Cobb and Wildfire Schulte won the first MVP-style award in baseball, and a Chalmers car each. It started with a batting-title scandal.
- Author: Brad Riddell
- Tags: Sports History, On This Date, Baseball, MLB

On Oct. 11, 1911, in Chicago, a committee of baseball writers announced the 2 best players in the major leagues. In the American League it was Ty Cobb of the Detroit Tigers, and it wasn't close. In the National League it was Frank "Wildfire" Schulte of the Chicago Cubs, and it was very close. Each man won a brand-new automobile from the Chalmers Motor Company of Detroit.

It was the first award in baseball history given to a league's most valuable player. The Chicago Tribune said the 2 men had won "the 1911 niches in baseball's new hall of fame and the positions of chauffeurs to the two automobiles." The car part was real. The hall of fame part was 25 years early.

And the whole thing only existed because the year before, the same car company had nearly blown up the American League.

![The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1911. Cobb's "percentage" was a perfect 1.000; Schulte's was .453.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/10-autos-for-schulte-and-cobb-new-york-times-1911-10-12.jpg)

The New York Times, Oct. 12, 1911\. Cobb's "percentage" was a perfect 1.000; Schulte's was .453.

## The car that started a scandal

In 1910, Hugh Chalmers, a former cash-register salesman who had become one of Detroit's car men, offered a Chalmers "30" touring car, listed at $1,500, to the batting champion of each league. Going into the final weekend, the American League race was between Cobb and Cleveland's Nap Lajoie, and plenty of people in baseball were rooting against Cobb.

On the last day of the season, Oct. 9, 1910, Cleveland played a doubleheader at St. Louis. Lajoie went 8-for-8, most of it on bunts down the third-base line, where the Browns' rookie third baseman, Red Corriden, was playing back on the outfield grass. The papers called it what it was.

![Detroit Free Press, Oct. 10, 1910: "Browns Hand Frenchman Enough Hits to Enable Him to Pass Tyrus Cobb."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/lajoie_looks_like_autos_owner_dfp_1910-10-10.jpg)

Detroit Free Press, Oct. 10, 1910: "Browns Hand Frenchman Enough Hits to Enable Him to Pass Tyrus Cobb."

![St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 10, 1910: "Lajoie Not Entitled to Auto; Fans Think Browns Handed Larry Championship."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/02-lajoie-not-entitled-to-auto-st-louis-post-dispatch-1910-10-10.jpg)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Oct. 10, 1910: "Lajoie Not Entitled to Auto; Fans Think Browns Handed Larry Championship."

American League president Ban Johnson investigated, and on Oct. 15 he declared Cobb the champion, .385069 to .384095\. That's a margin of .000974\. The Browns fired their manager, Jack O'Connor, and coach Harry Howell, and neither ever worked in the major leagues again.

Chalmers had a better idea than picking a side. He gave a car to both of them. One Detroit paper noted that this way, "the donor who gave the first prize for advertising purposes will get a lot more publicity."

![Detroit Times, Oct. 14, 1910: Chalmers solves the Cobb-Lajoie controversy by buying a second car.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/chalmers_offers_two_autos_detroit_times_1910-10-14.jpg)

Detroit Times, Oct. 14, 1910: Chalmers solves the Cobb-Lajoie controversy by buying a second car.

(The story has a footnote. In 1978, researcher Pete Palmer found that one of Cobb's 1910 games had been counted twice. With it removed, Lajoie actually won. In 1981, Commissioner Bowie Kuhn declined to change the record books, and Cobb is still listed as the 1910 champion.)

## A hall of fame, 25 years early

Chalmers didn't want another batting race decided by a third baseman standing in left field. In February 1911, he announced the prize would go instead to the player in each league who was, in the words of the new rule, "the most important and useful player to his club and to the league at large." The papers announced it as baseball's new "hall of fame."

![Detroit News, Feb. 3, 1911: "Hall of Fame for the National Game." The real one in Cooperstown wouldn't elect its first class until 1936.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/06-hall-of-fame-for-national-game-detroit-news-1911-02-03.jpg)

Detroit News, Feb. 3, 1911: "Hall of Fame for the National Game." The real one in Cooperstown wouldn't elect its first class until 1936.

The voters were 11 baseball writers, one in each big-league city, chaired by Ren Mulford Jr. of Cincinnati. Each one ranked 8 players, 8 points for first down to 1 for eighth. Managers weren't eligible.

## Cobb: 64 points out of 64

Cobb's 1911 season was one of the greatest anybody had ever had. He hit .420\. He had 248 hits, 147 runs, 127 RBIs and 83 stolen bases, and he put together a 40-game hitting streak. Every writer who voted in the American League put him first, for 64 points out of a possible 64\. In the 4 years the Chalmers Award existed, nobody else ever won it unanimously.

![Detroit Free Press, Oct. 12, 1911: "Declared King of Ball Players."](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/cobb_declared_king_dfp_1911-10-12.jpg)

Detroit Free Press, Oct. 12, 1911: "Declared King of Ball Players."

The rest of the American League voting: Ed Walsh of the White Sox was 2nd with 35, then Eddie Collins (32), Shoeless Joe Jackson (28) and Walter Johnson (19). Lajoie, Cobb's co-winner the year before, got 5 points.

![Ty Cobb's 1911 baseball card.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/1911_ty_cobb.jpg)

Ty Cobb's 1911 baseball card.

![Ty Cobb slides in.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/ty_cobb_i.jpg)

Ty Cobb slides in.

## Wildfire

The National League was a different story. Schulte won with 29 points, just ahead of Christy Mathewson (25), with Larry Doyle, Honus Wagner and Grover Cleveland Alexander tied at 23.

Schulte had earned it. In 1911 he hit 21 home runs, the most by any big-leaguer since 1899, and he tied for the league lead with 107 RBIs. He also had 30 doubles, 21 triples and 23 stolen bases, which made him the first player ever with at least 20 doubles, 20 triples, 20 homers and 20 steals in one season. Only 3 men have done it since: Willie Mays in 1957 and Curtis Granderson and Jimmy Rollins, both in 2007\. He hit 4 grand slams that year, too, the first player to do it in a single season.

![Chicago Tribune, Oct. 12, 1911.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/schulte_chosen_best_tribune_1911-10-12.jpg)

Chicago Tribune, Oct. 12, 1911.

The nickname, as the story goes, came from a play called *Wildfire*. Schulte saw it, starring Lillian Russell, in Vicksburg, Miss., then named a racehorse after it, and the Chicago writers did the rest.

![Frank "Wildfire" Schulte of the Chicago Cubs.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/frank_schulte_iii-1.jpg)

Frank "Wildfire" Schulte of the Chicago Cubs.

## The cars

Schulte got his first. On Monday, Oct. 16, the car was rolled out at the Cubs' West Side Park before a city-series game against the White Sox, which ended up rained out, and Schulte climbed behind the wheel.

![Chicago Tribune, Oct. 17, 1911: the presentation to "Home Run" Schulte, and Schulte at the wheel.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/11-schulte-presented-auto-west-side-park-chicago-tribune-1911-10-17.jpg)

Chicago Tribune, Oct. 17, 1911: the presentation to "Home Run" Schulte, and Schulte at the wheel.

Cobb's came 8 days later, in the middle of the World Series. On Oct. 24, before Game 4 between the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Giants at Shibe Park, the committee handed him his Chalmers in front of the crowd. Cobb, who already owned 3 cars, said this was the best of them, and that he planned to drive it home to Georgia.

![Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 25, 1911: Cobb's Chalmers at Shibe Park, presented by James Isaminger of the Chalmers committee.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/12-cobb-presented-chalmers-auto-shibe-park-philadelphia-inquirer-1911-10-25.jpg)

Philadelphia Inquirer, Oct. 25, 1911: Cobb's Chalmers at Shibe Park, presented by James Isaminger of the Chalmers committee.

![The car that started it all: a Chalmers "30" ad, $1,500 "fully equipped," from the Tacoma Daily Ledger, Oct. 15, 1911.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/13-chalmers-30-ad-tacoma-daily-ledger-1911-10-15.jpg)

The car that started it all: a Chalmers "30" ad, $1,500 "fully equipped," from the Tacoma Daily Ledger, Oct. 15, 1911.

## What happened next

The Chalmers Award lasted 3 more years. A player could only win it once, so the winners were Tris Speaker and Larry Doyle in 1912, Walter Johnson and Jake Daubert in 1913, and Eddie Collins and Johnny Evers in 1914\. Then Chalmers quietly ended it. The publicity had worn off, and the cars weren't selling any faster.

![Walter Johnson receives his Chalmers in 1913. (Photo: Bain News Service, Library of Congress, public domain)](https://storage.ghost.io/c/6a/b0/6ab0eb2f-edcf-411e-aaff-39e6be3d4e39/content/images/2026/10/walter_johnson_chalmers_1913.jpg)

Walter Johnson receives his Chalmers in 1913\. (Photo: Bain News Service, Library of Congress, public domain)

The leagues brought back an award of their own in the 1920s, and in 1931 the Baseball Writers' Association of America began naming the MVP the way it still does today. The official MVP list starts there. But the idea started with 11 sportswriters, a Detroit car company and a batting race nobody trusted.

Hugh Chalmers' company didn't last much longer than his award. It was absorbed into Maxwell, which became Chrysler.

**Who would win a car from you this season? Tell us in the comments.**