Fans Didn’t Want to Mess With Connie Mack: He Might Take You to Court

Heckling has been a part of the baseball experience since the earliest days. Some fans believe that paying for a ticket gives them a right to razz players, both opposing and their own, if they feel it is deserved. This is certainly not one of the more pleasant aspects of the game, and one time Hall-of-Fame manager Connie Mack once decided he had enough and had one particularly aggressive fan arrested for the negative impact he was having on his Philadelphia Athletics.

The city of Philadelphia is well known in the sports world for having some of the most hard-nosed fans. This reputation is supported by an infamous incident in 1968 when even Santa Claus was booed at a Philadelphia Eagles football game. However, the origins for such behavior go back even further and are highlighted by the case of Harry Donnelly and the Athletics.

Bill “Good Time Bill” Lamar was a left-handed sweet- hitting outfielder. A .330 career batting average in the minor leagues made him a valuable major league commodity. Although he reached the big leagues in 1917 with the New York Yankees at the age of 20, it wouldn’t be until 1924, when Mack traded for him (also sending a reported $30,000 in the deal—a princely sum for the time), that he became a regular, hitting .330 in 87 games that year, and .356 in 138 games in 1925.

Unfortunately, Lamar did not turn into a star. He dropped off to a .284 batting average in 1926 and was more of a platoon player in 1927. It was that…