(Almost) The Greatest Yankees Outfielder, Possibly Ever

By Paul Semendinger

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Note - This article was penned for the IBWAA and appeared in their daily newsletter, Here's the Pitch on October 17, 2026.

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The biggest turning point in Yankees history came when the Yankees acquired a young, sometimes trouble-making outfielder (and pitcher) named George Herman Ruth before the 1920 season. From that point on, the fortunes of the Yankees changed dramatically and the history of baseball was changed forever.

But what if the Yankees had acquired a different trouble-making outfielder years before?

It could have happened.

And rather than the Yankees ascending to the top of baseball in the 1920s, it may have occurred even sooner.

One of the greatest baseball playing families of the early years of the sport were the Delahanty brothers.

• Ed Delahanty batted .346 over 16 years from 1888 to 1903. Today he is in the Hall of Fame.

• Jim Delahanty played for 13 seasons from 1901 to 1915, batting .283.

• Tom Delahanty played for three seasons in the 1890s. He batted .239.

• Joe Delahanty played three seasons in the early 1900s, batting .238.

And then there was brother Frank...

Frank Delahanty arrived in the big leagues in 1905 with the New York Highlanders. Over his first two seasons he hit just .242 for New York. It wasn’t the greatest start. Also, in spite of his overall performance, Frank had run-ins with the Highlanders’ management over his salary. Frank felt he should be earning more than the Highlanders were willing to pay him.

As the 1907 season was dawning, the Highlanders were looking to move Frank to another club.

In 1905, the Tigers had a young outfielder of their own. That year, he batted just .238.

In 1906, that outfielder batted .316. It was a nice improvement, but this player still wasn’t setting the world on fire. That outfielder, as noted above, was also a bit of a trouble-maker...

Sometimes teams seek to trade one headache for another, and it was with that as the background that the Highlanders and the Tigers discussed, at least for a moment, trading Frank Delahanty for Ty Cobb.

In the end, the Tigers passed on the offer, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t willing to trade Cobb. Later, the Tigers offered Cobb to the Cleveland Naps for Elmer Flick. It was the Naps who were the ones to decline the trade that time.

The Yankees eventually traded Frank Delahanty to the Naps in exchange for Earl Moore.

In 1907, Cobb led the American League with a .350 average. He would go on to lead the league in batting nine consecutive seasons and 12 times overall. Ty Cobb is still considered by some the greatest hitter of all time.

Frank Delahanty played for Cleveland in 1907 before rejoining the Highlanders in 1908. Then, after an absence from the Major Leagues for a few years, Frank played for two seasons, 1914 and 1915, in the Federal League. Across his 6-year big-league career, he was a .226 hitter.

Heading into 1907, Elmer Flick, who led the A.L. in batting in 1905, had played nine seasons and had a lifetime batting average of .318 but 1907 was his finale as a full-time player. The 1910 season was his last.

And Earl Moore? He had been a pitcher, and a pretty good one at that. In 1905, he went 20-8 and led the A.L. in ERA at 1.74. For the Highlanders in 1907, he went just 2-6. Moore was with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1908. He pitched in National League through the 1913 season.

After 13 seasons, he had won 152 games.

In 1914, Earl Moore went to the Federal League. He signed on to play with the Buffalo Buffeds. His teammate that year was Frank Delahanty.