May 17, 1901

• Down a run in the ninth, the Senators' Pop Foster tied it with an inside-the-park home run, then later in the inning, Bill Coughlin hit an outside-the-park single with two men on to give his team an 8-7 walkoff win over the Athletics in Washington

• It wouldn't be until 1920 that major league baseball score a hit like Coughlin's as a home run

• The A's commmitted seven errors

• It was the team's fifth loss in a row and the eighth in their last nine games

• Still trying to find the answer at shortstop, manager Connie Mack played both Dave Fultz and Phil Geier at the position but neither looked very good

• Back in Philadelphia, the Court of Common Pleas denied the Phillies' request for an injunction that would have prevented Nap Lajoie, Chick Fraser, and Bill Bernhard from playing for the Athletics

• According to the court, the issued turned on the reserve clause, saying that giving the team control over a player in perpetuity or releasing them with just ten-days notice demonstrated a lack of “mutuality'' between the two parties and persuaded the judges to rule against the team

• Only Lajoie was named in the ruling, but by prior agreement it was construed to be applicable to Bernhard and Fraser, too

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