 blazing fastball.
Immediately after the season, Flame was signed by Kitty Brashear to play for the Doyle's of the California Winter League. The league included teams from Los Angeles (Brashear's team), Vernon, San Diego and the biggest drawing card of the league, the Rube Foster's Negro Leagues Leland Giants. It was around this time that he started dating Rose Leonette of Los Angeles. Lee and Rose met at a party and, according to their daughter, "she didn't much like him at first. She thought his red hair and big hands we re ugly." Lee was persistent, however, and the two began a courtship that would result in their marriage in September of 1911. The couple lied about their ages on their marriage license. He said he was 22 and she said she was 18. They were really just 18 and 16, respectively.
The Angels played their games at Washington Park, also known as Chutes Park. It would be the home for Flame Delhi's greatest season in baseball. The 1910 team had finished just 101-121, their first losing season after seven straight years of over-.500 ball, including four league titles. By 1911 baseball had arrived on the coast as the national pastime. More than 9,000 fans showed up for opening day in San Francisco while the Angels drew an overflow crowd of 7,100 to their newly remodeled ballpark. Big Red Delhi got the honor of starting the opener for the Seraphs against the defending PCL champion Portland Beavers. As was the custom, the lone umpire, Gene McGreevy, walked to the center of the diamond, cap in hand, and yelled the names of the starting batteries to the fans. Portland pitcher Tommy Seaton matched Delhi pitch for pitch through five innings. In the sixth, the champs broke through for a run against the Angels' big right-hander. The Angels mounted a rally, scoring two runs in the seventh and chasing Seaton from the game. They added four more in the ninth and gave Delhi the cushion he needed to hang on and win the game 6-4 in spite of a three-run Beaver ninth.
Four days later, Delhi again went to the mound against Portland. With his future wife in the stands, he shut out the Beavers 1-0 allowing just one hit, a two-out single by William Rapps in the second inning. On April 22, in front of the largest crowd ever in Portland, Delhi again beat Seaton and the Beavers, this time by a 4-2 score.
Earlier in the month, on April 6, 'The Human Sunflower' as one scribe called Delhi, pitched two games for the price of one when he went the distance in an 18-inning marathon against the Oaks. Oakland fans had started what would become a long day by attending a luncheon with the players followed by an automobile parade to the ballpark as part of the festivities for their home opener. Oakland scored two in the first but Los Angeles caught the Oaks with one in the sixth and another in the seventh. On and on they went with Delhi and Oakland hurler Knight matching each other inning after inning. Finally, as darkness approached, the Angels pushed across a run in the top of the 18th and Delhi held the lead in the bottom half of the inning for a 3-2 win. Delhi almost caused his team to miss a chance to win when he was called out for missing second base in the last inning. Fortunately, the next hitter singled home what proved to be the winning run. Although they played double the usual number of innings, the time of game was still only 3 hours and 15 minutes. Flame's sister, who lived in the Oakland area, was in the stands to see the big redhead's iron-man performance.
As the season went on, Delhi kept winning and pitching well while the Angels dropped to the cellar early and stayed there all season. The Los Angeles Herald acknowledged that Delhi was about the only bright spot in the Angels' otherwise dismal season: "When Delhi pitches Los Angeles is always conceded a chance against any team in the league, but when any of the others work the fans are generally ready to concede the victory to the opposing faction." Indeed, by the end of the season Delhi had won 27 of the club's 82 victories. The Angels finished dead last with 127 losses.
Meanwhile, Flame was drawing attention from the big leagues. Cincinnati had first rights to the hurler and it appeared certain that he would be there in 1912. Reds manager Clark Griffith had started negotiations with Los Angeles in January to obtain the rights to Delhi, and Cincinnati president Garry Herrmann came to the coast to watch Delhi pitch in May. Under the rules of the time, Delhi's contract had to be sold by the October draft period or any team could draft Delhi and pay a fraction of the price that the sale of his contract would bring. Delhi started the Sunday game against Vernon with Herrmann in attendance but lost the contest due to errors behind him and the nervousness of knowing that the Cincinnati president was in the stands. The Reds hesitated in buying Delhi's contract and other teams would soon join the bidding.
On July 19, Delhi was the victim of one of the strangest plays in baseball history. In the sixth inning of a tie game, the Angels put two men on base with no outs when Charles Moore was hit by a pitch and George Metzger walked. Vernon pitcher Al Carson was replaced by Harry Stewart, who came in to pitch to Angels third baseman Roy Akin. With the runners going, Akin hit a liner over second baseman Kitty Brasher's head. The apparent single was headed for the outfield when center fielder Walter Carlisle came racing in and diving to the turf, he did a complete somersault and came to his feet holding the baseball! Carlisle sprinted to second base to double Moore off and then trotted to first and tagged the bag, completing the unassisted triple play. Vernon went on to score two runs in the ninth and beat the Angels 5-4. It spoiled an otherwise fine performance by Delhi, who hit his only home run of the season in the second inning. The blast over the left-field fence was said to be "a mighty swat, worthy of an Atlas or a Hercules." Carlisle said, "Backed by a winning team, Flame Delhi would never lose a game. That may sound like a strong statement, but (it) will be easily understood by the men who have faced Delhi. He has everything - tremendous speed, fine control, good curves and an excellent slow ball." Praise for Delhi was commonplace in the newspapers and he was often referred to as the next Orvie Overall, Tacoma's 32-game winner for its 1904 championship team who went on to twice win twenty games in the major leagues and post one of the best career ERAs of all-time (2.24). At only 18 years old, Flame Delhi was the best pitcher in the Pacific Coast League.
On June 21 Henry Berry, the president of the Angels, received a telegram from White Sox owner Charles Comiskey asking Berry to set a price on Flame Delhi. Although other teams would join the bidding, the White Sox eventually won Delhi's contract for $5,000. It was reported that this was the highest price paid for a Coast League pitcher up to that time. Delhi was to report to the White Sox for the 1912 season but would be allowed to finish the 1911 season with the Angels. Late in the year, Delhi threw only 75 pitches in a Sunday afternoon game, an apparent professional record for the fewest pitches in a game. His record would stand until 1940 when Julio Bonetti of the Angels would throw only 66 pitches in a victory over Oakland. It was quite a year for the youngster. In all, he pitched in 57 games, winning 27 and losing a league-high 23. He also led the PCL in complete games with 43, an Angels club record that still stands. Flame struck out nearly twice as many batters (187) as he walked (98).
Besides establishing himself as the best pitcher in the West, Delhi was earning a reputation as an all-around athlete. He beat Carl Mueller in two straight games (21-8 and 21-3) to win the Southern California Athletic club handball tournament. According to a Los Angeles-area newspaper, later in the summer he showed up at Ocean Park in "one of the loudest bathing suits of the season." It was said to be "the attraction of all those present on the beach." He entertained the crowd by demonstrating the cutaway, corkscrew, pile dive and several other stunts.
As his fame grew, so did his legend. One scribe wrote of Lee's days in Arizona, "All that the little Flame knew about the world in those cactus salad days was cows, horned toads, castor oil and burros. His chief form of amusement was in tossing ground apples at slab-sided, long-horn steers." An article from a Chicago paper that was in Delhi' s scrapbook said that he played on Pomona University's football team for three years, was the team's pitcher, best basketball man, the best handball player and best swimmer at the university. He never attended the school. Delhi scribbled 'BS' across the article.
Celebrity endorsements aren't anything new. In November, following his spectacular 1911 season, Delhi and Johnny Kane of Vernon were featured in a Bullock's advertisement and then made appearances at the store. The ad told readers that "Flame Delhi says - 'Every boy in Los Angeles should come to Bullock's for his new suit and overcoat. Honestly, the best values I ever saw are here in the store for your boy - Santa Claus, Johnny Kane and I have formed a partnership that means much