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Ty Cobb – Tris Speaker Photo Gallery
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A Significant Date For Both Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker!
Yesterday, August 30, is an important day in baseball history. In 1905, 111 years ago, the Tigers’ Ty Cobb recorded his first major league hit in his first major league at-bat. The 18 year-old center fielder doubled off Jack Chesbro in the first inning of the Tigers’ 5-3 victory over the Highlanders at Detroit’s Bennett Park. The two-bagger was the first of the 4,189 hits the ‘Georgia Peach’ collected during his 24-year Hall of Fame career.
Also, 88 years ago in 1928, Tris Speaker, then a member of the Philadelphia Athletics, recorded his final major league at bat. He was struck out by Red Sox pitcher and future Hall-of-Famer Red Ruffing. The 40-year old outfielder known as the ‘Grey Eagle’ ended his 22-year Hall of Fame career with a .345 batting average, sixth best in major league history.
In the featured photo below, we see Cobb and Speaker together. Click on the link to see a photo tribute to these two Hall-of-Famers, including some of our favorite photos of the two stars.
Here’s a little information about Ty Cobb’s career, spotlighting his great year of 1911, edited from one of my previous posts. A separate post on Tris Speaker will follow shortly.
“I often tried plays that looked recklessly daring, maybe even silly. But I never tried anything foolish when a game was at stake, only when we were far ahead or far behind. I did it to study how the other team reacted, filing away in my mind any observations for future use.”
—Ty Cobb in The New York Times
Ty Cobb led the American League in 1911 in many categories, including 248 hits, 147 runs scored, 127 RBI, 83 stolen bases, 47 doubles, 24 triples, a .621 slugging percentage, and a 40-game hitting streak. Cobb also hit eight home runs, finishing second to Frank Baker, who hit eleven. He was awarded a Chalmers car for being voted the American League MVP.
“Shoeless Joe” Jackson led him by .009 points in the batting race late in the 1911 season. Near the end of the campaign, Cobb’s Tigers had a long series against Jackson’s Cleveland Naps. Fellow Southerners Cobb and Jackson were normally friendly both on and off the field. Cobb used that friendship to his advantage. He ignored Jackson when Joe tried to say anything to him. When Jackson persisted, Cobb snapped angrily back at him. Maybe it was these mind games that caused Jackson to “fall off” to a final average of .408, twelve points lower than Cobb’s .420.
Cobb is credited with setting 90 major league records during his career. He still holds several significant ones, including the highest career batting average (.366) and most career batting titles (12). He held many other records for almost a half century or more, including most career hits until 1985 (4,189), most career runs (2,244) until 2001, most career games played (3,034) and at bats (11,434) until 1974, and the modern record for most career stolen bases (892) until 1977. He still holds the career record for stealing home (54), and was the youngest player to compile 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs. Cobb still ranks fifth all-time in games played. He committed 271 errors, the most by any American League outfielder.
-Gary Livacari
Photo Credits: All found on Google search
Information: Excerpts edited from my earlier post
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