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August 12, 2021

New Blog Topic: More on Ty Cobb

As I’ve mentioned, I’m rereading Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen and I’m finding a lot of interesting information about the Georgia Peach. 

One item he details is how well Cobb hit against some of the best pitchers from the era. We often hear valid criticisms of guys who only hit well against run-of-the-mill pitchers, but can’t do much against the aces.

Well, I don’t think that can be said of Ty Cobb. Check out Cobb’s batting averages against the following stars from the Dead Ball Era. All but Smoky Joe Wood are in the Hall of fame. Only Addie Joss and Waite Hoyt held him to under .300:

Walter Johnson: .366

Chief Bender: .366

Herb Pennock: .366

Eddie Plank: .343

Stan Coveleski: .362

Red Faber: .335

Ed Walsh: .341

Smoky Joe Wood: .429

Addie Joss: .266

Waite Hoyt: .265

Also, while perusing Cobb’s career stats on Baseball Reference.com, I compiled a list of categories in which he led the league and how many times he did it. It’s quite an impressive list:

Runs Scored: Led league 5 times

Hits: 8 times

Doubles: 3 times

Triples: 4 times

Home Runs: 1 time

RBIs: 4 times

Stolen Bases: 6 times

Batting Average: 12 times

On-Base Percentage: 9 times

Slugging: 8 times

OPS: 9 times

OPS+: 12 times

Total Bases: 6 times

Say what you want about Cobb’s personality, but there’s no denying he was a heck of a hitter. 

Gary Livacari

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