Bill
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[From Bill Burgess' Ty Cobb Memorial Collection]
COBB'S WORLD SERIES PERFORMANCE AND COMPARISONS
By Bill Burgess III
Ty Cobb's WS performance is often held up as a "proof" that he choked under pressure. Such a contention is as | ||||||
ignorant as it is unexamined and often prejudiced. I will attempt to show the mitigating factors that usually get lost in a | ||||||
brusque glossing over of relevant details. | ||||||
The first factor that one sees when perusing even the most cursory assessment of Ty's WS performances is | ||||||
the time period, 1907-09. The worst possible time for hitters in baseball's long history. Pitchers were kings and trick | ||||||
pitches and spitballs were legal. Never before or since was the ball "deader". The Offensive/Defensive balance was | ||||||
never so weighted in favor of pitching and defense. From 1901-1918, and 1963-69 pitching/defense held the advantage. | ||||||
The second factor is that Ty was just a kid. Twenty years old in 1907. Ty was always convinced that if he had had a | ||||||
shot at a WS later in his career, he could have given a better accounting of himself. Almost all the elite players that Ty | ||||||
is compared to, were matured, seasoned players and in mid-career. | ||||||
The 3rd factor is volume or work. Ty only had 3 chances at the WS, while many others had repeated chances. | ||||||
Yogi Berra had 14 chances, Mantle 12, Ruth & DiMaggio 10 each. Practice makes perfect. The more opportunities one | ||||||
receives to practice, rehearse and get it right, the better one gets. Opportunity confers advantage. | ||||||
A 4th factor to understand is the level of the competition. Ty faced a legendary pitching staff in the Chicago Cubs | ||||||
of 1907-08. Mordecai Brown, Ed Reulbach, Orval Overall, Carl Lundgren, Jack Pfiester. Let's examine that Cubs staff. | ||||||
1907 | Mordecai Brown | Orval Overall | Carl Lundgren | Jack Pfiester | Ed Reulbach | |
W-L | 20-6 (.769) | 23-7 (.767) | 18-7 (.720) | 14-9 (.609) | 17-4 (.810) | |
ERA(AdjERA) | 1.39 (179) | 1.68 (149) | 1.17 (.212) | 1.15 (216) | 1.69 (148) | |
RAT (Total Baseball) | 8.7 | 9.4 | 9.7 | 9 | 10.3 | |
In 1907, Cubs pitchers finished 2nd in wins, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 5th in winning %, 1st & 3rd in shutouts, 2nd & 3rd in | ||||||
saves, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 5th in fewest hits/game, 4th in fewest BB/game, 4th in strikeouts, 4th & 5th in strikeouts/game, | ||||||
2nd, 3rd & 4th in Ratio, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, & 5th in ERA, the same for Adjusted ERA, 1st, 2nd, & 3rd for opponents BA, 2nd, | ||||||
3rd, & 4th in opponents on-base average, 1st, 2nd,3rd and 5th for starters wins, 2nd through 5th for adjusted starters wins. | ||||||
1st thru 4th for pitchers index and 4th & 5th for Total Baseball Rating. | ||||||
That's the fabled staff that Ty had to cope with at the tender age of 20, while the ball was its deadest. And while that's a | ||||||
lot to ask, Ty had only 20 AB's to figure them out. Collectively, the Cubs staff had held NL batters to .216 BA (.243, NL ave.) | ||||||
.281 on-base ave. (.318, NL ave.). Ty went 4 for 20, .200 against this staff. So Ty actually hit .92 of the NL ave. against this staff. | ||||||
1908 | Mordecai Brown | Orval Overall | Carl Lundgren | Jack Pfiester | Ed Reulbach | |
W-L | 29-9 (.763) | 15-11 (.577) | 6-9 (.400) | 12-10 (.545) | 24-7 (.774) | |
ERA(AdjERA | 1.47 (160) | 1.92 (123) | 4.22 (56) | 2.00 (118) | 2.03 (116) | |
RAT | 7.7 | 9.8 | 13.3 | 10.2 | 10.4 | |
The 1908 Cubs pitching staff were just as formidable as they were in 1907. They held NL batters to a | ||||||
.221 BA (.239, NL ave.) and .287 on-base ave. (.299, NL ave.). Against this staff, Ty went 7 for 19, .368. So Ty actually | ||||||
hit 1.66% of their NL ave. Considering this performance, it seems to gives credence to the oft-told story, that Ty improved | ||||||
against a pitcher, the more he faced him. This performance also shows that Ty only "failed" or hit poorly in 2 out of 3 of his | ||||||
WS opportunities, something that is almost always "overlooked" when assessing his WS outings. | ||||||
1920 -My friendship for him dates back to the Detroit-Cub World's Series and right there I want to spike an | ||||||
old and musty rumor. Lots of people claim Cobb didn't play much of a game against us in those world's series. | ||||||
I will go on record as saying that he played a whale of a game, but he had mighty stiff opposition. | ||||||
We were all laying for him, and when a team like the Cubs lays for a certain player that player has his work cut out for him. | ||||||
In the wrestling match between the whole Cub team and Cobb the odds were a little too long on the team and | ||||||
against the individual. But Cobb surprised us all by his gameness and nerve, and he was a good loser. | ||||||
I expected to find him a little swell-headed - I would have forgiven him for being so, for he had a right to be | ||||||
if any player ever had - but he wasn't anything of the sort. He proved himself to be not only a wonderful player | ||||||
but a good loser, and that's something more." (Baseball Magazine, February, 1920, pp. 526, column 3, | ||||||
On the Outside, Looking In, from interview with John Evers, pp. 525-526). | ||||||
April, 1930, Baseball Magazine, Evers switched to Wagner as #1. | ||||||
In 1909, Ty went 6 for 26 (.231)against the Pittsburgh Pirates pitching staff. The 1909 Pirates had held NL batters to a .232 BA, | ||||||
(.244, NL ave.) and .284 on-base ave. (.310, NL ave.). So Ty had actually hit .99 of their NL ave. for 1909. While not an | ||||||
impressive hitting performance, especially for a league batting champion, .99 of the Pirates pitching staff's NL ave. for the yr. | ||||||
isn't as dramatically wretched as it sounds, especially for that particular time period. | ||||||
Another popular lie that is common in baseball lore, concerns this 1909 WS. Before the Series began, the press had | ||||||
ballyhooed the head-to-head confrontation of the batting champions, the old "greatest" of the NL, against the new "greatest" | ||||||
of the AL. In this contest, Honus did indeed outplay Ty. He had a better series. The series passed by, the Pirates won, | ||||||
fair & square. The Tigers vaunted offense stunk. They hit .236 for the 7 game series. Crawford went 7x28. .250. Only | ||||||
2B Jim Delahanty, who went 9x26, for .346, hit above .261 for the Tigers. The Tigers, with their left-handed hitters, just | ||||||
couldn't figure out right-handed Pirate pitcher Babe Adams' puzzling delivery. Interestingly, the Pirates offense also was | ||||||
nothing to brag about. The Buccaneers could hit only .224, even worse than the Tigers. Wagner went 8x24, good for .333 | ||||||
and OF Tommy Leach went 9x25, .360. No other Pirate went over .250. So pitching did indeed dominate the Series. | ||||||
Ty & Hans got along great. Afterwards, Ty invited Hans to come down south and hunt with him, and Hans | ||||||
accepted. They hunted and became mutual admirers of each other. Ty had revered Hans for a long time. And due to this | ||||||
WS, Hans had great things to say of Ty. Following is some quotes by Honus concerning Ty's play. | ||||||
1909 - "Cobb is the fastest man I have ever seen," he told The Sporting News. "I never thought he could have that | ||||||
much speed. I heard a lot about Cobb, and how fast he was, but he surprised me by the speed he showed | ||||||
on the bases in the World Series. | ||||||
Cobb is what I call a perfect player. He lacks nothing. There is not a thing a ballplayer should have that | ||||||
Cobb hasn't got, and he's got a bunch of things that no other ballplayer has." (Carnegie Union, Oct.21,1909) | ||||||
A month after the Series had ended, Wagner joined Cobb in the fields near Macon, Georgia. The Sporting | ||||||
News quoted Wagner as saying: "I could have had a crack at a ground squirrel or two and perhaps a barnyard | ||||||
chicken, but as for hunting, Georgia won't do. Mr. Cobb is one of the most genial gentlemen I have ever met, | ||||||
but there are two things we will never agree on--game and baseball | ||||||
The South is all right, and Cobb's all right, too, but I wish he hadn't told me about the swell hunting in Georgia." | ||||||
(The Sporting News, Dec.16,1909) | ||||||
Undated - "I always liked Ty. He was a fighter and he knew it was a fellow's duty to protect himself out there. | ||||||
Lots of 'em had trouble with Ty, but I never did." (The History of Baseball, by Allison Danzig & Joe Reichler, 1959, pp. 170) | ||||||
Many years later, some hack sports writer, used this WS, as the setting of a stupid lie, which regrettably caught on, and | ||||||
persists to this day. To make a long story short, Ty did not shout any kind of insults to Hans, and then have Hans slam the | ||||||
ball into his face, to the point of dislodging some teeth. Ty liked and admired this player over all others, and respected him | ||||||
much too much to belittle him in any way. Also Ty was never thrown out trying to steal in this series. In the only instance | ||||||
of Ty stealing second, he was safe. The ball bounced in front of second, Honus back-swiped his gloved hand, and AL | ||||||
umpire Silk O'Loughlin called Ty safe. The Pirates, and Honus, remonstrated vociferously, and play resumed without | ||||||
further adieu. All three biographies on Honus support this scenario, and conclude that this ignorant incident never happen- | ||||||
ed, outside the skull of a latter-day sports writing hack. | ||||||
So where does that leave us in assessing Ty Cobb's 3 WS performances? On the whole, I would rate it as average. Not | ||||||
good, but not as bad as commonly supposed. Moreover, I have endeavored to show that WS very often brought out the | ||||||
worst of famous hitters. Many of the best hitters in baseball have inexplicably shown up poorly in WS. Perhaps it can be | ||||||
written off as "bad nerves". But it has been a discernible pattern, which can be shown to be the case. Ted Williams hit | ||||||
.200 in his only WS. Hornsby .244 in 2 WS. Mays .228 in 3 WS. Musial .255 for 4 WS, Mantle .256 for 12 WS and DiMaggio | ||||||
only .271 for 10 WS. | ||||||
So one can conclude with good historical evidence, that WS seemed to buffalo lots of great hitters. Now, I want to stick | ||||||
up for Ty with these insights. These other great hitters had the advantage over Ty of the lively ball, which beefs up one's | ||||||
BA. They also had their WS later in their careers, when they were much more matured hitters. I will try to show good play- | ||||||
ers who played in many WS. The more WS one played in, the more one's nerves can settle down and learn the pitcher's | ||||||
stuff. | ||||||
An original feature that I've included is this. In the examples, one will find after the BA in the WS, another number | ||||||
in parenthesis. That number is the % of their WS BA against the league's BA against the opposing pitching staff. While not | ||||||
scientific, I thought it might be intriguing. So, here are some of the WS performances of some of BB's better hitters, to gain | ||||||
some context and perspective when compared to Ty Cobb's 3 WS. |
Cobb's
World Series Spreadsheet - Contains performance records and comparisons
to other elite players