Can Ty Cobb Hold His Crown As Baseball's Greatest Star?

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1920

Hugh Jennings Admits That His Best Player Is Slowing Up a Trifle at Running Bases and Declares That Georgia Wonder Is Fully Aware of Fact.

Is Ty Cobb slipping? Will the old master of baseball, the king of swat and run, be able to maintain the terrific pace he has set for years as the greatest star the game has ever known?

For years the downfall of the Georgia Peach has been predicted. Each winter some gloomy gentleman rose to announce that Ty Cobb was done, that his baseball days were numbered, that American League crowds would have to find another hero on whom to shower their praises — and money. And just as surely as spring came each year Ty has laughed to scorn the mournful prophets by his glittering work at the bat, on the bases and in the outfield for the Detroit Tigers. During the past twelve years he has led the organization no less than eleven times in swatting honors, once being nosed out by a narrow margin by Tris Speaker. And even that "losing" year Cobb batted well above .350.

At the same time he was the leading base runner of his league, beside being one of the greatest outfielders of the game.

So to repeat the ancient prophecy anent the imminent downfall of Tyrus Raymond again this winter might seem a risky prediction, if it wasn't for the fact that Ty's own manager, Hugh Jennings, has admitted in Cobb's home town, Detroit, that the Georgia wonder is slipping a trifle. What's more, Jennings declares that Cobb himself is fully aware of the sad fact.

"I noticed it on the bases," said Hugh, at a banquet given in Detroit for Bill Coughlin, one of the old Tigers, but now a minor league manager. "In other years when Cobb tried to steal a base, it was a toss-up whether he was out or safe if the play was perfect. He made work tough for all the umpires, for, with all things equal, it was ever the closest of decisions and the hardest one that American League umpires had to make.

"But last summer Ty was being thrown out quite regularly. Where the play looked like a tie in other years, it was now a matter on which only one conclusion could come. I am talking about perfect throws from the catcher, the kind that he always beat or tied. He was not beating them this year.

"Ty looked as fast as ever in the field, but, of course, it is impossible to tell whether or not a man is slowing up by his fielding. That is the last place where it shows. You can tell, tho, on the bases, for that is one place where the least slowing up will register accurately.

"Of course, you also realize that in spite of this perceptible slowing up Cobb is still the greatest player in the game today; he is that by long and far. The beauty about him is that he went so high that he can continue coming down for several years and still have the edge on other players. He can continue playing for years and years and still rank on top."

—The Saturday Blade, Chicago, Jan. 3, 1920, p. 10.