The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-09-24

land club. until his untimely death few years ago.
 The best could do against Joss, over a stretch of years. was .253, which is over 100 points below my grand batting record statistical story, brought to my attention some time ago, showed that I went to bat 8 times against Joss and Il times he turned me back hitleSs He surely used to make me look like a busher with the club.
 Red Faber of the White Sox was another fellow who bothered me a lot. About .270 was the best I could do against him. Others who had it on me were Dusty Rhoades, another Cievelander; Frank Smith of the White Sox. Harry Howell of the Browns, Otto Hess Of Cleveland, when he was at his best, Carl Weilman. of the Browns and Mogridge of the Yankees. I guess if those fel- lows had pitched to me all the time 1 would have gone back to the minors years ago."
 What about Walter Johnson?' asked
 johnson is one of the greatest--if not the greatest-pitcher that ever lived,y replied Ty. He has everything that a super-pitcher needs He has curves, binding speed, half dozen hops on his fast one, courage, resourcefulness and marvellous brain. And yet, I guess the averages will show that I never found
 
 ing close to .350 against him in some thing like 70 games"
 How do you account for it?" asked
 "Johnson's control was absolutely per- feet at all times,' replied Cobb; When facing Johnson there was never the fear of being beaned, as sometimes is the case when facing speed pitchers who are inclined to wildness.S Facing pitcher with the superb control of Johnson eliminates all worry over possible bean ing So the batter can concentrate his mind on meeting the first good ball that comes over. And that's distinct ad- vantage to a batter. Furthermore, in my case. I always liked speed and John son fed me many speedy ones
 "Who were the easiest pitchers for you to hit?' I asked.
 "Statisticians have figured it that have compiled my best average against
 Bullet Joe Bush among the regulars, answered Ty Joe was speed boy and he put them over where liked them. often enough for me to bang him for about .470. Death Valley Jim Scott O. the White Sox never had any terrors for me and hit him for about .465 or so Through some strange twist Of fate the Yankees regulars, almost since the day I became 9 major leaguer, always helped to fatten my average.
 Looking oyer the statistics covering Cobb's record I found the truth of his assertion that the Yankee pitchers of the past ten and fifteen years have been "pie' for him. He has batted around
 45O against Ray Caldwell, hit Tom Hughes for .45s, Hogg for .A5O Russell Ford for .442, Jack Warbop for AIS and even amassed 400 mark against the great Jack Chesbro. Bob Shawkey, dur ing his combined career with the Ath- letics and Yankees, was hit for .s75 py Cobb, Ray Fisher yielded 1859 and the other Yankee twirlers of lesser import ance were maced by the great batting star for marks ranging down from .SW to $50.
 The compilation of Cobb's batting against all the great pitchers in the American League shows that Jack Coombs, Ed Plank, Chief Bender, Rupe Waddell, Joe Wood and Ed Walsh were impotent in their efforts to halt hlm on his batting rampages Cobb hit that quintet for a grand average or some thing like 362. which is within lew points of his grand batting average for his entire career. Wood was maced for
 3sl. Bender for .S2. Coombs for .Sas. Waddell for 1856. Plank for .S4o and Walsh for .337a
 What sort of ball did you like best?" was the final question l put 70 Ty on the subject of batting. 1T never had any real preference, was his answer .Early in my career prac- tised for days, weeks and months to ac- quire the knack of hitting every kind of ball that could be served up to me realized then that if showed fond- ness for one special kind Of pitching the opposing pitchers soon would learn. about it and never afterward would they serve me that kind of ball. So prac- tised hitting low ones. the waist high and those up around the shoulders ITO practising against all sorts of pitches at the outset Of my career do ! owe much of the success that came to me later as batsman.