The Birmingham age-herald., 1918-04-28

Ty Cobb's feat of hammering out z4S hits in 146 games in 1911, for grand average of APO, stands out as the most remarkable batting achievement in all baseball history.
 The greatest number of hits ever credited to a batter and the highest average ever compiled through a com plete season of play belongs to J. E. ("Tip'D O'Neill, who was with the St. Louis Browns in 1887. The records list him with PIT hits for that year and a mark of .472. But in that season the only one in baseballs history bases on balls were counted as hits, O'Neill probably was given at least 6o passes in that year which would re- duce the actual number of safeties to 217 and decrease his batting mark to about As.
 And remember, O'Neill didn't have the foul strike rule to menace him the baseball regulation which experts claim has decreased a players normal batting average about 30 points. If O'Neill had been faced with the foul strike rule in 1SS7--as Cobb was in 1911--and if only his actual hits were counted his average probably wouldn' have been .400-perhaps less. And Cobb hit for APO.
 Since O'Neill's day the bulkiest aver age ever made was by Hugh Duffy, with the Boston Nationals of 1894. In that season Duffy figured in 124 games, went to bat 539 times, made 246 hits and ended up with a mark of .43S. That gave him an average of 1.90 hits per game, which compares with 1.75 hits per game by Cobb in 1911. But Duffy, al ho nf al 6au did not have the foul strike rule as q hindrance. He got three full swings at the ball and could make as many fouls as he wished without suffering a penalty.
 Ranking next to Duffy's record in the matter of bulky averages is the .432 mark made by Willie Keeler in 1897 while with the Baltimore Orioles. In that year-without the foul strike rule in force-Keeler made 24S hits in 12S games, which rates him just a slight fraction behind Duffy in the matter of average hits per combat.
 Jess Burkett, the great batsman of the bygone days, holds fourth place with an average of .42S. He made it while with the Cleveland Nationals of 1895, cracking out 235 safeties in 132 games, giving him an average of IFS hits per game.
 Napoleon Lajoie established the American league record for the high est average. He made it in 1901 while with the Athletics, cracking out 220 hits in 131 games for the bulky mark of APP. But Lajoie wasn't handicapped by the foul strike rule in that year. That baseball regulation became op- erative in the National league in 1901 but the American didn't accept it un- til 1903.
 And so we come to the phenomenal triumph of Ty Cobb in 1911.
 His total number of hits in that year -24S-is the greatest number of actual safeties ever poled out by any bats man since the game began. And his av- craze of .420 is the highest compiled by any player since the foul strike rule came into being. ONeills mark exceeds Cobb's by 29 hits and 57 percentage points But now let us see what Cobb s showing would have been if the rules of 1887 had been in force in 1911.
 Cobb, in 1911. was given about 60 passes which included with his actual safeties- 24S-would have made his total SoS ties in 651 times at bat in 146 games would mean an average of about .4t3 Add to that the 30 points that Cobb has lost through the handicap of the fou strike rule and you find that:
 If Cobb in 1911 had been benefited by the scoring rules of 1887 as was O'Neill, the southern Typhoonn would have made sos hits, against PIT for ONeill