Richmond times-dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1914-current, 1919-09-04
HOW LONG WILL TY COBB
ENDURE, FANS WONDERING
Now Battling i'm Fiftccnth Campaign
and Leading World i'll Smuggling
and IEiSc Running.
ILL WONDERFUL PLAYER
Georgian Has Never Slipped in His
Long Baseball Career, and His
Hitting and Speed Continue To
Keep Him in Diamond Spotlight.
ny JAMEs J. COnuI:1vr.

NEW YORK. Sept. Slow long will
/ Ty Cobb endure?
The majority or baseball critics ac
cord to the mighty Geor- ian tho glory
of being the greatest diamond athlete
OF all time. And il now begins 10 look
as If he will prove TO he the most
Here is Cobb batting in his NJ
tcenth campaign veteran Of vet
Grams; yet he is leading the wno.e
bases with almost all the. dcer-like
speed of his youth and fielding in
superb and spectacular fashion Cobb
today is almost as wonderful as at
In fact, Cobb in 1919 is banging the
horsehide for. mark far beyond his
yond anything that any other athlete
mas shown after fifteen years in big
league harness.
Cobb Has Never Slipped.
Arson. Keeicr. Lajoie and Waencc.
those are the only swatsmiths entitled
as the Southern Typhoon." Each was
a marvel. yet not ono swept through
fifteen campaigns and was found in
the fifteenth playing baseball OF the
superlativc kind. Both slipped" once
or twice over that long sweep OF time.
But Cobb never has SLIPPED.
Arson broke into tho 500 class in
1876 and for moro than dozen years
he was bludreon artist of the most
rema rkahle kind. But in 500 the big
fellow began TO slip. lie hit for only
.3l1 that year and in the following
two-1S91, 1S92-he couldn't reach the
300 mark.
base station BEGAN TO lose more and
more of its hrllancy after dozen
Wears or so. and his legs. never speedy.
slowed UP just little more.
But Cobb. playing his fifteenth year
IS still the greatest ball player in the
game.
Added Years slowed Legs
waEner hit 400 or better for seven
teen his star began to set. He an
I, nexed his last batting championship
I in 1911: From then on he hit FOR
marks far below his grand average
slowing his legs and d!mminE his
batting eye
for nearly twenty points better than
the remarkable average he made
earlier.
Wagner for nearly ten years hit for
grand total OF beyond $40. Eut
after 1905 he never again reached the
\ figure. Cobb's average was around
s an at thS siGSe of ss fe, co'n
whanging at the rate of nearly $50
in 1918. Wagner, after only twelve
years in service. began tearing down
still building IN.
keelef was 800 bite, for fourteen
& successive years. But Tor only ten
did he add TO his grand average. In
the eleventh he began to skid. by hit
ling only BIS The next year he
reached .543. but in the thirteenth II
was only 500 and in the fourteenth
his mark was .3O4.
Grent Frcnchrnnn Slipped
Lajoie hit 800 or better for eleven
years in row. Then. just as ii be
gan to look as If he was gon: 10
build up grand batting average he
yond anything in baseball history, the
< great Frenchman slumprd woefully.
I In his twelfth and again in his thr-
s teenth years. 1907 and 1905. Lajoic
6ailed to reach 800 His drop below
y that mark deal; a terrible blow 10
his average for thirteen years. And
3 from then on, through The rest OF his
4 career, Lajoie wasn't able to hit up
85o the mighty eleven year average
made before 1907.
At some time or another they've all
Slipped but Cobb. For many years the
experts" have been predicting it for
him, claiming the law OF average"
must prevail ..l3ut for fifteen years
3 Cobb has been greater
az And now. in 1919. when he ranks as
N one Of the real veterans OF the base
& ball world. the peerless Georgian is
showing the way to every man who
.nas entered the race against him.
Copyright 1879