Evening star., 1925-12-09

Many will disagree with me. They
will claim that Rogers Hornsby is
a better batsman than Cobb or at
least better batter than either OF
the right handlers that | have ranked
second and third TO Cobb. 1t may be
that Hornsby is better. but one can
not judge at this period of Hornsby S
career whether he is superior to Cobb,
Wagner or Lajoie. To have perma-
nent standing man must bat high
over an extended period
Cobb carried on for 30 seasons at
dismal pace tat least 1t was dismal to
all opposition). Wagner and Lajoie
continued even longer than Cobb. For
the years that he has been in the
ajors. Hornsby has a better record
than any other man, but he has not
been in the ma jors long enough to be
placed above the men ] have men
toned. Ten years from now Hornsby
may be recognized as the greatest hat
ter of all time. but he cannot he given
that ranking at the present time. He
has several years to go.
Cobb Has Advantage.
cobb has natural advantage over
Hornshy. Cobb batted left -ha nded.
Hornsby right handed. Cobb for the
same reason. had natural advantage
over Wagner and Lajoie. both right
handed batters. The man who bats
right handed has at least two more
steps to first base than the one bat
ting left handed. and these two extra
steps that the right handler must take
are going to beat him out of a great
many hits that the eft-handed batter
will get on balls hit to the infield.
How many plays do YOU see in a game
decided by half STEP A left t-handed
batter will beat these plays. while
right -ha nded batter will lose them,
and when batter loses A play he
loses a hit unless the play Is scored
as an error.
On the performances that are now
base ball history the crown must &C
to Cobb. He was great because of
rare blending of gifts. natural and de-
veloped. He had the eye, the speed.
the intelligence and the start. He had
the genius of pace. No man ever
broke faster from the plate: few ever
broke as fast. But Willie keeler.
Harry Bay and Burt shorten all broke
fast. Bay. while not good batter.
broke from the plate as fast as Cobb.
He had lightning quickneSs getting
away and wonderful speed in moving
to first The infielders had to over
hurry on any crounder hit by Pay.
But Cobb hit mary more balls than
Bay. and he had the natural advan-
tace Of the left nder over the right
handler.
All Have Weakness.
Every batter. no matter how good
has weakness. 1t may be a trif1e
but it is still there. He will prefer
certain balls to others. Now. pitch
er may know the weakness of bat
ter, but knowing that weakness and
hai a 70 oh 70 hn
that is weak are two entirely different
matters. a few inches either way
mean disaster for the pitcher. Cobb
had a reputation of being weak on
low balls pitched inside. Every intel
ligent pitcher tried to pitch the ball
low and inside for Cobb Sometimes
they did. but more often they did not
Urban ShoCker. an unusually intelli.
gent pitcher, used TO pitch the ball
below Cobbs knees for a third strike.
hoping he would go after it. If Cobb
bit on this low one he was gone. There
was not a chance to hit II. Cobb did
not bend his knees enough to enable
him TO hit low pitching successfully
Smart pitchers knew this. Also. they
knew that Cobb was eager to hit But
few of them ever really put their
knowledge into beneficial use as
Shocker did. The peculiar part about
1t was that these balls that could go
for third strikes with Shocker pitch
ing TO Cobb would all have been ca H.
ed balls if Cobb had ignored them.
But he was sure no could hit them
and kept on trying.
Wagner Free Hitter.
Wagner was free hitter. He could
poke them into any field. He could
pull ball or place it. He was fast
on his feet and much harder hitter
than Cobb, but he did not connect so
often. There have been few batters
as awkward as Wagner, but he was
an ideal batter in spite of it. for he
would get the ball out in front and be