The Waterbury Democrat., 1944-12-05
By FRANK H. BARTHOLOMEW United Press Staff CorrespOndentl

Glenbrook, New, Dec. 5-(UP)-' Who's the ballplayer's ballplayer of all time?
 I put that one up to the man who is certainly the sports critics pick as the greatest star of base ball, Tyrus Raymond Cobb.
 The big fellow stood in front of his luxurious log home high up in the Sierra Nevadas and looked thoughfully through the pines out over the sparkling waters of Lake Tahoe.
 Eddie Collins" he said.
 And that was really 8 tough question. There were great catch- CTS, great infielders and great out- fielders. Mickey Cochrane, Sisler. All were fine hitters. Some had long careers and some short. Many had unusual ability to aid their, teams in other ways. f
 "But for a man who could do anything-hit, field, run bases and play real inside and brainy baseball Eddie Collins stands in front"
 To get the 1944-45 season of the hot stovers really under way I asked Ty who was the greatest hit ter of them all. A fair question to put to the man who was the worlds batting champion for a full half of his 24 years in the majors and who hit APO in his peak season.
 That would be Joe Jackson" he said. Jackson hit with a full swing and at the end of his bat. A real slugger, And he was in there during all the trick pitching the spitball, emery ball and all the rest"
 Mound Trouble
 On the subject of pitchers, trick and otherwise, asked Cobb which one gave him personally the most trouble and why.
 All pitchers bothered me-" he said seriously, modest remark for the man who's lifetime batting average was over 300 for 3,033 tuaJOI league games.
 q guess left-handed Carl We'll man of the Browns, George Mog- ridge of the Tanks and Eddie Kar- ger of the Boston Red Sox were the most effective against my att tempts to hit.
 "None of the three had a lot of speed nor any exceptional curve ball. They were more on the side arm delivery style.
 Other really great pitchers had to go up against were southpaw Eddie Plank of the Athletics, who won some .625 per cent of his games over his whole career; Rube Wad- dell with his great "suff," both fast ball and curve; Ed Walsh of the Chicago White Sox, Walter John son of Washington and Eddie Joss of Cleveland. I had to study lem all closely. I'll admit I spent more time trying to find a way to hit them than I did with the three pitchers who finally proved the most effective percentagewise against me-Weilman, Mogridge and Karger.
 T studied Walter Johnson, for instance, until I got to a point where for some time I knew prac- tically every pitch he would make. So great was his strength that he relied on the speed ball almost continuously. Only when he shook his head did we know for sure he would throw 8 curve, and even when we figured out this advan- tage he was still plenty difficult.
 ''Walter was one of baseball's real gentlemen. He never low bridged anyone to make the bat ter duck and drive him away from the plate, so I realized he was wary of the damage his fast ball would do if he did hit a batter.
 Since I was not hitting very well against him I began crowding the plate on his first and second pitches to me, stopping over and giving him very little to pitch to. He would blaze his fast ball as usual, but would try for the out side corner of the plate, sort of pitching away from me. Then if he had one or two balls against me and no strikes, I would step back and assume my natural posi- ton at the plate knowing that he had to get the next one over and of course letting up 8 little in his speed to do it. Then I'd take picks on what baseball calls a cripple, and after that I began to do better in batting against Walter Johnson.
 Speaking of pitchers" Cobb con- tinued, mailing a tin shield around pine tree to protect 1t from fur ther depredations by Nevada's giant porcupineS, "at a bond rally in Seattle the other day I ran into the first pitcher I ever faced in a professional game. He is George Engle, and the game was played in Augusta, Georgia, in 1904, between Augusta and Columbia, s. O., in the newly organized South Atlantic League"
 Cobb didn't mention that two days later he was fired from the team for lack of natural baseball ability. deficiency subsequently, corrected sufficiently to put his name at the head of the list of baseball's immortals in the games national shrine at Cooperstown, N. Y.
 gave Ty the big question last his all-time all-star team of American baseball, complete with three nikchars and fun cafnlaarr