Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1957-04-01

ST. PETERSUBURG, Fla.
April ,P).-Did you know that
the Baseball Writers Association
never has officially accepted T,
Cohbs .40l batting average ii
1922?
Did you know how Howard
Ehmke failed to register two
successive no-hitters? Or how
JEFF Tesrau had his one-hit
game suddenly changed to a no.
hitter?
Listen to Fred Lieb. 69-year-
old baseball historian who Is now
in semi-retirement after a sports
writing career dating back tc
1911.
Lieb was directly involved In
Cobb's third 400 batting mark
as we'll as Ehmke's failure tc
take his place alongside Johnny
Wander Nicer. the only pitcher
to hurl two no-hitters in sue
cesSion.
The Cobb incident took place
in July. 1922 Lieb began. De-
troit was playing in the Polo
Grounds. l was correspondent
for the Associated Press. II
started to rain about midway in
the game and l sought shelter
in the back of the stands. John
Kieran. then writing baseball
for the New York Times, was
the official scorer. He decided to
brave the rain and kept his seat
in the press box.
In the seventh inning, Cobb
beat out bounder TO ShortStop
Everett Scott. who momentarily
fumbled the ball. / scored 1T as
a hit and so it went into the AP
boxscore. l had no idea how
Kieran scored it. Ordinarily l
would have checked with him.
but ! was seated good number
of rows behind him and could
not attract his attention.
Kieran's Call Changed
The official averages at the
close of the season gave Cobb
1893. A sharp-eyed statistician.
rechecking Tvs figures. discov-
cred Kieran had charged Scott
with an error on that particular
play and therefore had deprived
Cobb of a hit. Ban johnson.
then president of the American
League. ruled the hit should be
restored to Cobb and that raised
his mark to .40l.
The Baseball Writer'S Asso-
citation. after heated meeting.
voted to go along with Kieran S
decision and not to accept the
.401 figure
Lieb was the official scorer
when Ehmke, Boston's star
pitcher. tried to make it two in
a row after turning in a no.
hitter against Philadelphia. The
date was September IL. 1923.
and the site was Yankee Sta
dunn. its first year of existence.
Here's the way Lieb tells it:
Il have to go back Is years
before that. to 1912 l was a
young reporter covering a game
at the Polo Grounds between
the Giants and Phillies. Big jeff
Fesleau pitched one-hit, 80
shutout for the Giants. The only
hit off him was a sharp single by
Fred Luderus through the legs
of First Baseman Fred Merkle.
Stony McLinn. fine Philadel-
phia writer, was official scorer.
Sid Mercer, covering for a New
York paper. insisted Merkle
should have been charged with
an error on Luderus' grounder.
Merkle Urged Reversal
Mercer prevailed on McLinn
to march down with him to the
to get Merkle's opin-
ion. Merkle. wishing. Of course,
to see his teammatc get the no
hitter, said: 4 should have stuck
that ball in my hip pocket. So
McLinn reversed himself and
called IL an error. and reSreai
got his nO-hiitrr.
Tom Lynch. then president
of the National League. was
quite disturbed over the re-
versal. Calling me aside one day
soon after that. he said Young
man. II you ever get TO be an
official scorer. never permit any
ora 10 talk you into changing