War on the Basepaths Read online

  “Cut out this monkey business,” Schaefer finally told him, fed up by Cobb’s pipedream. “You ain’t got no more stuff than a high school boy.”17 Schaefer wasn’t the only one to feel this way. Hugh Jennings, Frank Navin, Addie Joss, and Willie Keeler were others who discouraged Cobb’s attempt to become a pitcher. Navin, who had spoken personally to Keeler and Joss about the subject, gave Cobb his opinion in a letter dated December 15, 1908, telling Cobb to “be more careful of your arm.”18 Cobb was undoubtedly stung by the harsh words, but he refused to accept failure of any kind and continued to work on his delivery. It was obvious to those around him that he wasn’t cultivating a major league arm.

  San Antonio was a fine venue for spring workouts, and Hugh Jennings was more than satisfied with the progress of his team entering early April. Cobb’s old mentor George Leidy was the player-manager for the local San Antonio club, and on March 28, the latter played Detroit in an exhibition. Realizing what he could do on the bases, Leidy warned his team to watch out for Cobb’s tricks, but after the Georgian reached second by extending what was essentially a base hit, Leidy pulled his centerfielder from the game in anger. The Tigers won, 17–4.19 The Tigers went to Dallas for a two-game exhibition series against St. Louis on April 3–4, and Cobb was fully energized to put on a good show, provoked by the recently publicized comments of the Browns new catcher, Lou Criger. The thirty-seven-year-old Criger was coming off eight seasons with the Boston Americans and the legendary Cy Young felt he was the “greatest” backstop in the business.20 Criger had faced Cobb innumerable times, but that March, he was suddenly incited by an incident in which Cobb blocked him, he told a St. Louis reporter that he had Cobb’s “goat,” and with regard to stealing bases, he “never had any trouble with him.”21 Sportswriter Joe S. Jackson later questioned the validity of the Criger article, saying that there was “no proof” to its legitimacy.22

  Cobb was incensed, but told the same St. Louis journalist that he didn’t care to “knock” a fellow athlete. He recalled that Criger had also been the catcher for Cy Morgan, the Boston pitcher who Cobb believed tried to end his career by launching a fastball at his head. (Cobb actually said that had Morgan’s pitch hit him in the head, he would have been killed.)23 During the exhibition games in Dallas, Cobb and Criger matched up in only the initial game, but didn’t butt heads. Their frenzied rivalry continued into the regular season, and Cobb made sure it was known by all that he planned to steal on Criger the first opportunity he had.

  That chance came on April 30, 1909, at Detroit. In the fifth inning with Cobb on first, he raced to second on the first pitch, beating a wide throw and fulfilling his promise. St. Louis Post-Dispatch writer James Crusinberry didn’t waste any time in asserting that Cobb had regained his “goat” in the ongoing conflict, but Cobb still wasn’t appeased. The next day, he swaggered to second with Crawford at third, and tried to coax the flustered Criger to throw the ball. Criger knew he was being challenged, and probably bit his tongue in anguish, but he held pat and guarded the plate.24 In another game later in the summer, Cobb displayed further brashness by taking both second and third on Criger, putting a final dagger in their struggle.25 Cobb talked about the Criger feud at length in his autobiography, and claimed to have stolen second, third, and home on the backstop.26 It was also suggested that Cobb demoralized Criger to the point that he retired from baseball altogether. But Criger continued to play until 1912.27

  Remarkably, Cobb didn’t attribute his base-stealing success to be a personal conquest over the catcher, but deemed it a win over the pitcher instead. It was a unique philosophy, and, in fact, The Sporting News stated that he might have been the first player ever to make such a declaration.28 Nevertheless, he really believed in the theory and scrutinized pitchers from top to bottom, searching for their unconscious “tell” that would give him the insight he needed to advance safely. For example, in the case of Cy Young, Cobb realized that he pulled his hands close to his chest before throwing to the plate, and never deviated from the pattern. Young would often throw over to first to keep him close to the bag, but once he entered his routine, he always went home with the ball. Cobb became aware of his customary practice and began to steal immediately after Young brought his hands to his chest.

  In the instance of Young, human nature sometimes revealed too much, and for that reason, Cobb was wary about his own motions on the bases. The last thing he wanted was to give up too much information about what he was going to do, especially when it came to stealing or not stealing. “I always used the same motion,” Cobb once said, “whether I was bluffing or really going down. Sometimes I took a longer lead than I did at other times, but that always depended on either the pitcher or what I had in the back of my mind.”29

  Cobb too had a “tell” that was recognized by a discerning infielder. Each time he’d go to bunt, a third baseman, unnamed in the article, noticed that Cobb bit his lower lip. The fielder put two and two together and nailed him just about every time.30

  Running the bases, Cobb didn’t always guess right, and some days, he was at the mercy of his competitors. But when he was on his game, there was a certain amazement that was shared by his teammates, rivals, and the crowd. “I [knew] I had the reputation of being a crazy base-runner who took crazy chances and I always tried to encourage that notion,” he explained. “Actually, though, I never took an out-and-out chance in a close game. My craziness, if you want to call it that, came in the one-sized games. It was then that I had a chance to experiment, testing out the pitcher, the catcher, or whoever took the throw at the base.”31

  On May 11, 1909, Cobb, in all his glory, attempted a base-running ploy prohibited by the rules and regulations of major league baseball. In the seventh inning against New York, he ran mesmerizingly at full speed around third base and charged across home plate in what normally would have been a triumphant score. But this time, he was instantly declared out because standing back on third was his co-outfielder, Crawford. Cobb, in a baseline pickle, went through the motions, whereas Crawford might have had a chance to score legitimately, but decided to remain still. The contest was still a 16–5 blowout in favor of Detroit, and like Cobb said, he tried to “experiment” in such games. Needless to say, not much was garnered from that little trick.32

  The Tigers were a perennial league leader in 1909 and overcame an early slump in batting by Cobb to maintain a lead over the Philadelphia Athletics. Between opening day and early August, the club was only out of first place one day, and was getting an extraordinary showing by pitcher George Mullin, who’d finish the season with a 29–8 record. Cobb’s streaked to over .300 by June, and had a number of noteworthy moments. Against Washington on July 15, he achieved two inside-the-park home runs in a single game, attaining the second one after blasting through a halt sign by Jennings in what was a relatively close play.33 A week later, he ran all over Boston, collecting four stolen bases in the process and giving Detroit a win.34

  Of all the notable events that year, two incidents would be infamously remembered, and contribute a great deal to Cobb’s longstanding reputation with the public. The first happened in the opening game of a heated series between the Tigers and Athletics at Bennett Park on August 24. Sliding feet first into third base, Cobb sliced the right forearm of Philadelphia’s Frank Baker in a play in which he was tagged out. The injury was painful but manageable, and Baker remained in the game. But Athletics manager Connie Mack called Cobb out afterwards, insisting the spiking was intentional, and cast aspersions on the Detroit player. It was claimed that Cobb said something about taking out a Philadelphia player before the game in which Baker was hurt. Mack was also quoted as saying that Cobb “threatened to get Baker, [Jack] Barry and [Eddie] Collins,” his third baseman, shortstop, and second baseman, respectively.35 Cobb did have a run-in with Eddie Collins in the seventh inning.36 However, in the game rundown, the Baker incident wasn’t even mentioned by the Philadelphia Inquirer.37

  All year, Cobb had dealt with questions about his spo
rtsmanship and whether he was purposefully sliding into basemen with the intent of causing harm. “Never in my life have I ever intentionally spiked a player,” Cobb told a Boston sportswriter earlier in the month. “I don’t slide directly into a base and consequently there is little chance of my spikes striking a fielder’s feet or legs. I use entirely the fall-away slide and anyone who knows base-running realizes that a man slides around a man taking the throw. At third base, I again use the fall-away slide, but not so wide.”38

  Cobb was feeling the squeeze of the accusations. Just twenty-two years of age, he was wearing a somewhat thicker skin than when he broke into the majors, but was still supersensitive to criticism and particularly any questions about his honor. He tried to set the record straight, telling a St. Louis reporter, “I have never cut down but three men since I’ve been in the big league, and they’re good friends of mine right now. The three men I accidentally injured are Billy Sullivan, one of the finest fellows in the business, and Frank Isbell of the White Sox, and [Bill] Bradley of the Cleveland Naps, and he came to me and said, ‘Ty, old boy, it wasn’t your fault.’”39

  With the arrival of the Baker affair, Cobb was backed entirely into a corner. The episode trumped everything that had happened previously and redefined his status on a national and international scale. It ignited the fury of those who already harbored ill-feelings toward him and exacerbated the sentiment that he was a dangerous, reckless, and malicious player. No amount of denials by Cobb—and there were many given to the press—could stifle the avalanche of condemnation. From that moment forth, he carried the reputation of a spikes-high demon, out to maim opponents with no second thought about the welfare of any player standing in his way.

  Mack perpetuated the belief and didn’t budge from his stance, telling reporters he was going to the National Baseball Commission to ensure Cobb was restrained from doing any more damage. If that meant he’d be banned from the sport altogether, so be it. The story was advancing toward a political showdown of some kind, and Cobb’s future was in the balance. At that point, Detroit News photographer Bill Kuenzel produced an impeccably timed picture of the exact moment Cobb slid into third on Baker, proving that he went for a hook slide to avoid the outstretched arm of the fielder. Baker, in fact, was in the baseline, and Cobb was working to avoid contact to get to the base.40 Cobb and his supporters were adamant that the photo cleared his name, and in many respects it did.

  The Sporting News noted that the picture, “while artistic,” could not be “considered as conclusive confirmation” of Cobb’s innocence in the matter. Furthermore, because of the frequency of complaints by “victims” of his spikes, there was no way all instances could be chalked up to an “accident” or the “awkwardness” of the fielder. That being said, Cobb’s “mere denial [was not going to] relieve him of the claim that attaches to a player guilty of this infamous practice.”41 Philadelphia sportswriter Horace Fogel loved to hammer Cobb, and reveled in the opportunity to admonish the Detroit player. As expected, he went right on the attack.

  Widespread reaction to the actual event and subsequent propaganda was out of his control, and all Cobb could do was tell his side of the story. “I have never attempted to spike another player and I deny positively the charge that I have employed rowdy tactics. Of course I run the bases hard and slide hard. But the baseline, by every rule of baseball, belongs to the runner, and if the baseman chooses deliberately to get in the path to try and block the runner off, he does so at his own peril. I did not maliciously spike third baseman Baker, of the Philadelphia team. I slide into third base, and he was on the line.”42

  Several prominent voices spoke up on Cobb’s behalf, including his ex-teammate Herman Schaefer, who had been recently traded to Washington for second baseman Jim Delahanty. Schaefer was one of the most popular men on the Tigers and was instrumental in Cobb’s early major league development.43 “Cobb is a game, square fellow,” Schaefer explained. “He never cut a man with his spikes intentionally in his life.”44 Chicago Cubs owner Charles Murphy added: “No one ever observed Cobb’s playing closer than I did during the last two world’s championship series, and if there had been anything of the ‘dirty’ ball player in his make-up he surely would have brought it to the front then. In all those games, I never saw Cobb make a move that would lead one to believe that he even contemplated an act that wasn’t clean baseball.”45

  “It is my honest opinion that he never thinks of putting the spikes to one who seeks to block him,” explained infielder Bob Unglaub of the Washington Senators. “He thinks only of getting to a bag. A number of players say that Ty has tried to spike them, but there are mighty few who can hold up their hands and say that he really hurt them.”46 American League President Ban Johnson also offered support, issuing a statement affirming his confidence in umpires to enforce the regulations of the game, essentially saying that if they didn’t call Cobb out on an illegal act, there wasn’t one to be concerned about.47

  Cobb’s second infamous happening of 1909 was yet another of those scandalous off-the-field occurrences, one that he more than likely wished never took place at all. On Friday, September 3, Detroit put its amazing 14-game win streak on the line against Nap Lajoie’s squad at Cleveland’s League Park. Darkness crept up on the competitors and the game was called at the end of nine innings with the score tied, 1–1. Feeling sociable, Cobb went out to the theater with a friend that night, steel tycoon E. S. Burke Jr., as well as a few other Tigers players. They later met up with matinee idol Vaughan Glaser and his popular cohort Fay Courteney for dinner at the Hollenden Hotel in downtown Cleveland.48 Undoubtedly discussing a future venture that would see Cobb transition to stage performer, the group talked until around 1:30 in the morning, when, at that time, the ballplayer returned to the team hotel.49

  Upon arriving at the Euclid Hotel, he received a note to meet up with fellow players for a late night card game on the second floor. According to Cobb, he requested assistance in finding the room from the individual working the elevator, but was essentially denied help, prompting a verbal squabble. Cobb explained that the elevator worker not only refused to show him to the room on the second floor, but then wouldn’t take him up to the fifth floor where he was staying.50 The amplification of voices drew the attention of the hotel detective, also known as the night watchman, and George Stanfield quickly made his presence known. Through the years, it has often been reported that Stanfield was African American, leaving open the question of whether it was racially motivated. However, over twenty primary sources were reviewed and an exhaustive genealogical search was conducted, but no reference to Stanfield being an African American was found. In contrast, when Cobb got into a fight with Fred Collins the year before, the fact that he had tussled with an African American was prominent in nearly every press report.

  At this juncture, there are two different versions of what happened, one story by Cobb, and the other offered by Stanfield.

  “When I came to the elevator, where the trouble started,” Stanfield explained, “I found that Cobb had struck the elevator boy. He began calling me vile names. I struck him. We sparred and then my foot slipped and I fell striking my head against the elevator grating. Cobb was on me in an instant, saying ‘I’ll kill you now.’ I felt the sting of a knife. The blood welled up under my collar, from a deep cut on my shoulder. It dripped down over my eyes from a gash in the scalp. Through the blood I saw his hand descending to my face, and I threw up my left hand to shield my face. The knife blade passed clear through it.

  “I threw him off and started backing away, flourishing a gun. I seized my club from the hotel desk and then struck a blow that brought him to his knees. I struck him again and he raised his hands over his head, begging me not to kill him.”51

  Cobb claimed that once the fight broke out against Stanfield, and the two wrestled to the floor, the watchman dug his fingers into his left eye. “I was afraid he was going to ruin my eye. I had one hand free, and finally got out my silver penknife and raked him
across the back of the hand with it. Then I got loose. I didn’t stab him. I did cut my own finger so that it had to be bandaged for several days while I was playing. I didn’t cut him in the shoulder, as people have said I did. The knife was too dull to go through the coat he was wearing, and my own hand was cut as badly by the knife as his was.”52

  Reportedly, neither the clerk nor the night watchman knew that the man they were bickering with was Ty Cobb, and they might have suspected he was not a guest at the hotel at all.53 The Detroit Free Press reported that Stanfield went back to work after things were settled.54 But in the aftermath of the incident, and once the famous Cobb was known to be part of the mix-up, a funny thing that sometimes happens to celebrities occurred. Instead of being a capable worker, Stanfield was said to be bedridden in succeeding press accounts, ailing from numerous injuries, and had a team of attorneys preparing a $5,000 civil suit.55

  Cobb was in a precarious position, legally, but the police investigation of the fight evolved slowly on Saturday, September 4. For that reason, Cobb did what he was supposed to do, and despite being bandaged and bruised, he mustered the strength to participate in both games of a doubleheader against Cleveland. Detroit lost both games, ending their win streak. A reporter for the local Plain Dealer told the story of how Cobb avoided authorities by fleeing out a side door and traveling to the train station ahead of teammates to prevent a warrant from being served.56 Annoyed by that claim, Detroit players told a hometown paper that Cobb didn’t do anything of the kind, and left the ballpark with teammates like always.57 There were murmurs that the situation in Cleveland was part of a conspiracy to knock Cobb, and the Tigers, out of the pennant race.