On this date, 100 years ago, Ty Cobb made his major league debut and had an RBI double in his first at bat. Cobb is one of the most, if not the most recognizable name in the first decades of the 20th century. He was the first player elected to the Hall of Fame - ahead of Babe Ruth. Few accounts of Cobb as a player or a man fail to point out the fact that he was a southern racist. This, of course, is true, but no body seems to mention how other ballplayers felt about people of other races. I could be wrong, but I suspect Cobb wasn't the only racist in the game at that time. In fact he was probably among the overwhelming majority. As Bill James put it, "I hate to break it to you, but Ty Cobb did not invent racism." Nevertheless, "Cobb" and "Racist" go together like the so-called horse and carriage.
Cobb certainly belongs in the discussion about the greatest player of all time. Most conversations have involved Ruth and Ted Williams, with Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, and Barry Bonds joining Cobb with an occasional salute in the dialogue. Obviously, Cobb played in a different era, predominantly the deadball era, when home runs and even plain old runs were scarce.
There was no such thing as the MVP Award when Cobb started, but he did win the first one in 1911. He won 12 batting titles - still a record. In fact, Cobb led the league at least once in every major statistical category except walks (he finished second with 118 in 1915). Among other categories, he ended his career as the all-time leader in batting average (he's still the all-time leader in this area with a .366 career average), hits (now 2nd), runs (now 2nd), stolen bases (now 3rd), doubles (now 4th), and total bases (now 4th). He finished his career 2nd all time in RBI's and triples. Most of his career records stood until the late 60's at best, and the hits record didn't fall until the mid-80's.
On a quick side, Cobb was the highest paid player in the game for part of his career, but he made his made his real money investing in a little Georgia company called Coca-Cola.
His statistical record is astounding. As a man he was of course a racist, hateful to his teammates, generally bitter, and is believed (though never convicted) to have profited from throwing baseball games. He was hated by the entire league. In 1910 he was in a hot batting race with Nap Lajoie, and the team against whom Nap was playing allowed him to go 5 for 5, just to make sure he won the batting title (he did .384 to .383). Despite the overwhelming evidence that the whole world hated this guy, despite the fact that he seems to have deserved it, he was still elected to the Hall of Fame, and elected by a margin so large that to this day only two players have garnered a higher percentage of the votes. Just an observation.
Seriously, it was windy here yesterday, though I doubt there's much room for me to complain throughout the state. We had wind and sprinkles yesterday and clear skies today. Not too bad considering the destruction down south. While our streets are clear and our buildings are intact, we are still feeling the effects of Hurricane Katrina in other ways: the internet service at our office is down, along with the service of many northeast Louisiana businesses, and the service could be down for weeks. Additionally there are rumors of a gasoline shortage. Not an actual supply issue; it's simply an issue of delivery as most of our local gas comes from the southern part of the state.
To my knowledge, all my friends and loved ones from down south (mostly Baton Rouge, not New Orleans) are safe. Please remember to pray for the people of the gulf coast area.
Robbie and I attended the Rangers/Mariners game yesterday in Arlington. We had a good time, Ichiro hit a grand slam, and the Mariners won. I had been disappointed that we were going to miss out out on seeing Felix Hernandez, the M's most recent pitching phenom. I figured we'd get Gil Meche or something like that. Instead, arriving in at the ballpark as lineups were being announced I hear, "And pitching for the Mariners, #58, Jeff Harris." I must admit that I hadn't even heard of him. The Mariners have not really been exciting enough to follow each tiny move.
Anyway, Robbie was not impressed by Harris, and I must confess that watching him pitch by pitch was nothing special. His various pitches came in between 79 and 91 miles per hour. He didn't blow us away, but here's the facts: He got the win, got through seven innings on 94 pitches, walked two, struck out two, allowed four hits, and one un-earned run.
This morning I've tried to find out more about him, and the usual sources have very little to say. I did find an article from a Seattle newspaper that tells his story; I found it to be rather interesting. You can check it out here.
The All-Winner Team: These guys just enbody winning. I realize this is really subjective, but this is the team for me:
C, Paul Lo Duca
1B, Albert Pujols
2B, Mark Loretta
3B, Melvin Mora
SS, Michael Young
LF, Hideki Matsui
CF, Johnny Damon
RF, Brian Giles
DH, David Dellucci
SP's, John Smoltz, Curt Schilling
CL, Mariano Rivera
The Happy-Guys Team: These guys give the impression that they just love playing the game and that they always have time for the fans:
C, Matt LeCroy
1B, Derek Lee
2B, Marcus Giles
3B, Morgan Ensberg
SS, Miguel Tejada
LF, Luis Gonzalez
CF, Torii Hunter
RF, Mike Cameron
DH, David Ortiz
SP, Dontrelle Willis
CL: Closers can't be happy
The Funny/Fun-Name Team:
C, Yorvit Torrealba
1B, Doug Mientkiewicz
2B, Mark Grudzielanek
3B, Rob Mackowiak
SS, Yuniesky Betancourt (honorable mention to Nomar Garciaparra)
LF, Frank Catalanotto
CF, Wily Mo Pena
RF, Ryan Langerhans
SP's, Jonathan Papalbon, Wandy Rodriguez
RP's Ambiorix Burgos, Shigetoshi Hasegawa, Ugueth Urbina
The All-Headache Team: These guys either have huge egos or a penchant for trouble:
C, Ivan Rodriguez
1B, Carlos Delgado
2B, Jeff Kent
3B, Scott Rolen (I really have to go back to the Phillie days to support this)
SS, Nomar Garciaparra
LF, Jose Guillen (honorable mention for Barry Bonds)
CF, Milton Bradley
RF, Gary Sheffield
DH, Manny Ramirez
SP's, Pedro Martinez, Jose Lima, Derek Lowe
RP's, Julian Taverez, Steve Kline.
During the course of a appraising, I've been in many nice houses. I get to see whatever is the hot new trend and get ideas for when I build my own house, someday. But there is another end of the spectrum. Sometimes I have to go to the dump. Last week I had a request, and in the course of setting up the appointment, I called the realtor involved to ask about access. He said, "Just push the door down and go in. Oh, and don't go alone. In fact, bring a gun." Obviously, this somewhat changed my expectations fo this inspection. I got Kensill to go with me and there was a gun in our possession. I measured while he took pictures so that we could get out of there as fast a s we could. The whole place was falling in. The structure was actually a negative factor in valueing the land. The ceilings were falling in, all the windows and doors were broken, rotten wood on the outside, holes in the walls. Kensill actually snapped a picture with the current residents: rats. I hope this one will be featured on the next episode of What You Get for the Money.
If you happen to be somebody that needs the blog to know what's going on in my life, here's the eight-month synopsis: I started working for a larger appraisal firm. I have a second child on the way (a girl), expected sometime in mid-December. I played a season of softball and sustained no injuries. Fantasy baseball is still going on and no injuries have resulted from that either.
I do intend to give Odd Thoughts another go. Maybe I can get Shannon to revamp my site. I will also try to post some other things besides baseball stuff, though I imagine I will still post more baseball stuff than non-baseball stuff. At least that's my plan.