As a 20 year San Diego area resident, lifelong Padres fan, and someone who still has a poster of Tony Gywnn on his wall, please refresh (and provide a link), of these "charges" against Tony that I don't seem to remember.
Big Joe | 05.12.08 - 9:48 am | #

Big Joe, sorry about that, I'd misremembered my baseball and transposed Kirby Puckett (the profiles are pretty close!) onto Tony Gwynn, who was and is an ambassador and role model for baseball. Sorry for the mixup!
Erik | Homepage | 05.12.08 - 1:21 pm | #

"[N]astiest and least sportsmanlike stars of all time." Ty Cobb? What, nasty because he slid into base hard, with spikes high, trying his hardest to advance and score runs, perfectly legal under prevailing rules? Hitting, bunting, running out every ball, studying opposing pitchers, taking full advantage of the rules in an effort to win? Nasty? Because he played hard, played to win, played for the sheer joy of the game?

Un "...sportsmanlike?" Please: provide an example. Arguing a strike call with an umpire, perhaps? Calling "time" to make an opposing batter think about the next pitch coming, and perhaps swing at it and miss? Heckling opposing ballplayers from the bench? Refusing to accept paltry salaries from Detroit team owner Navin, holding out for more money and incentives?

Ty Cobb was without question (I believe) the greatest ever to play the game. Better than Ruth, way beyond Gehrig, without equal, really. Pete Rose came close, in his intensity and dedication to the game, and his total hits, of course. But total, all around baseball player? No one came close or has since come close to equaling Cobb. Look at the major league records he *still* holds: 23 consecutive years batting over .300, including 3 years batting over .400, AL leader in triples, stole home plate 35 times during the regular season, 4,191 hits (again, exceeded only by Rose), etc., etc., etc.

Certainly, Cobb had "issues," as we might call them today. Paranoia might be the diagnosis; at a minimum, he was unable to get along with anyone. But read about some of the things he did behind the scenes, including his establishment of a hospital in his Georgia hometown and a scholarship fund which still sends deserving kids to college today. Read about the financial aid he provided to about three dozen former Detroit (and other major league) team mates long before the pension system was established. Check out Ty's behind-the-scene efforts bolstering Wahoo Crawford's entry into the HOF, the same Crawford who had complained for years in his retirement about Cobb's "selfishness."

Nasty? Unsportsmanlike? Hardly. And yes, before you respond with the 1912 Claude Leuker incident, where Cobb went into the stands and pummeled a heckling, disabled spectator, do a bit of research and inform yourself of the *many* steps Cobb took before leaping the rail. Read how he asked, yes, asked the Highlander's management to address the issue, how he approached the umpire with the same request, how he put up with the vile things being shouted by Leuker not only for several innings prior to the incident but several *games* that had been played prior in the series. Then read how the Detroit team went on strike after Cobb was suspended from play by the league president.

Ty Cobb will never be equaled; there will never be another so dedicated to the game.

More's the shame.
Denny, Alaska | 05.12.08 - 2:57 pm | #

Thanks for the correction. It is monday after all.
Big Joe | 05.12.08 - 3:41 pm | #

Denny, Undoubtedly Cobb is one of the best of all time to play the game. But he was also a surly bastard who came in cleats up and played a very hard and harsh style of baseball. Old school before it was old school.

And, provoked or not, the guy attacked a cripple. Defend it anyway you want but he attacked a guy with part of one hand.

Not to say he was without redeeming qualities, as you noted. But he was an infamously surly bastard. Whether that qualifies him for the All-Scandal team is another thing altogether and you may be right that his inclusion is unwarranted.
Erik | Homepage | 05.12.08 - 10:23 pm | #

It's been well established that Ty Cobb was a real asshole in his personal life, and on the baseball field. He was thoroughly racist, and in fact the reason he went after the crippled guy in the stands was because the guy yelled out that Cobb's mother had been intimate with a person of color--though that wasn't quite how it was phrased.

I must vehemently disagree with you about Pete Rose. The office of the Commissioner of Baseball was created after the Black Sox scandal. Since then, every single player has known that betting on baseball will get you banned from the game. Rose bet on baseball. Period.

If Rose goes in to the Hall, then "Shoeless" Joe Jackson and Buck Weaver need to go in on the previous ballot. Their only crime was not to tell about the gambling conspiracy, a much lesser crime than Rose's.
~Easy | Homepage | 05.15.08 - 4:24 am | #