COBBS FIVE HOMERUNS

A fascinating legend that surrounds the storied career of Ty Cobb centers on the time he hit five home runs over a two-game stretch in 1925. Prior to the game against the Browns on May 5 of that year, the Georgia Peach supposedly told St. Louis Star Sports Editor Sid Keener and Detroit News Sports Editor Harry Salsinger:

Gentlemen, pay close attention today. I'll show you something new. For the first time in my life, I will be deliberately going for home runs.

(Source: Al Stump, Algonquin Books, 01/03/1996, Cobb: A Biography, Page 361-362)

Cobbs disdain for the post-1920 proliferation of the long ball was well-documented. In particular, he hated slugger Babe Ruth and how the Bambino had transformed the game. Cobb thought the deluge of home runs minimized the need for strategies he honed to perfection during the dead ball; skills like bunting, the hit-and-run, using the whole field, and the stolen base.

The Detroit star didnt think it took a lot of talent to hit home runs and was convinced that his way of playing the game was vastly superior. So, as the legend goes, he took time in St. Louis to show that, if he had wanted to, he could hit a lot of homers, too.

Whether or not Cobb actually "called" his power outburst has been debated over the years but what actually happened at Sportsman's Park on those two days is a matter of record. In the 2nd inning of the May 5 game against the Browns, Tyrus Raymond smashed a pitch from Bullet Joe Bush for a long home run to right field. Later in the game, he launched a ball over the pavilion in right and added another "over-the-fence" homer in the 8th. Along with the three long balls, Cobb hit a double and two singles, finishing the day 6 for 6.

On May 6, the man from Royston slammed two more home runs, making it five round-trippers in two games.

If the legend is true, Cobb apparently thought he had proven his point and went back to what he called "real" baseball and finished the 1925 campaign with a lusty .378 average but "only" 12 home runs.

One of the people who had reportedly heard Ty Cobb predict his power surge, Sid Keener, was a respected sports journalist. He later served as the Director of Baseballs Hall-of-Fame from 1952 to 1963 and might be considered a reliable source. One wonders if someone in the public eye like Keener, would stick to this false narrative like he did in subsequent years. If it had been proven that Cobb didnt say those things before a game in St. Louis in 1925, Keener would have been discredited in his profession.

The other "witness" Harry Salsinger was somewhat friendly with Cobb and wrote two biographies about the ballplayer. However, just because they were on good terms doesn't necessarily mean he helped fabricate such an incredible story. Tons of people (including plenty of sportswriters) hated Cobb at the time and spinning glowing, untrue pieces about a major pain-in-the-butt was not part of the eras zeitgeist. The story was unusual for a time when many sportswriters thought baseball would be better off without Ty Cobb.

Salsinger, like Keener, had his reputation as a journalist to think about. Was it worth risking his career to perpetrate such a big lie?

Coupled with the facts that Ty Cobb was impulsive, high strung and enormously egotistical, Keener and Salsinger's account rings true. One could easily see Cobb making such a boast and then having the talent (along with a little bit of luck) to pull it off.

Could Ty Cobb have been a big-time home run hitter had he decided to? We'll never know but based on the mountain of other offensive accomplishments credited to his name, it's certainly possible.

Even without gaudy homerun totals, Cobb was the very definition of a great baseball player.

Perhaps the greatest ever.