- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: Detroit
- Team: Tigers
- League: American League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Samuel Earl Crawford (1880-1968) needed a couple more weeks among his 19 ML seasons to reach 3000 hits, finishing with 2961 and the all-time record for triples. “Wahoo Sam” teamed with Ty Cobb for 3 straight Series appearances ‘07-09. Neither did well or won a title. Nevertheless, the renowned manager who made Babe Ruth an outfielder said there was never a better hitter than Crawford. This Nebraska farm kid was considered the strongest hitter of his day and consistently ranked in the top 10 in slugging.
- Playing in the big Deadball Era parks, speedy Crawford set the record for inside-the-park HRs
- Debuting with Cincinnati in 1899, Crawford hit .307 as the youngest player in the majors
- A model of moderation, he rarely struck out, walked or reacted to teammate Cobb’s tirades
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1957
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: Detroit
- Team: Tigers
- League: American League
Robert Hayes Veach (1888-1925) took over in left field at Navin Field in Detroit on Sept 6, 1912 and held that post until 1924 when the Tigers traded him to the Red Sox. In his decade-plus as wingman to Ty Cobb, along with Harry Heilmann and Sam Crawford, Veach was part of the most potent outfield in history. Many, including Bill James, peg the 1915 Tigers’ outfield the best of all-time. Because he played somewhat in the shadow of these greats, and perhaps because the Tigers never won a World Series, this veteran with a lifetime .310 average and top-of-the-league production at the plate and in left, never made it to Cooperstown. As good as he was before the war years, 1919 was Veach’s pinnacle. He led the AL in hits, doubles and triples. Only Cobb bested his .355 average and only Ruth topped his 101 RBI and 279 total bases. In 1920 Veach became the first Tiger to hit for the cycle. From 1915 to 1922, nobody drove in more runs or had more extra-base hits than Bobby Veach.
- Playing for the Yankees in his final season, on Aug 9, 1925, Bobby pinch-hit for Ruth, the first time that had happened since Babe left the mound
- Veach ended his dazzling ML career with pennant-winning Washington that same year
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: Detroit
- Team: Tigers
- League: American League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Hugh Ambrose Jennings (1869-1928) became the premier ML SS for the Orioles in the mid-90s, hitting .401 in ’96. Nearly killed by an Amos Rusie quick-pitch, this survivor returned to be hit 46x in ’96. Irrepressibly good-natured and brilliant, Jennings was an attorney and manager after his playing days, guiding the volcanic Ty Cobb to his phenomenal career.
- Still holds record for being hit by pitch (287)
- Is credited with inventing the platoon system
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1945
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: Detroit
- Team: Tigers
- League: American League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Harry Edwin Heilmann (1894-1951) won the AL batting title four times. Had he scratched out a handful of singles in 1921 and ‘25, he would have been the only player to hit .400 four times. Teammate Ty Cobb considered him second only to Hornsby among right-handers. He was the last right-hander to hit .400 (1923). Harry came out of the PCL to sign with Detroit in 1914 as an outfielder, vying for playing time amongst stalwarts Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford and Bobby Veach. Following a stint in the wartime Navy, Harry returned in 1919 as a first baseman (he would move back to the outfield in 1921) and launched an extraordinary run as one of the most dominant hitters of any era. “Slug” (being slow afoot) was indeed a slugger, but of the line-drive variety, compiling a career average of .342, twelfth best in baseball. Yet, his induction to Cooperstown was delayed until the year after he died based on a bias against 20’s hitters who were seen as feasting on the “live-ball.” Heilmann’s lifelong friend Cobb lied to him on his deathbed that he had made it into the Hall, a fib that became truth the following year.
- Arthritis took a toll in his later years. Heilmann was traded to the Reds in 1930 where he still hit .333 that year
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1952
- Series: Diamond Heads '15
- City: Detroit
- Team: Tigers
- League: American League
- Hall: National Baseball Hall of Fame
Tyrus Raymond Cobb (1886-1961) swept over the baseball landscape like a tidal wave. He lived by a fierce code that drove him to greatness and others to distraction. At the end, his own words could be his epitaph: “But I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch.”
- Cobb never won a World Series and performed with mediocrity in his only three tries
- No one of his era came close to the impact, for good or ill, made by this snarling Tiger
- Elected to Hall of Fame: 1936
Ars Longa Store
Newsletter
