Total Baseball (1994 Edition)/Total_Baseball_1994_Edition_Creative_Multimedia_1994.iso/dp/0002/00028.txt

Text File | 1994-02-16 | 67KB | 1,130 lines

$Unique_ID{BAS00028}
$Title{Lives of the Players:  C}
$Author{}
$Subject{Campanella Carew Carey Carlton Carter Cartwright Caruthers Cash
Cedeno Cepeda Chadwick Chance Chandler Chapman Charleston Chesbro Childs
Cicotte Clarke Clarkson Clemente Clift Cobb Cochrane Colavito Collins
Combs Comiskey Concepcion Conlan Connolly Connor Cooper Coveleski Cravath
Crawford Cronin Cummings Cuyler}
$Log{
Roy Campanella*0011101.scf
Rod Carew*0011501.scf
Max Carey*0011601.scf
Steve Carlton*0011701.scf
Gary Carter*0011901.scf
Bob Caruthers*0012101.scf
Norm Cash*0012301.scf
Cesar Cedeno*0012401.scf
Orlando Cepeda*0012501.scf
Frank Chance*0012901.scf
Oscar Charleston*0013101.scf
Fred Clarke*0013501.scf
John Clarkson*0013601.scf
Roberto Clemente*0013801.scf
Ty Cobb*0014101.scf
Mickey Cochrane*0014201.scf
Rocky Colavito*0014301.scf
Eddie Collins*0014401.scf
Charles Comiskey*0014601.scf
Roger Connor*0014701.scf
Walker Cooper*0014901.scf
Sam Crawford*0015401.scf
Joe Cronin*0015601.scf
Kiki Cuyler*0016601.scf
Black Sox in Court (1921)*0002501.scf}

Total Baseball:  The Players


Lives of the Players:  C


Roy Campanella
Catcher, Negro Leagues, 1937-45, Baltimore Elite Giants, Bkn (N) 1948-57

For a decade with the Brooklyn Dodgers (1948-1957), Campanella was one of the
two best catchers in baseball.  His only serious rival was the Yankees' Yogi
Berra.  The Dodgers and Yankees dominated their leagues during that period,
and each catcher received three MVP awards.  An auto accident in 1958 left
Campy substantially paralyzed and ended his career.  In 1969 he was elected to
the Hall of Fame.
     The squat, powerful Campanella began playing in the Negro Leagues with
the Baltimore Elite Giants while still a teenager.  He played in All-Star
Games in 1941, 1944, and 1945.  He was the second black player (after Jackie
Robinson) signed by the Dodgers, and he joined Nashua in the Brooklyn farm
system in 1946.
     In 1948, a month into the season, he was called up to the Dodgers and
quickly established himself as the NL's top catcher.  Campanella was excellent
defensively, an acknowledged master in handling pitchers, and durable.  His
rookie year was the only one of his ten in the majors in which he didn't catch
in over 100 games.
     Campy's Dodgers won NL pennants in 1949, 1952, 1953, 1955 and 1956. The
1955 crew defeated the Yankees in the World Series to become the first
Brooklyn world champs in this century.  Although he was always steady as
Gibraltar behind the plate, Campanella's hitting fluctuated wildly.  But in
his best seasons he was a terror.  In 1951 he hit .325 with 33 home runs and
108 RBIs to win his first MVP Award.  Two years later, in 1953, he won his
second MVP with .312, 41 homers, and a league-leading 142 RBIs.  At the time,
both the home run and RBI marks were records for catchers.  He slipped to his
poorest season in 1954, batting only .207.  But in the championship year of
1955 he bounced back with .318, 32, and 107 to gain his third MVP.  His career
totals were .276, 242, 856, with the home run total being the most ever hit by
a catcher up to that time.
     Campanella's autobiography, It's Good to Be Alive, told the story of his
courageous struggle to overcome the effects of his auto accident.  It was
later made into a movie for television.


Rod Carew
Second Baseman/First Baseman, Min (A) 1967-78, Cal (A) 1979-85

Only Ty Cobb won more batting championships than Carew, the moody Panamanian
who sprayed 3,053 hits where they ain't.  He won seven AL titles for
Minnesota, including four in a row from 1972 through 1975.  In 1969, when Rod
won his first batting crown with .332, he stole home 7 times, tying a mark set
by Brooklyn's Pete Reiser.  In 1972 Rod hit a league-leading .318 without a
single homer, the only batting champ ever to do that.  Fifteen of his hits
were bunts. Carew's high mark was .388 in 1977, like Ted Williams' mark of
1957 the second highest batting average in the majors since 1941.  That year
he also led in runs scored (128) and triples (16).  He was named MVP.
     Carew spent his last seven years with the Angels in a poor park for
hitters.  Although he won no more batting championships in California, he was
over .300 in his first five seasons there.  He retired with a .328 career
average.
     The main raps against Carew related to his defense.  He played second
base through 1975, but critics carped that his arm was too weak for the job.
Shifted to first base for his remaining ten seasons, he caught flack as a
single-hitter in a power position.


Max Carey
Outfielder, Pit (N) 1910-26, Bkn (N) 1926-29.  Manager, Bkn (N) 1932-33

Pittsburgh's Max Carey was probably the best center fielder National League
batters ever cursed.  The only thing that covered more grass at Forbes Field
was smoke from the steel mills.  In Palmer's Linear Weights, only Tris Speaker
ranks with Max as an outfield bandit.
     Born Maximillian Carnerius, the former divinity student led the league in
putouts nine times and retired with an NL record of 6,363, a mark later broken
by Willie Mays in a longer career.  Carey's 339 assists are still the
twentieth-century NL record.
     A good-but-not-great hitter, Carey averaged .285 and led the league twice
in triples, more on speed than power.  He was a great baserunner--fifth on the
all-time stolen base list with 738.  He led the league in thefts ten times,
and once, in 1922, he stole 51 bases in 53 attempts.
     In 1925, his final full year with Pittsburgh, at age thirty-five, he
stole second, third, and home in the same inning on two different days in
August.  Playing in the World Series that year with a broken rib, he batted
.458, stole three bases, and in the seventh game clipped Walter Johnson for
four hits and scored three times to help win the world championship 9-7.
     In 1961 Carey was elected to the Hall of Fame.


Steve Carlton
Pitcher, StL (N) 1965-71, Phi (N) 1972-86, SF (N) 1986, Chi (A) 1986, Cle (A)
1987, Min (A) 1987-88

For most of his career Carlton answered a short "----" to questions from the
press and refused to grant interviews.  He let his pitching do his talking,
but as a consequence his training methods remained a mystery.  One report had
him preparing for a game with meditation while floating weightless in total
darkness.  However he prepared, it worked.
     With Spahn and Koufax, Carlton was one of the three best NL lefthanders
of all time.  He won 329 games, second only to Spahn among lefties. He had
4,131 strikeouts--19 in one game--more than anyone except Nolan Ryan. (He's
also second to Ryan in walks with 1,828.) He won four Cy Youngs, one of them
unanimous.
     He's the only man to win a Cy Young with a last-place team.  That was in
1972, after he'd been swapped from the Cardinals.  Steve was an amazing 27-10
with the Phils, who won only 32 without him that year.  He was Triple Crown
winner--wins, ERA, and strikeouts (27, 1.97, 310).  It earned him a record
salary from the Phillies the following year--$167,000, a figure that is
laughable today.  Carlton took special delight during 1972 in whipping his old
team, the Cards, who had refused to give him a raise after his 20-9 season
helped them take second place in 1971.  He beat the Birds four times, allowing
a total of only two runs.  One of the wins was his 100th.  He also got his
300th victory, over St. Louis Cardinals.
     Steve had four more 20-win seasons as the Phillies moved from being
"phutile" in the early 1970s to contenders, finally becoming world champions
in 1980.  He won two games in the 1980 World Series, including the Game Six
clincher.
     Using a fastball, curve, and legendary slider, the six-four lefty was a
workhorse, leading the NL in innings pitched five times.  When he suffered a
strained shoulder in 1985, he went on the disabled list for the first time in
his career.


Gary Carter
Catcher, Mon (N) 1974-84, NY (N) 1985-89, SF 1990-

Although cynics admit Carter ranks as the top catcher of the 1980s, they
criticize his personality.  After all, the guy is friendly, open, cooperative,
thoughtful, enthusiastic, and has never been involved in a scandal.  What's he
hiding?
     Granting for the moment that he just might be what he seems as a person,
the next question might be:  is he what he seems to be as a catcher? Long
regarded as the best-throwing backstop in the NL, he has slipped a bit in the
past few years.  He makes up for his aging arm in part with good footwork and
a quick release.  He is widely admired as a handler of pitchers, but since
coming to the Mets in 1985 he's had more to work with than most NL catchers.
He is given much of the credit for the development of young Dwight Gooden into
a star.  In summary, for all his virtues behind the plate, Carter would not be
a virtual shoo-in for the Hall of Fame were it not for his bat.
     His career batting average is in the middling range, but his power stats
are excellent:  more than 300 career home runs, with a high of 32 in 1985;
four seasons with over 100 RBIs, including a league-leading 106 in 1984.
     In the strike-shortened 1981 season, Gary hit only .251 for the Expos but
slugged .421 in the divisional series to help get them into the playoff and
.438 there, as they lost to the Dodgers.  In the 1986 World Series he hit two
key home runs in the third-game win and ignited the tenth-inning rally in Game
Six that culminated in Bill Buckner's fatal error.


Alexander Joy Cartwright
Founder

The first man to formulate baseball's rules, Cartwright may have "invented"
baseball in 1845 when he organized the New York Knickerbockers, who played
their first match game in Hoboken, New Jersey, on the nineteenth day of June
in the following year (and lost 23-1).
     The Knicks were a company of volunteer firemen, and Cartwright a bank
teller, when the historic marriage was made.  It was a game for gentlemen, and
Cartwright once fined a Knick sixpence for swearing.  The rules for the "New
York Game" included three strikes per out, and three outs per inning.  But
balls hit over the fence were fouls, a ball caught on one bounce was an out,
and the first team to score 21 runs ("aces") was declared the winner.  A
committee later provided formally for nine-men teams, for nine innings to the
game, and for ninety feet between bases.
     Then he went west to California where he found the '49ers in the big Gold
Rush, spreading his new game, like Johnny Appleseed, at every village he
stopped, and carrying with him the ball of that historic first game.  He
eventually reached Honolulu, where he found business success and became a
respected civic leader.  He died in 1892, but the publicity surrounding the
Abner Doubleday legend with the foundation of the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown
led to an investigation of Cartwright's role in the origin of the game.  He
was enshrined in the Hall in 1938.


Bob Caruthers
Pitcher, StL (AA) 1884-87, Bkn (AA) 1888-89, 1890-91, StL (N) 1892

Twice a 40-game winner, 138-pound Bob Caruthers retired with a 218-99 record
for an amazing .688 percentage, the highest of any pitcher with a significant
number of decisions.  In a nine-year career Caruthers pitched for five
championship teams and one runner-up.  His only losing team was sixth place
Brooklyn in 1891, but he was still 18-14.
     As a twenty-one-year old rookie with the old St Louis Browns, Bob led the
American Association in wins, percentage, and ERA (40-13, .755, 2.07).  The
next year he was 30-14.  In the postseason series against Cap Anson's NL White
Stockings, he won a one-hit shutout over Jim McCormick.  When he tried to come
back the next day, he was blasted for twelve hits.  But he won the sixth and
final game, 4-3, over Hall of Famer John Clarkson in ten innings.  Parisian
Bob--so named for his off-season trip to France--was 29-9 in 1887, as the
Browns won their third straight flag.
     After a 29-15 season with second-place Brooklyn, he had his best year in
1889, 40-11, as the Brooks won the AA pennant.
     As the rules governing pitching tightened and the number of balls needed
for a base on balls fell, Caruthers' walks increased.  His wins dropped to
23, then 18.  After starting 1892 at 2-10 for St. Louis, he called it a
career.


Norm Cash
First Baseman, Chi (A) 1958-59, Det (A) 1960-74

Cash hit .300 only once, and it was a big one--.361 in 1961, his second year
as the Tigers' first baseman.  He also slugged 41 HRs and knocked in 132.
     The next year Norm fell 118 points to .263, a record fall for a batting
champ.  He never approached 100 RBIs again or hit higher than .283, but he
remained a dangerous batter.  He had more RBIs per official at-bats than his
roommate, Al Kaline, in part because he drew 1,043 walks.  He finished with
1,046 runs scored, 1,103 RBIs, and 377 homers.  Four times he cleared the roof
at Tiger Stadium.
     The popular and personable first sacker was somewhat immobile in the
field, but he had sure hands and twice led AL first basemen in fielding.  He
hit .385 in the 1968 World Series to help the Tigers win in seven.
     A good football player at Sul Ross State, Cash had been a
thirteenth-round draft choice of the NFL Chicago Bears, but he chose to play
baseball.


Cesar Cedeno
Outfielder, Hou (N) 1970-81, Cin (N) 1982-85, StL (N) 1985, LA (N) 1986

Leo Durocher once called Cedeno another Willie Mays.  Then, in his third and
fourth seasons, the young Dominican made the mistake of compiling back-to-back
.320 years.  From there on, he staggered through the remainder of his career
under that back-breaking tonnage of potential.  Cedeno might have come closer
to imitating Mays if he'd played anywhere but Houston, where his long drives
were outs.  It didn't help that he got into only two postseason series with
Houston and didn't do well in either.
     For one brief period he was the player everyone predicted he'd be.  In
1985 the Cardinals picked him up in late season.  In 28 games, he hit .434 to
help St. Louis to the division title.  Again he slumped in postseason play,
hitting only .167 in the LCS and .133 in the Series.
     His career totals of 2,087 hits for a .285 average, 976 RBIs, and 199
home runs would look a lot better if so much hadn't been expected of him.  His
550 stolen bases put him in ninth place all-time when he retired.


Orlando Cepeda
First Baseman, SF (N) 1958-66, StL (N) 1966-68, Atl (N) 1969-72, Oak (A) 1972,
Bos (A) 1973, KC (A) 1974

Cepeda's first big league home run was also the first major league homer ever
hit on the West Coast.  It came in 1958 against Los Angeles.  Orlando hit 24
more to win the Rookie of the Year and helped pull the Giants from sixth to
third.  He was only twenty years old.  His father, Perucho, a shortstop, had
been hailed as the greatest player in Puerto Rico.  Orlando's first seven
seasons gave rise to predictions that he would become the greatest Latin
player.  In those seven seasons, he topped .300 six times, had at least 96
RBIs each year, and totaled 222 home runs.  His 46 homers and 142 RBIs led the
NL in 1961.  Despite his success in San Francisco, his stay was stormy as he
fought managers and fans who tagged him as lazy.
     A bad knee had begun to limit his play, and surgery in 1965 cost him most
of the season.  The Cards took a chance on him, and he was named Comeback of
the Year in 1966 with 20 homers and 73 RBIs.  The next year, as the Cardinals
won the pennant, he was a unanimous choice for MVP.  He hit a career high
.325, with 25 home runs and a league-high 111 RBIs.  Cepeda hit a
disappointing .103 in the World Series.
     Further knee problems pulled down the rest of his career, although he
showed occasional flashes of his old power.  His career totals of .297, 379
homers, and 1,365 RBI put him in rarefied atmosphere.  However, a postcareer,
ten-month prison sentence for marijuana possession has thus far weighed more
heavily with Cooperstown selectors.


Henry Chadwick
Pioneer

Having played cricket and rounders in his native England, Chadwick came to
America with his family in 1837 at age thirteen.  He first played baseball in
1847 and pronounced it a descendant of the earlier English games.  When nearly
a decade later he first saw games between skilled players, he recognized
baseball's potential to become America's national game.  His writings and
influence helped make that potential a fact.
     In the late 1850s, he began covering baseball games as a reporter for
several newspapers, most notably the New York Clipper and the Brooklyn Eagle.
In connection with this, he developed the box score and devised a system of
scoring that is little changed today.
     Chadwick continued to write and comment on baseball for more than fifty
years.  He originated the first guide, Beadle's Dime Baseball Player, in 1860,
edited DeWitt's Guide through the 1870s and Spalding's Base Ball Guide from
1881 to 1908.  His The Game of Base Ball (1868) was the first hardcover book
published on the subject.
     Widely influential for his writings, he also had a direct influence in
shaping the game by serving on various rules committees, beginning in 1858. He
opposed gambling, drunkenness, and rowdiness among players, sometimes to no
avail.  Chadwick considered himself one of "the intelligent majority" who
preferred scientific hitting over slugging and fielding prowess.
     Among the honors he received during his lifetime were an honorary
membership in the National League in 1894 (though the $600-a-year pension the
league granted two years later had more practical value) and a medal awarded
at the St. Louis World's Fair.
     The "Father of Baseball," as he was called, died from pneumonia in 1908
after attending Opening Day in Brooklyn.  Flags around the league flew at
half-staff in his honor.  In 1938 he was named to the Hall of Fame.


Frank "Husk" Chance
First Baseman, Chi (N) 1898-1912, NY (A) 1913-14.  Manager, Chi (N) 1905-12,
NY (A) 1913-14, Bos (A) 1923

Because of the popularity of F.P. Adams' poem bemoaning that his favorites,
the Giants, were often victims of double plays by the Cubs'
Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, there is a tendency to view the trio's election to
Cooperstown in 1946 as some sort of P.R. fluke.  In point of fact, a strong
case can be made for Tinker's and Evers' enshrinements as players.  Chance,
however, had too short a career as a regular to rank with the game's foremost
first basemen.  Nevertheless he's the most deserving Hall of Famer of the
three.  He was called "The Peerless Leader" for good reason.
     Chance never played in the minors.  He broke in as a catcher before
winning the first base job in 1903.  By 1904 he was captain of the team, and
in 1905 at age twenty-seven he succeeded Frank Selee as manager.
     As the Cubs manager he led the Chicago to glory in 1906-1910, when they
won four flags in five years.  They also won two World Series under Chance,
which is two more than they've won since.  In his first full year at the helm,
the Cubbies won 116 games, a record that still stands, despite the fact that
modern teams play more games.  They averaged 106 wins in the five-year span.
Of course, he had good players, but so did John McGraw in New York and Fred
Clarke in Pittsburgh.
     Even counting two seventh-place years with the New York Highlanders
(1913-14) and one last-place finish with the Red Sox (1923), Frank's winning
percentage of .593 is sixth best ever.
     And he wasn't a bad first baseman, big for his day and very powerful. He
played only six full years.  The victim of frequent beanings, Frank played his
last full season in 1908.  He hit .272 and slammed three hits against
Mathewson in the unforgettable playoff that gave the Cubs the flag.  In the
World Series victory over Detroit, he hit .421.  He averaged .310 in Series
play overall, and his ten Series stolen bases are topped only by Eddie Collins
and Lou Brock.  His career batting average was a strong .296 during the most
inert days of the dead-ball era.  He usually batted himself cleanup, just
another indication that he knew what to do with a good player when he had one.


A.B. "Happy" Chandler
Commissioner

The popular, outgoing Kentucky U.S. senator (and former governor) was a
surprise choice to become commissioner of baseball in 1945, filling the office
held by Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis until his death in 1944.  Chandler was
the choice of the Yankees' Leland "Larry" MacPhail.  Other candidates had
included Ford Frick, Jim Farley, J. Edgar Hoover, and Tom Dewey.
     As commissioner, Chandler proved well liked by fans, press, and even most
players.  Undoubtedly many of his decisions worked to the benefit of baseball.
His downfall was that he made decisions when most baseball owners would have
preferred a figurehead.
     Early in his tenure, he was confronted with the decision of the Dodgers'
Branch Rickey to sign Jackie Robinson and other black players.  Chandler was
already on record as favoring black entrance to the heretofore all-white major
leagues.  Over the objections of the other fifteen owners, the commissioner
stood behind Rickey, making baseball open to all.
     Early in 1946, Chandler faced another crisis when eighteen major league
players jumped to the Mexican League for promises of higher salaries.
Chandler banned the players from major league baseball for five years.  Many
believe that this decision more than any other eventually led to his downfall
as commissioner because it left baseball's reserve clause open to the courts.
The player ban was lifted in 1950, and most of the players returned to their
former clubs--some, such as pitcher Sal Maglie, to outstanding success.
However, a suit filed by outfielder Danny Gardella shook baseball to its
foundations.
     One of Chandler's more controversial decisions was a suspension handed
out to popular manager Leo Durocher for the 1947 season.  The action was
apparently precipitated by Durocher's being seen in the company of known
gamblers.  Chandler was criticized at the time for not taking action against
some owners, including MacPhail, who also numbered gamblers among their
acquaintances.  His defense was that Durocher's suspension was the culmination
of a long string of controversial incidents.
     In 1951 he received only nine of sixteen owner votes for his re-election.
A two-thirds endorsement was necessary.  Chandler resigned and returned to
Kentucky, where he was again elected governor.  In 1982 he was named to the
Baseball Hall of Fame.


Ray Chapman
Shortstop, Cle (A) 1912-20

Chapman was the only major leaguer ever killed in a game.  On August 16, 1920,
as his Indians fought toward their first pennant, he froze on a Carl Mays
pitch.  The ball fractured his skull and he died the next day.  He was only
twenty-nine years old.
     At the time Chapman was the AL's leading shortstop.  He had hit .300 in
three of his last four seasons and was among the leaders each year in stolen
bases.  A clever hit-and-run man, he led in walks in 1918.  In the field he
had the best range in the league.
     In the furor after his death, most "trick" pitches were banned, among
them the spitball.  Ironically Mays' pitch had been a fastball.  More
important, the leagues mandated more frequent disposal of discolored or
bruised baseballs; this produced conditions that were safer for batters.  This
step may also have done more to usher in the prodigious batting boom of the
1920s than even the injection of rabbit hormones into the ball.


Oscar Charleston
Outfielder, Negro Leagues, 1915-50, Indianapolis ABCs, Lincoln Stars,
Chicago American Giants, St. Louis Giants, Harrisburg Giants, Hilldale,
Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Toledo Crawfords, Indianapolis
Crawfords, Philadelphia Stars, Brooklyn Brown Dodgers

Charleston is often cited as the greatest player of the Negro Leagues.
Contemporaries lauded him as "the black Tris Speaker" for his center field
play, "the black Ty Cobb" for his base running, and "the black Babe Ruth" for
his hitting.  While such analogies are useful in showing the range of
Charleston's abilities, they have a counterfeit aura that is unfair to a
unique performer.  His combination of speed and strength places him among the
foremost players, black or white, of all time.  New York Giants' manager John
McGraw said Charleston was the best player, period.  Then he sighed:  "If only
I could calcimine him."
     As a center fielder, Charleston was able to play unusually shallow
because his great speed and judgment allowed him to get back for deep fly
balls.  He ranged far to his left and right, enabling the other outfielders to
play closer to the foul lines.  His arm has been reported as "weak", but all
sources agree on its accuracy.
     Charleston ran bases with speed (he was clocked at 23 seconds for the
220-yard dash) and savagery.  He was quick-tempered and possessed legendary
strength.  Many who saw him remark on his "mean streak," indicating he
preferred running over an opponent or spiking him than sliding around him to
avoid a tag.  On the other hand, some of the same observers indicate that
Charleston picked his victims judiciously, always choosing those he knew he
could physically bully.
     He hit with great power and consistency.  While statistics are
incomplete, it is known that he batted .366 in the Negro National League in
1920 and followed that with .434 in 1921.  He is unofficially credited with a
lifetime league average of .353, and he batted .318 with 11 home runs in
fifty-three barnstorming games against white major leaguers.  He led the NNL
in home runs several times, and many of his homers were of the tape-measure
variety.
     He started in 1915, became a player-manager in the late 1920s, and was
active as a manager until his death in 1954.  When Branch Rickey decided to
break white baseball's color line, he had Charleston scout the Negro Leagues.
Among his recommendations were Jackie Robinson and Roy Campanella.
     Charleston was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976.


Jack Chesbro
Pitcher, Pit (N) 1899-1902, NY (A) 1903-09, Bos (A) 1909

Until Ralph Branca threw the "Shot Heard 'Round the World" to Bobby Thomson in
1951, Chesbro was notorious for tossing the most infamous pitch in history.
It was probably a spitter, and it definitely sailed over the head of New York
Highlander catcher Red Kleinow, and, according to baseball lore, it absolutely
cost New York the 1904 pennant.
     It was the final day of the season at old Hilltop Park (now the site of
the New York Medical Center).  The Highlanders were a game and a half behind
Boston but could have won the pennant by sweeping a doubleheader against the
Red Sox (then called the Puritans).  Chesbro pitched the first game for New
York.  The score was 1-1 with two out in the Boston ninth.  Boston's Lou
Criger was on third and the count was 2-0.  Then Chesbro threw the pitch.
Jack, and later Mrs. Chesbro, always maintained that Kleinow should have
caught the ball, but neither was a disinterested observer and there was no
instant replay.  New York won the second game of the doubleheader (though by
then Boston couldn't have cared less).
     The New York press elected Chesbro goat and never let him forget it for
the rest of his life.  No one ever seemed to notice that the team could have
won by rallying in its half of the ninth (or by scoring two more runs in any
of the earlier innings).  It was like pulling teeth to get anyone in New York
to admit that the Highlanders wouldn't have had a sniff at the pennant had it
not been for Chesbro.  He'd earlier earned the nickname "Happy Jack" for his
pleasant disposition while working in the state mental hospital in Middletown,
New York.  To smile after that pitch no doubt required steel facial muscles.
     Ironically, up to that awful pitch the stocky righthander was enjoying
one of the best seasons of any pitcher in the twentieth century:  it would end
up 41-12, with a 1.82 ERA.  He started 51 games, completed 48, pitched 455
innings, and whiffed 239--still the Yankee record.
     Chesbro won 21 and 28 with Pittsburgh in 1901-02, then jumped to New
York.  He won 21 in his first year there, but missed pitching in the 1903
World Series with the Pirates.  He won 19 in 1905 and 23 in 1906, but people
kept asking, "Yeah, but what about that pitch in 1904?"
     Chesbro was named to the Hall of Fame in 1946 for what he did on all his
other pitches.


Eddie "Knuckles" Cicotte
Pitcher, Det (A) 1905, Bos (A) 1908-12, Chi (A) 1912-20

Cicotte was a key conspirator in the infamous "Black Sox" scandal over the
1919 World Series.  He tearfully confessed:  "I did it for the wife and
kiddies."  Although neither he nor any of the other seven Soiled Sox were ever
convicted of their misdeeds in a court of law--the evidence mysteriously
disappeared before the trial--they were banned from baseball for life.
     Until the revelations of the scandal, Cicotte was one of the AL's most
successful pitchers, using trick pitches such as the knuckleball, shine ball,
emery ball, and spitball.  From 1908 through 1916, he won between 10 and 18
games each season.  In 1917, when the Sox won the AL pennant, he was 28-12,
leading the league in wins, innings pitched and ERA.  After an off-year, he
bounced back with his best season in 1919:  he led in both wins and percentage
with a 29-7 mark.  In spite of Cicotte's success, White Sox owner Charles
Comiskey paid him considerably less than several lesser pitchers in the league
received.  Apparently this left him open to entreaties by gamblers that he
help throw the 1919 World Series to underdog Cincinnati.
     He lost two Series games to the Reds, both under circumstances that
appeared more suspicious when the fix conspiracy became public.  That did not
occur until near the end of the 1920 season, one in which Cicotte had a 21-10
record.
     After he was barred from baseball, Cicotte lived in Detroit, using a
pseudonym to protect the family for whom he claimed to have entered the
conspiracy.


Fred Clarke
Outfielder, Lou (N) 1894-99, Pit (N) 1900-1915.
Manager, Lou (N) 1897-99, Pit (N) 1900-15

Clarke was a sure-handed, speedy outfielder and an excellent hitter with
surprising power for a 160-pounder.  He hit .390 in 1897, topped .300 eleven
times, and finished with a career .312 average.  He totaled 2,672 hits, scored
1,619 runs, batted in 1,015, and stole 506 bases.
     But he was an even better manager.  He won four pennants at Pittsburgh
and finished second five times.  He came to Pittsburgh from Louisville in 1900
when the NL pared down from twelve to eight teams.  Honus Wagner, Tommy Leach,
Deacon Phillippe, and Claude Ritchey were among the other former Louisville
players who joined the Pirates.  In his first year as Pirate skipper, 1900,
Fred and the other Louisville imports lifted the Pirates from seventh to the
thick of the pennant fight--and they eventually finished second.
     He brought the Buccos in first the next three years, 1901-1903.  In 1903
he took them to the first World Series, losing to Boston only after eight
hard-fought games.
     In 1909 the Pirates won 110, a total exceeded only by the 1906 Cubs and
1954 Indians.  In the World Series, Fred's three-run homer in the seventh
inning of Game Five broke open a 3-3 tie, as Pittsburgh went on to defeat Ty
Cobb's Tigers.  Clarke drove in seven runs in the Series.
     He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1951.


John Clarkson
Pitcher, Wor (N) 1882, Chi (N) 1884-87, Bos (N) 1890-92, Cle (N) 1892-94

One of the greatest pitchers of the nineteenth century, Clarkson combined a
curve and cunning to win 327 games, but his manager in Chicago insisted that
he "pitched on praise" and needed continuous ego boosting to be effective.  If
scolded, the handsome, high-strung righthander would lose all confidence and
sulk.  The temperamental pitcher ended his years confined in an insane asylum.
     Clarkson joined Chicago in 1884 and the next year led the NL in victories
while compiling a 53-16 record.  He won 36 in 1886 and 38 in 1887, again
leading in victories in the latter year.
     By the 1888 season he and outfielder/catcher King Kelly had been sold to
Boston for $10,000 each, an incredible sum at that time.  Clarkson justified
the price by continuing his outstanding pitching, winning 33 in 1889, 49 in
1890 (when he also led the NL in winning percentage and ERA), 25 in 1891, and
33 in 1892.
     In 1963 he was named to the Hall of Fame.


Roberto Clemente
Outfielder, Pit (N) 1955-72

The first Hispanic to be elected to the Hall of Fame and the second ballplayer
to be honored on a U.S. stamp, Clemente won four batting titles.
     A proud, even vain, man, Clemente was sensitive to prejudice against
Latin players and quick to speak out against real or imagined slights.  He
believed he deserved more MVP Awards than the one that he won in 1966.
Whether that was true or not, Roberto was handicapped by playing his entire
career in Pittsburgh instead of New York or Los Angeles.  Critics also pointed
out that he missed many games and labeled him a hypochondriac.  Clemente's
physical ills were real, the worst being a chronic bad back stemming from a
1956 auto accident.  He played in over 100 games in each of his eighteen major
league seasons, but the criticism remained.
     Clemente finished with a .317 career batting average, an even 3,000 base
hits, 1,416 runs scored, and 1,305 RBIs.  Standing deep in the righthand
batter's box, he put all of his body into an all-or-nothing swing, but though
he cracked 240 homers, he was not really a home run hitter.  His forte was the
line drive, often lashing pitches to the opposite field for extra-base hits.
     His arm became legendary.  He set the NL record by leading in assists
five times.  His season high was 27 in 1961.  He won 12 straight Gold Gloves.
     Roberto led the Pirates to two world championships, hitting .362 in the
World Series.  His great showcase was in 1971, when he hit .414 and played
with an inspiring recklessness in leading the Pirates to a seven-game victory
over the Baltimore Orioles.  Only then did some of his severest critics admit
his greatness.
     He died in a plane crash on New Year's Eve, 1972, on a mercy flight
carrying supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.  The usual five-year
waiting period was waived, and he was named to the Hall of Fame in 1973.


Harlond Clift
Third Baseman, StL (A) 1934-43, Was (A) 1943-45

Clift was an outstanding player whose competent light was hidden beneath
bushels of ineptitude provided by his St. Louis Browns teammates.  It was
difficult for fans in the 1930s to think of anyone with the laughing-stock
Browns as a serious talent.  Of course, the Browns' attendance was so low in
the 1930s--in only two seasons did they draw over 200,000--that there were few
in the stands to admire Clift or chuckle at his teammates.
     An exceptional fielder, he was the first third baseman to start 50 double
plays in a season.  And while that record was in part due to a penchant that
Brownies' pitchers had for putting runners on base, the rest of Clift's
fielding stats support the idea that he had range and reliability beyond most
AL third sackers.
     He was certainly the most productive hitter among the league's third
basemen.  He hit .300 a couple of times, but his career batting average was an
unexceptional .272.  But he walked a lot, going over the 100 mark seven times
in eight seasons.  And he hit with more power than any third baseman ever had.
In 1937 he set a record for third basemen with 29 homers.  The next year he
upped that to 34.  In both years he drove in more than 100 runs.


Ty Cobb
Outfielder, Det (A) 1905-26, Phi (A) 1927-28.  Manager, Det (A) 1921-26

In 1936 Cobb was the first man elected to Cooperstown, mostly by voters who
grew up in his era.  Babe Ruth was second.  The majority of today's critics
would reverse the order and maybe drop Cobb a few more pegs besides.  The
reason, of course, is that the modern game, with its emphasis on home runs,
has evolved in a Ruthian rather than a Cobbian direction.
     Cobb's strengths were his ability to reach first, steal a base or two,
and then score.  After all these years, he's still first in batting average
(.366), second in hits (4,190), second in steals (892), and first in runs
scored (2,245).  He collected ten AL batting titles, hit over .400 three
times, led in steals six times and in runs scored five.  In other words, he
was the best at the things he tried to be best at.
     He was no home run hitter, managing only 118 in twenty-four seasons.  But
for most of those seasons, going for homers against the dead ball was a losing
proposition.  He did lead in slugging average eight times, proving he wasn't
just a powder-puff hitter with extra puffs.  The ball was invigorated during
the last third of Cobb's career, but that was a little late to ask the old dog
to learn a new trick.  Still, in 1925 he hit three homers in one game, just
showing off.
     Admittedly, for all his heavy hitting his Tigers won only three pennants
and no World Series.  In nineteen of his twenty-two seasons in Detroit, the
Tabbies missed the brass ring.  The fault, dear Brutus, was not in their star;
it was on their pitcher's mound.  Cobb was the best player of his time--or at
least the first two-thirds of his time.
     Considering all that, it's a bit disconcerting to find a few modernists
working overtime to chisel Cobb down to a so-so level.  Essentially, the
argument is that modern players are bigger, faster, better trained, and face
more difficult challenges.  None of the old-timers could make it big today,
they say.  Cobb might hit .260.
     Well, games and times change, all right.  Fifty years from now, our
grandchildren will be looking at a different game and some of them will be
wondering what we ever saw in Mike Schmidt or Hank Aaron.  The problem with
that kind of thinking is that it keeps the player from the past anchored in
his time while giving any benefits of a later age to the moderns.  One critic
snickered at Cobb's batting stance; he held his hands apart and then choked up
or swung from the end, according to the pitch.  Tyrus, the critic insisted,
would be tied up by Dwight Gooden or Nolan Ryan.  The critic apparently
credits Cobb with the IQ of an ashtray.  It would take him about half of one
at-bat to figure out what he had to do to adjust.  Moreover, our "modern" Cobb
would have the same advantages in diet, training, and baseball experiences the
other moderns have.  He'd be bigger, faster, and better trained.  He might not
hit .366--though we shouldn't bet against it--but he'd be right up there
showing other moderns his heels.
     Relative comparisons from one era to another work better when they have
some statistical reality--like Bill Terry's .401 in 1930, when just about
everybody else hit .300, being adjusted down (but we still leave him at the
top for that year!).  Given Cobb's situation, he excelled all others in
batting average.
     Now, if the critics want to stomp on Cobb, they can put their clodhoppers
on his personality.  "The Georgia Peach" was no peach.  He was mean,
vindictive, selfish, vain, a bully, a racist, paranoid, cruel, and
hot-tempered.  He spiked infielders just for the hell of it, fought--that is,
physically attacked--anyone who crossed him, would do literally anything to be
first in literally anything.
     But it was just because of those nasty attributes that Cobb would have
found a way to win in any age.  The Cobb persona made him a great player, gave
him a shipload of records, and put him into the Hall of Fame first.  And when
he died, three baseball people showed up at the funeral, probably only because
they were expecting free eats afterward.
     "We may never see his like again," Connie Mack once said of him.  Indeed
we won't.


Gordon "Mickey" Cochrane
Catcher, Phi (A) 1925-33, Det (A) 1934-37.  Manager, Det (A) 1934-38

They used to argue who was the greatest catcher ever, Cochrane or Bill Dickey.
Modern statistical techniques have moved Gabby Hartnett into the discussion.
Josh Gibson has his backers.  And later ages shout the praises of Yogi Berra
and Johnny Bench.  But the final cut usually comes down to "Cochrane or--."
     When Mickey gets the edge, it's usually on "leadership," which is
measured as easily as the distance to Oz.  Nevertheless, Cochrane played on
five AL pennant winners in a seven-year stretch, and that's at least tertiary
evidence that he was officer material.  As a matter of fact, he managed two of
those teams (Detroit in 1934-1935) while taking his regular turn behind the
plate.
     If Mickey had a fault, it was that his fire burned too bright.  He was
such an intense, take-charge competitor that he used himself up some seasons.
Connie Mack called him the biggest factor in the Athletics' three straight
pennants (1929-1931), but there must have been times when nobody wanted to be
in the same room with Cochrane.
     He was considered an exceptional defender once he underwent intensive
instruction from old pro Cy Perkins.  So it shocked everyone when Pepper
Martin, the "Wild Horse of the Osage," stole five bases on him in the 1931
World Series--"ran wild" is the way it's usually put.  Most people blamed the
Philadelphia pitchers.
     Cochrane got high marks in his day for handling pitchers, and there's not
much doubt that he did it well.  Of course, having guys like Lefty Grove,
George Earnshaw, and Tommy Bridges to work with gave him a leg up.
     We can measure what he did at the plate better than what he did behind
it.  From the time Mack purchased his contract for $50,000 in 1925, through
his sale to the Tigers for $100,000 in 1934, until a Bump Hadley pitch ended
his career and nearly killed him in 1937, Black Mike averaged .320, the best
career mark for any catcher.  He had good speed for a catcher (64 stolen
bases) and usually batted second.  He scored 1,041 runs--four times over 100.
He was a line drive hitter, but in 1932, when he drove in 112 runs, he also
knocked 23 homers.  He won Most Valuable Player Awards in 1928 and 1934,
although neither year was his best with a bat.
     He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1947.


Rocco "Rocky" Colavito
Outfielder, Cle (A) 1955-59, 1965-67, Det (A) 1960-63, KC (A) 1964, Chi (A)
1967, LA (N) 1968, NY (A) 1968

Colavito hit with power--374 career homers, three seasons over 40--and threw
like a cannon.  He hit four home runs in a row in a 1959 game against
Baltimore.  And though he was as slow as a tax refund, he was sure-handed.  He
played in 234 straight games in 1964-1966 before anybody said "E, Colavito."
He only led the league in assists once, but that was because runners knew
enough not to challenge him.  There ought to be a stat for runners who don't
tag up and score on a fly; Rocky was responsible for a lot of those.
     In 1959, when he led the AL in homers with 42, he was the most adored
player in Cleveland, maybe the most popular person.  So naturally, the
Indians' braintrust traded him to Detroit for singles hitter Harvey Kuenn.
And right then and there a lot of Cleveland baseball fans started looking for
another kind of summer entertainment.  Some of them haven't forgiven the
Indians yet.


Eddie "Cocky" Collins
Second Baseman, Phi (A) 1906-14, 1927-30, Chi (A) 1915-26.
Manager, Chi (A) 1925-26

Photos of Collins in his prime show a wimpy-looking guy, thin but hippy, with
come-fly-with-me ears, a generous nose, and a chin that barely clears his
neck.  He wasn't a hunk, but he was a real beauty at second base.  For
twenty-five years, 1906-1930, Collins suited up for major league games, and
for nineteen of those he was the regular at a position that lends itself to
injuries.  He was the pivot man in the A's $100,000 infield that helped win
four pennants from 1910 through 1914.  Then he did the same job for the world
champion White Sox of 1917 and the 1919 club, a hose of a different color.
     Batting lefthanded, he cracked out 3,310 hits for a .333 career batting
average.  He was a perfect leadoff or number two hitter, drawing five walks
for every strikeout, but for much of his career he batted third, where his
lack of home run power limited his RBIs.  He ended with 1,299, which puts him
behind a lot of sluggers.  Once on base, though, he got around, scoring 1,819
runs, including seven seasons of 100-plus.  He led the American League three
years in a row (1912-14).
     He stole more bases than anyone but Lou Brock and Ty Cobb.  And he is the
only man since 1900 to steal six bases in one game.  He did it on September
11, 1912.  Eleven days later he did it again.  He set the mark for most World
Series steals, with 14, later tied by Brock.  However, his stolen base
percentage was only a break-even 65 percent.
     No second baseman has accepted more chances than Collins, nor led the
league in fielding as many times--nine.
     Connie Mack, who managed both Collins and Nap Lajoie, called Eddie the
best second baseman he ever saw.  Even so, Collins went into the Hall of Fame
in 1939, two years after Lajoie.


Jimmy Collins
Third Baseman, Lou (N) 1895, Bos (N) 1895-1900, Bos (A) 1901-07,
Phi (A) 1907-08.  Manager, Bos (A) 1901-06

Back at the turn of the century, Collins revolutionized third base play.
Before his time, most third sackers anchored themselves on the basepath.
Collins was one of the first men to play in or back depending upon the
situation.  It allowed him to range over more ground than any other third
baseman of his time.
     As a brash rookie in 1895, he dared the greatest bunters of a bunting
era--Keeler, McGraw, Jennings, Burkett, Hamilton---to test him.  When they
did, he charged in to bare-hand the ball and whip it to first, S.O.P. for
third basemen now but a real marvel in his day.
     In 1898 Jimmy played the hot corner on the Boston Beaneaters' great
infield of Fred Tenney, Bobby Lowe, and Herman Long, which led Boston to the
pennant.  He hit .328 with a National League-leading 15 homers.  His best year
afield was 1900; he handled 601 putouts and assists, which is still the
record.
     In 1901 Jim jumped to the new Boston Americans, as player/manager, hit
.332, and brought the club in second.  In 1903 he led them to the pennant and
that fall became the first manager to win a World Series.  Collins' club had
no chance to defend its honors against the NL in 1904; no Series was played
that year, but his Bostons won a second consecutive AL pennant.
     He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1945.


Earle Combs
Outfielder, NY (A) 1924-35

Combs (it rhymes with "tombs") was the whippet-fast leadoff man for the
Ruth-Gehrig Yankees.  Possessing a warm and generous personality, he seemed
unruffled that the Yankee sluggers got the spotlight; his job was to get on
and get home.  From 1925 through 1932 he scored at least 100 runs each season.
In 1927, when the Babe hit 60 homers, Combs batted .356, scored 137 runs, and
led the AL in hits (231) and triples (23).  When Gehrig drove in 184 runs in
1931, Combs scored 120.  The next year he touched home 143 times.  He had a
career batting average of .325, led the AL three times in three-base hits, and
scored 1,186 runs.
     He was at his best in three World Series (1926, 1927, and 1932), hitting
a cumulative .350 and scoring 17 runs in fifteen games.  A broken finger
limited him to a single pinch-hitting appearance in the 1928 Series; he drove
in a run in the final-game win with a sacrifice fly.
     His arm didn't intimidate anyone.  Speed was his trademark in center
field.  He used it well, leading AL outfielders in putouts a couple times.  He
suffered a fractured skull when he crashed into an outfield fence in 1934 and
retired after one more year.
     He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1970.


Charles Comiskey
First Baseman, StL (AA) 1882-89, 1891, Chi (P) 1890, Cin (N) 1892-94.
Manager, StL (AA) 1883-89, Chi (P) 1890, StL (AA) 1891, Cin (N) 1892-94

Comiskey helped Ban Johnson create the American League and was one of its
strongest voices until his death in 1931.  He founded the White Sox and owned
the AL team for its first thirty-one years.  He gave Chicago two world
champions, four pennants, and the ballpark that bears his name.  He was called
the "Old Roman" because of his handsome, Barrymore profile, and wavy, silver
hair.
     He was also, to put it charitably, a cheapskate.  An example of
Comiskey's miserliness:  pitcher Dickie Kerr, one of the honest Sox in the
1919 World Series, won twice against the Reds and half his own team, then won
2l in 1920 and 19 in 1921.  Comiskey paid him $4,500 and refused to give him a
raise.  Kerr quit.  He could make $5,000 playing semipro!
     The fact that Comiskey paid some of his greatest players coolie wages has
been used by some revisionist historians to justify the action of the eight
Black Sox players in selling the 1919 World Series down the river.  Whether
Commie "deserved" what he got, America's baseball fans didn't.
     Before owning the White Sox, Comiskey played first base for the old St.
Louis Browns of the American Association.  He wasn't much as a
hitter--lifetime .264--but he's credited with revolutionizing the position by
letting the pitcher cover on grounders wide of the bag.  As captain and
manager, beginning at age twenty-five, he pioneered moving his fielders around
for different hitters.  He led the Browns to four straight AA flags,
1885-1888.
     Some have found it curious that Comiskey could treat his White Sox
players like indentured servants yet was one of the players who supported the
Players League in 1890.


Davey Concepcion
Shortstop, Cin (N) 1970-88

Among major league shortstops from Venezuela, Concepcion ranks second in
reputation only to Luis Aparicio.  Luis may have had a little more range at
his best, but Davey popularized the technique of bouncing long throws from the
hole to first to get runners who would have beaten high-arc tosses.  With
career batting averages in the .260s, neither set any hitting records.  Davey
had more power--he surprised with 16 homers in 1979--but Luis stole a couple
hundred more bases.
     Although Concepcion topped .300 only twice (and never in a championship
year), he got hot in the October playoffs and Series.  He averaged over .400
in the 1975 and 1979 playoffs and over .300 in the 1970, 1972, and 1976
Series.  In the 1975 classic, Concepcion came up in the ninth inning of Game
Two, with the Reds losing 2-1, two out, and Johnny Bench on second.  He
slapped a single to tie the score, stole second, and scored on Ken Griffey's
double to win the game.


John "Jocko" Conlan
Umpire

A long-time minor league outfielder with two brief shots at the White Sox,
Conlan got into umpiring by accident in 1935 in Chicago.  One of the regular
umpires was overcome by the heat.  Jocko, who was on the bench, was rushed in
to pinch-ump and did well.
     In Conlan's first year as a real umpire, 1941, he ejected twenty-six men.
His favorite target was Leo Durocher.  He gradually mellowed, learned to use
psychology and snappy retorts instead of his thumb to keep order.  His
trademarks were a polka-dot bow tie and a quick grin.
     He spent twenty-seven seasons as an NL umpire, worked six World Series,
six All-Star Games, and four pennant-deciding playoffs.  In 1974, he was
elected to the Hall of Fame.


Tom Connolly
Umpire

Connolly was born in England and came to the U.S. with his family at age
fifteen in 1885.  Enamored of baseball, he studied the rule book assiduously
and became an NL umpire in 1898.  He quit in 1900 because the weak league
president wouldn't support his rulings.  Hired by the AL, he umpired the first
league game, Chicago versus Cleveland, on April 24, 1901.  He was also chosen
to umpire the first World Series in 1903.
     In those days umpires worked alone, one to a game (two in the Series),
and took the taunts of both players and fans.  Connally once rowed out of
Boston at midnight under threat from irate fans.  Pitcher Joe McGinnity
reportedly spit in his face, was fined and suspended, and jumped to the NL.
But even the irascible Ty Cobb learned to back off when Tom's neck turned red.
Eventually, Connolly was able to go ten years straight without ejecting a
dissenter.
     After thirty-three years behind the mask, Tom became chief of AL umpires
for twenty-three more, calling it quits in 1954 at the age of eighty-three.
He lived to be ninety-one.  In 1953, he was named to the Hall of Fame along
with Bill Klem, the first two umpires so honored.


Roger Connor
First Baseman, Tro (N) 1880-82, NY (N) 1883-89, 1891, 1893-94, NY (P) 1890,
Phi (N) 1892, StL (N) 1894-97.  Manager, StL (N) 1896

Whose career home run record did Babe Ruth break?  Connor's, of course.  Roger
hit 137 (some sources say 132) of the old dead balls for four bases.  The mark
stood until 1921, when Babe broke it on his way to 59.
     Oddly, Connor only once led his league in homers (13 in the 1890 Players
League), but he got as high as 17 in 1887.  Triples were his specialty--he was
tops in that department twice, in double figures twelve times, and cracked a
personal high of 25 in 1894.  He hit 233 altogether, and only four men have
topped that--Crawford, Cobb, Wagner, and Beckley.
     At six-two and 210 pounds, Connor was a big man for his day.  He was one
of the men New York manager Jim Mutrie meant when he called his team "giants,"
a name that stuck in the imagination longer than the team stuck in New York.
In 1888 and 1889, Connor helped the Giants to two pennants.  He was named to
the Hall of Fame in 1976.


Walker Cooper
Catcher, StL (N) 1940-45, 1956-57, NY (N) 1946-49, Cin (N) 1949-50,
Bos (N) 1950-52, Mil (N) 1953, Pit (N) 1954, Chi (N) 1954-55

Lon Warneke, who pitched to him and against him and umpired behind him,
called Cooper a better catcher than Bill Dickey or Gabby Hartnett.  That tells
us never to buy real estate from Mr. Warneke.  Still, the six-three Coop gave
the Cardinals, Giants, Braves, and nearly every other team in the NL solid
catching for years and years.  He hit .300 several times and ended with a
.285 career average.  In three World Series, he averaged .300.  When he got
too old to do the job behind the plate, he remained an effective pinch-hitter.
     The Giants wanted him so badly in 1946 they paid the Cardinals $175,000
for him while he was still in the Navy.  In 1947 he hit 35 home runs for New
York, but that was uncharacteristic.  His next highest season total was 20.
     He wasn't Dickey or Hartnett, but he was a darn sight better than most.


Stan Coveleski
Pitcher, Phi (A) 1912, Cle (A) 1916-24, Was (A) 1925-27, NY (A) 1928

Baseball got Coveleski out of the Pennsylvania coal mines (five cents an hour,
seventy-two hours a week).  "I only saw the sun on Sundays," he cracked.  "I
would have been great in night baseball."  And the spitter got him into the
majors with Cleveland in 1916 at the age of twenty-seven.  In his first year,
the introverted righthander was 15-13 with a sixth-place club.  Over the next
few years, the Indians moved up in the standings.  Coveleski followed a 19-win
sophomore season with four straight 20-plus-win years (22, 24, 24, and 23).
In 1920, when the Indians won the pennant, Jim Bagby led the staff with 31
wins to Coveleski's 24.  But in the World Series against Brooklyn, Coveleski
ran up the best performance since Mathewson's three shutouts in the 1905
classic, winning 3-1, 5-1, and 3-0 for an 0.67 ERA.
     Only of average build, Covie was a workhorse, three times hurling 300
innings.  One reason was the spitter, which is easy on arms.  The other was
Stan's philosophy:  let them hit the first pitch.  They seldom hit it far.
Stan allowed only 1 home run per 46 innings, even in tiny League Park with its
290-foot right field fence.  He had superb control of the spitter.
Supposedly, he once went seven straight innings without throwing a called
ball.
     After Covie won 23 in 1921, Cleveland slipped in the standings and his
victory totals declined.  He led the AL in ERA in 1923 but won only 13.
Traded to Washington in 1925, he responded with another league-leading ERA and
a 20-5 record, as the Senators won the pennant.  He'd lost his World Series
magic, however, and lost twice to the world champion Pirates.
     Stan's older brother Harry was known as the "Giant Killer" when, as a
rookie with the Phils in 1908, he beat the Giants three times down the
stretch.  More than Fred Merkle's "boner," Harry's efforts knocked New York
out of pennant contention.


Clifford "Gavvy" Cravath
Outfielder, Bos (A) 1908, Chi (A) 1909, Was (A) 1909, Phi (N) 1912-20.
Manager, Phi (N) 1919-20

Born a generation too soon, Cravath was the home run king in the dead-ball
years immediately preceding the Babe Ruth Revolution.  In a seven-year
span--1913-1919--the Phillies' outfielder led the NL in homers five times and
tied once.  A short right field target in Philadelphia's Baker Bowl helped
quite a bit, but Gavvy, a righthanded batter deserves credit for knowing what
to do with it.
     He flunked two earlier trials in the AL and didn't get to the Phillies
until 1912, when he was thirty-one.  A genial practical joker, he kept his
teammates loose with his jokes and pitchers up tight with his bat.  In 1915 he
helped Philadelphia to a pennant with a league-high 115 RBIs and a then
twentieth-century record of 24 homers.


Sam Crawford
Outfielder, Cin (N) 1899-1902, Det (A) 1903-17

Wahoo Sam (he was born in Wahoo, Nebraska) played right field beside Ty Cobb
on the Tigers, hit behind him--and once even pinch-hit for him--but was
overshadowed by him, much as Gehrig was overshadowed by Ruth.
     Cobb disliked Crawford.  Supposedly Tyrus Rex was convinced the modest
right fielder was jealous of his accomplishments.  More likely he resented
Crawford for already being a star when Cobb arrived in Detroit.  Another
possibility was that Cobb envied Crawford for being both a great player and a
likable person.
     Nevertheless Cobb campaigned for years to get Crawford into the Hall of
Fame.  It was an uncharacteristic act on Cobb's part, but perhaps moved his
eventual destination out one ring.  Crawford shouldn't have needed any
campaign.  He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1957 and deservedly so.
     Sam was the greatest triples hitter in history, with 309 to Ty's 297.
Only two other men, Honus Wagner and Tris Speaker, are even over 200, and no
modern player has hit half as many.  Crawford lashed 26 of them in 1914 for an
AL record (tied by Joe Jackson), and led the league six times.  It's a given,
today, to assume that Crawford would have hit tons of home runs with a
livelier ball.  He did lead the NL in homers with 16 in 1901 and the AL with 7
in 1908, but mostly he hit screaming line drives that might have bounced off
(or punctured) modern fences.
     Sam had six 100-plus-RBI seasons and led the American League three times.
Many of Cobb's record 2,245 runs scored were batted in by Sam.
     He left the majors after 1917, just 39 hits shy of 3,000.  The figure was
no big deal then, or he might have hung around and picked them up.  Two years
later he could still hit .360 in the Pacific Coast League.


Joe Cronin
Shortstop/Manager, Pit (N) 1926-27, Was (A) 1928-34, Bos (A) 1935-45

Cronin spent fifty years in baseball, rising from All-Star shortstop to
pennant-winning manager, to general manager, and finally to AL president.  He
was even nominated for commissioner.  Horatio Alger should have written his
bio.
     Born in San Francisco just after the 1906 earthquake, Joe joined the
Washington Senators in 1928 and was a full-fledged star by 1930, when he hit
.346 and drove in 126.  He was the AL's MVP.  In all, he had eight seasons
with over 100 RBIs, ten full seasons over .300, and 170 homers.  Only seven
shortstops have ever scored 100 runs and batted in 100 in the same season.
Honus Wagner did it three times, Cronin four.  He sure didn't hit like a
shortstop.  He didn't field like one either, at least not like the best.  He
wasn't embarrassing, but he would never have made the mythical AL All-Star
team seven times with his glove.
     In 1933, a near-beardless youth of twenty-six, he was named manager of
the Senators.  Darned if he didn't win the pennant that year, and no Senator
manager ever won another.  The next year he married the boss' niece in
September.  And in October the boss sold him to the Red Sox for $225,000.
     He continued as player/manager for the Bosox, although he mainly
pinch-hit after 1941.  In 1943 he pinch-hit five homers, an AL record.  In
1946, after he'd become strictly a bench manager, his Red Sox won the pennant.
Two years later he moved upstairs to become the Boston general manager, and in
1959 he was elected AL prexy, serving until 1973.  He was the AL's chairman of
the board until his death in 1984.
     A hearty, affable man, modest to a fault, Cronin was a great player, an
adequate manager (albeit with a tendency to chew up his pitching staff), and a
popular executive.  He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1956.


Arthur "Candy" Cummings
Pitcher, NY (NA) 1872, Bal (NA) 1873, Phi (NA) 1874, Hartford (NA) 1875,
Hartford (NL) 1876, Cin (NL) 1877

Cummings was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939 as the inventor of the
curveball, and historians have been perplexed ever since.  Well, he said he
came up with the curve in 1866 after seeing a spinning clamshell curve as it
was skipped across the water.  Clamshell spinning and curveball tossing are
unrelated throwing techniques, but let that pass.  Cummings apparently used
his clam-curve against Harvard the next year, and the scholars were baffled.
So was President Andrew Johnson, another early observer. (Johnson was baffled
by just about everything while he was in the White House.)
     Cummings was a pitcher for the Excelsiors of Brooklyn when the
revolutionary discovery was made.  Back then pitchers had to throw underhand
with both feet on the ground, but they were only forty-five feet away from the
batter.  Cummings discovered that he could make the ball curve with the wind
in his face but not with it at his back.
     Anyway, the curve brought Cummings success, and in 1870 Henry Chadwick,
the most knowledgeable authority of the day, said that he was the best pitcher
in the land.  Chadwick sometimes agreed with Cummings's clam-curve-creation
claims, but at other times talked about seeing curves in the 1850s.
     Between 1872 and 1875, Cummings won 124 games in the National
Association, the league that preceded the NL.  He also picked up his
nickname--"candy" meant "best" in nineteenth-century slang.  But he was just a
little wisp of a thing, barely 120 pounds, and the overwork caught up with
him.  By 1878 he was done.
     Many others disputed Cummings's claim to being the first curveball
pitcher.  Among them were Alphonse Martin, Bobby Mathews, Fred Goldsmith, and
Joseph Mann.  Most likely it was invented independently by many different
pitchers over a couple of decades.


Hazen "Kiki" Cuyler
Outfielder, Pit (N) 1921-27, Chi (N) 1928-35, Cin (N) 1935-37, Bkn (N) 1938

Cuyler broke in with Pittsburgh in 1924, hitting .354, and he was hailed as
"another Cobb."  The next year he made the prophets look good as he hit .357,
with 17 homers, 26 triples, and 45 doubles.  He drove in 102 runs and scored
144.  He even stole 41 bases.  In one span, he had ten consecutive hits.  The
Pirates won the pennant.  That October, Cuyler homered to win the second
Series game against Washington.  He came up in the seventh game with the bases
loaded against Walter Johnson, crossed himself, and doubled in two for the
victory.
     After a .321 season in 1926, when he led the NL in runs scored and stolen
bases, he ran into l'affaire de Bush in 1927.  Manager Donie Bush wanted
Cuyler to bat second (which was a little strange because Cuyler was the best
home run threat on the club).  Kiki was superstitious about the slot,
insisting he couldn't and wouldn't hit second.  Bush benched Cuyler, accused
him of not hustling, and put a lesser player in Cuyler's position.  The
Pirates still won the pennant but lost the Series four straight.  Around
Pittsburgh there are fans to this day who'll swear the Bucs, with Cuyler,
would have wiped up those 1927 Yankees.  After the season, Cuyler was shipped
to the Cubs for no one very useful.  The Pirates took thirty-three years to
win another pennant.
     Meanwhile, Cuyler hit .360 for the Cub pennant winners of 1929.  In 1930
he slumped to .355.  But he had 228 hits, 155 runs scored, and 134 RBIs. In
all, he hit .300 ten times.  He was still around in 1932 to hit a solid .291
when the Cubs won again.
     He never became "another Cobb" but, except for that silliness about
batting second, it's hard to fault him.  He ended with a .321 batting average,
scored 1,305 runs, batted in 1,065.  He hit line drives, so his homer total
was a modest 127, but he had 394 doubles and 157 triples.  He led the league
in stolen bases four times, used his speed well in the outfield, and had a
good arm.  He was quiet, never drank or smoked, and only Donie Bush ever
accused him of malingering.  He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1968.
     Some people want to pronounce his nickname "Kee-Kee," as if he was a
belly dancer.  Actually he got it when other outfielders called for him to
take fly balls:  "Cuy!  Cuy!"