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Tyrus Raymond Cobb, nicknamed The Georgia Peach, was an American Major League Baseball (MLB) outfielder. He was born in rural Narrows, Georgia. Cobb spent 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, the last six as the team's player-manager, and finished his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936 Cobb received the most votes of any player on the inaugural Baseball Hall of Fame ballot, receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes (98.2%); no other player received a higher percentage of votes until Tom Seaver in 1992. In 1999, editors at the Sporting News ranked Ty Cobb third on their list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players".
Samuel Earl Crawford, nicknamed "Wahoo Sam", was an American outfielder in Major League Baseball (MLB).
Charles Leonard Gehringer, nicknamed "The Mechanical Man", was an American professional baseball second baseman, coach, general manager, and team vice president, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Detroit Tigers for 19 seasons (1924–1942). He was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1949.
Hugh Ambrose Jennings was an American professional baseball player, coach and manager from 1891 to 1925. Jennings was a leader, both as a batter and as a shortstop, with the Baltimore Orioles teams that won National League championships in 1894, 1895, and 1896. During those three seasons, Jennings had 355 runs batted in and hit .335, .386, and .401.
Napoleon Lajoie, also known as Larry Lajoie and nicknamed "The Frenchman", was an American professional baseball second baseman and player-manager. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies, Philadelphia Athletics (twice), and Cleveland Naps between 1896 and 1916. He managed the Naps from 1905 through 1909.
Norman Arthur "Kid" Elberfeld was an American professional baseball shortstop. He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Philadelphia Phillies (1898), Cincinnati Reds (1899), Detroit Tigers (1901–1903), New York Highlanders (1903–1909), Washington Senators (1910–1911), and Brooklyn Robins (1914). Elberfled also managed the New York Highlanders for the last half of the 1908 season.
Owen Joseph "Donie" Bush was an American professional baseball player, manager, team owner, and scout. He was active in professional baseball from 1905 until his death in 1972.
Hubert Benjamin "Dutch" Leonard, was an American left-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who had an 11-year career from 1913 to 1921, and 1924 to 1925. He played for the Boston Red Sox and Detroit Tigers, and holds the major league modern-era record for the lowest single-season ERA of all time — 0.96 in 1914. The all-time record holder is Tim Keefe with a 0.86 ERA in 1880. He is not to be confused with a pitcher of the same name that had pitched in the National League around a decade later.
Robert Hayes "Bobby" Veach was an American baseball player from 1910 to 1930 including 14 seasons in the major leagues. He was the starting left fielder for the Detroit Tigers from 1912 to 1923 and also played for the Boston Red Sox (1924–1925), New York Yankees (1925) and Washington Senators (1925).
Oscar Joseph "Ossie" Vitt was a Major League Baseball third baseman and manager in the American League for the Detroit Tigers (1912–1918) and Boston Red Sox (1919–1921). Vitt later became manager of the Cleveland Indians (1938–1940), where he sometimes clashed with his players.
James Erigena Barrett was a Major League Baseball (MLB) center fielder. A native of Athol, Massachusetts, he batted left-handed and threw right-handed. Barrett played 10 seasons in the major leagues with the Cincinnati Reds, Detroit Tigers (1901–05), and Boston Red Sox (1907–08). Barrett was the first star for the Tigers, playing for the Tigers in the first five years of their existence. He left the Tigers with the arrival of a new center fielder Ty Cobb. Barrett had a career batting average of .291. He also had a career on-base percentage of .379. In 1903 and 1904, he led the American League in times on base and walks. Despite Barrett's having played in only 866 major league games, baseball historian, Bill James, ranks Barrett as the 72nd best center fielder of all time.
Aloysius Joseph "Allan" Travers, aka Rev. Aloysius Stanislaus Travers was a Major League Baseball pitcher who made a one-game appearance during the 1912 strike of the Detroit Tigers. He is the only Catholic priest to have played major league baseball.
Claude R. Rossman was an American baseball player. He played professional baseball for 12 years from 1903 to 1914, principally as first baseman, including five years in Major League Baseball with the Cleveland Naps, Detroit Tigers (1907–1909) and St. Louis Browns (1909). He appeared in 511 major league games and compiled a .283 batting average and a .318 on-base percentage.
The 1910 Chalmers Award scandal was an incident in which a Major League Baseball team, the St. Louis Browns, tried but failed to give Nap Lajoie the batting title over Ty Cobb.
William Joseph Maharg, also known as William Joseph Graham, was a professional boxer that has three distinct historical connections with Major League Baseball—first, as a replacement player in the 1912 Detroit Tigers' players strike; second, for a one-game stint with the Philadelphia Phillies in 1916, and third, for his role in the 1919 Chicago Black Sox Scandal.
The 1915 Detroit Tigers won a then club-record 100 games and narrowly lost the American League pennant to the Boston Red Sox, who won 101 games. Though four other Tigers teams have won 100 games, only the 1934 Tigers had a better winning percentage. The 1915 Detroit Tigers team is remembered for its all-star outfield of Ty Cobb, Sam Crawford, and Bobby Veach—who finished #1, #2, and #3 in the American League in both runs batted in and total bases. Baseball historian Bill James ranks the Tigers' 1915 outfield as the best in major league history.
The 1909 Detroit Tigers won the American League pennant with a record of 98–54, but lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1909 World Series, 4 games to 3. The season was their 9th since they were charter members of the American League in 1901. It was the third consecutive season in which they won the pennant but lost the World Series. Center fielder Ty Cobb won the Triple Crown and pitcher George Mullin led the league in wins (29) and winning percentage (.784).
The 1921 Detroit Tigers finished in sixth place in the American League, 27 games behind the Yankees, with a record of 71–82. Despite their sixth-place finish, the 1921 Tigers amassed 1,724 hits and a team batting average of .316—the highest team hit total and batting average in American League history. Detroit outfielders Harry Heilmann and Ty Cobb finished No. 1 and No. 2 in the American League batting race with batting averages of .394 and .389, and all three Detroit outfielders ranked among the league leaders in batting average and RBIs. As early proof of the baseball adage that "Good Pitching Beats Good Hitting", the downfall of the 1921 Tigers was the absence of good pitching. The team ERA was 4.40, they allowed nine or more runs 28 times, and only one pitcher had an ERA below 4.24.
The 1907 Detroit Tigers won the American League pennant with a record of 92–58, but lost to the Chicago Cubs in the 1907 World Series, four games to none. The season was their 7th since they entered the American League in 1901.
References
- Stump, Al (1994). Cobb: A Biography. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill. ISBN 0-945575-64-5
