OCR Text |
Show IPSA j Famous Baseball Duels IT HARDLY seems possible that in in less than two months several ' thousands ol ballplayers will be J headed for the sun again, south 01 west. In the meanwhile, the hot stove league is getting hotter now that football is packed away where it belongs. And one stove league feature has been the 'argument involving in-volving Tris Speaker Speak-er and Joe Di-Maggio. Di-Maggio. Here's one leading example: "Dear Sir: The , r.- other night we sat Grantland R1Ce arQund and aIter the inevitable late-hour discussion oi the comparative abilites of Joe Louis and Jack Dempsey, natural ly the chitchat switched to the all-1 all-1 time baseball team. One man averred that there should be a place for Joe DiMaggio. That he is such a great star that it seem ridiculous to bar him. "It was pointed out that currently, cur-rently, and for the last 20 years or more, the all-time eutfield has been made up of Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Tris Speaker, and which of those three could a fellow toss out In favor of DiMaggio, Di-Maggio, no matter how great Joe is. It was said we could ttirow out Speaker, that .ild Tris had been only a great flycatcher fly-catcher and that he didn't really -rank with Cobb and Ruth and DiMaggio. When I got home, I got out the record book to look up Tris' records and I am convinced that DiMaggio is forever locked out of the all-time outfield. Surely, no one questions the rights of fobb and Ruth and, after a bit of study, no one can query the right of Speaker to the center field spot, either. "Now look. In the 22 seasons,, embracing 1907 through 1928, all Tris did was average 344 at the dish, in 2,789 games and after 10,-208 10,-208 times at bat, during which he got 3,515 hits. Only Cobb, Rabbit Maranville and Hans Wagner went to bat more than 10,000 times. The only others in the history of the games who hit safely more than 3,000 times are such stars as Cap Anson, Cobb, Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie, Wagner and Paul Waner. Even Ruth didn't make tnat category. "The only others to top his lifetime batting record were Jobb, Rogers Hornsby, Dan Delahanty, Billy Hamilton and Willie Keeler. Ruth Is two points jack. Think of the other greats who couldn't bang .344 in (heir careers, and Tris did it for 22 years! "He's in the book for hitting 50 or more doubles in five different years, showing his amazing speed, and a knack of taking the extra base that DiMaggio has. He leads in the matter of two base hits, with 793. Aside from those figures, Speaker also shares the record for most assists from the outfield in one season 35. He once was guilty of perpetrating a pair of unassisted double plays in a season, and his mark of four triples in his three World Series stands alone. "I'm sorry that DiMaggio can't make it, but the book won't yield. Speaker was good. It says so. Caswell Adams." Speaker vs. DiMaggio The Speaker-DiMaggio duel is a tough one to analyze. In addition to being hard and timely hitters, both were great outfielders. On the defensive side alone, they were better than Cobb and Ruth. Both had better arms than Cobb and both were faster than the Babe. Speaker had a better chance to show his all-around outfield ability than DiMaggio. He played in the day of the dead or at least deader ball. This gave him a chance for a much longer range. Speaker was a star at going back for a ball and so is DiMaggio. Both could also come in. Speaker as 8 master at fielding ground balls, perhaps the best in baseball. No one would be more dangerous in a pinch than DiMaggio has been with men on bases, waiting 'o te driven home. I doubt, that DiMaggio can ever reach Speaker's all-lime batting mark of .344. Few have ever passed this set of figures. Connie Mack has the idea that there should be new baseball base-ball rankings every 20 years since so many things change. This is a good idea. ' DiMaggio' then would certainly head the new order dating back tc 1920 or 1925. Or possibly beginning with 1930, when Cobb and Speakei were through when Babe was fading when Wagner and Collins and Lajoie had all finished. |