OCR Text |
Show I Tyrus Raymond Cobb of Good Old Fighting StodJ II-' .llk I Ia il i df0 BY J. 33. SHERIDAN. eaaTRUS RAYMOND COBB.champlOn B of baseball players, lias signified his int.cr.Uon of Joining the forces of llio United States in Trance. 'Hint's like Cobb. He comes ot fighting stock. His forbears wero in the front of the battlcu in the revolutionary and civil wars. An uncle. Gen. Thomas Reed Root Cobb, held Maryo's Heights against the great assaults of the Irish Brigade of Burnsldo'a Army at the battle of Fredericksburg In ISO--. Tho attach on the famous stone wall which topped Maryc's Heights wero among the mos?. gallant ever made by any army, anywhere, any-where, a; any time. Gen. Pickett, who afterwards led what probably wan tho greatest charge ever made, that of his own division at Gettysburg, Get-tysburg, vritc3 of tho attack on Marye'a Heights: "Tho units of our forces which were not engaged in the battle watched tho altacliK of those gallant eons of tho Green Isle upon Maryc's Heights. Tlifie and time again they stormed up the heights under a perfect rain of shot and .shell, while wo who were not actively ac-tively participating got up on our, breastworks and cheered and chccrcu the valiant but unavailing efforts of our We read nothing nowadays of any opposing army getting up on Its parapets para-pets and cheering tho vain but gallant attacks of opponents upon their own defenses. War at Its Best, rp HE days of chivalry have passed. Tho Germane, do not attack that way a.nd their conduct has been such that they would not be cheered if they did. Tho Germans do not cheer what opponents do. They shoot mustard and chlorino gao that way. Save tho famous fa-mous saluto at Fontenoy, when the French, stumbling upon an English brigade bri-gade In the woodfa, saluted and begged that the English should do them uio honor of firing first, thero has not been anything llko the tributo which the gallant gal-lant Virginians, most valorous of men, paid to the hopeless but glorious assaults as-saults of tho Irish on Maryc's Heignts. That was war -at Its best, terrible Indeed, In-deed, but war between honorable, generous gen-erous and civilized men. It was a Cobb who held the stone wall and Marye's Heights against tho best that tho Irish Brigade and Burnsldo'a Army could do, a Cobb that won tho terrific batUo of Fredericksburg. That is tho sort of 3tock from which tho greatest of the baseball players springs. If Cobb goes to France, ho Is in tluj draft ajid his family is not entirely dependent de-pendent upon him. Long before that draft was extended from 18 to -13 Cood announced his intention of Joining the forces abroad. It is not yet decided lr Just what capacity ho will go, as a soldier or as an entertainer of soldier It Is held that the entertainment of the soldiers during ths dull months of win-tor win-tor ls-'bho of the coat Important duties of those in command of the Grand Army j)i Liberty. The boys find the mud, and vermin, and rain, and cold of the trenches vcrv dreary, and it is not to be expected that Riiy man can ccmc out of a twenty-four, or forty-eight, orMS hour tour of tho trenches with his head as high as when he went in. He ccmes out frozen. His spirits aro low. He goes Into rest billets bil-lets mostly In sti-bles. It rains a great deal In France; not the tremendous but brief downpours wo know as rain in America, but an Incessant In-cessant drizzle that seems to endure all winter. Tho very air of Europe Js depressive. It lacks the sun, the life, the sparkle, the champagne quality of Amorican air. It is damp and heavy. All of which depresses the man, cspc-. cspc-. dally tho American. Imdglnc a fellow from the Rocky Mountain or Southwestern states, where they rarely sco rain, and where the air is in itself a bracing tonic, living in tho heavy, gloomy, depressing air of France, dwelling in dugouts and stables, walking in mud up to hla knees and under ahcll-flro ahcll-flro a great part of the time. Then It Is that morale falls and tho soldlor Is a prey to homesickness and discouragemcnL Cobb Should Be Tonic. TTIIE United States Is taking pains to sco that Its soldiers shall not fall prey to ennui, homesickness and discouragement. To this end tho authorities au-thorities want notable men, men of Interesting In-teresting personality, to go about tho billets and camps in Franco to entertain enter-tain the soldiers. Being ono of the most interesting and entertaining personalities personali-ties In America, be3t known of all men to the young fellows who make up tho great Grand Army of Liberty, Cobb should bo a great tonic 'to tho soldiers of the United States. So It is that nc may go as a Y. M. C. A. worker. In whatever capacity he may go. ono may rest assured that Cobb will make good. Ho is really a shock trooper, one of tho very' greatest of shock troopers. But Cobb is not so young as ho onco was, something like 34, and, whilo thero cannot be a doubt that with six months' work there would not bo a finer shock trooper in the army, which has tho best shock troopers In the world now, tho authorities may decide that there are places where he can do better work, where he can be used to better advantage advan-tage than in the front ranks of a column col-umn of assault, where a German shell or a German bullet or German poison gas may end an extraordinary lifo that is extraordinarily valuable to his country. coun-try. National Spirit and Athletics. IT is men like Cobb, the "Winn, Boys," that have made tho United States great. "Wo take our dash and smash, our l will to win, from our football, baseball. tennis players and other athletes. Not that we owe all the valor that Is in our armies to our athletics. We do not. I havo never subscribed to tho asaump- lion that professional athletics mado any country great. I havo never believed be-lieved that the famous Duke of Wellington Welling-ton said that Waterloo was won on the football fields of Eton. If he did say It he was In error. Franco has no football fields, and French soldiers havo been among the most valiant In the world. Only a small percentage of the men who fought at Waterloo ever went to Eton, and it Is very probable that only a small percentage of those who had gono to Eton played football there. Anon, It was Bluchcr and his German peasants who never saw a football, a baseball, a tennis racquet or a boxing glove, that really won Waterloo. So tho stuff about Waterloo being won on the football fields of Eton Is tommy-rot. tommy-rot. The embattled farmers who fought at Concord, lcxlngton, Brundywine, Long Island, Princeton, Valley Forge and Yorktown did not know what football foot-ball or a boxing glove was. FeWof tho men who fought in the civil war knew anything of athletics. So we may lako It that athletes and athletics never have v on a war and that It is foolish to say that they have won wars. Just tho same Americans have got a valuable contribution to tho national spirit from their athletics. The slogan of American athletics has been "Win." Wo have made winning a "virtue. And wo have been roundly censured by our own and by foreign philosophers. Our friends, the English, have led lu censure cen-sure of our passion for winning. Wc arc allies now, and the English arc, no doubt, very glad that we cultivated tho natural national passion for winning.' But thero have been times in the past twenty ycar3 when the British did not llko our passion for winning one little bit. There havo boon times when they oven refused to play with us because wo set more store on winning than they deemed proper., They closed Henley regatta to American Amer-ican oarsmen. Thoy did not care a bit about us when Walter Travis won their great national golf championship. Travis always complained that they did not treat him oven courteously, that they wont out of their way to slight him. Now Travis Is an Australian-American Australian-American and should be persona grata to the British. It may be that he was personally distastoful to some of the British golfers with whom he canio In contact. On the whole, however, It may be said that British sportsmen did not like Americans who beat them too badly. They did not llko our famous Jockoy, Tod Sloan, who revolutionized Jockey-ship, Jockey-ship, in America first and afterward in England. They said that Sloan was loo "uppish" ho had tho nerve to engage en-gage rooms at the great hotels where only dukes and lords and carls were supposed to stay. I have no doubt that Sloan did many things he should not havo done In England, things for which ho might bo as thoroughly disliked in America as In Great Britain. Sloan was not an angel by any means. Danny Mahcr, who followed Sloan on tho English Eng-lish turf, was popular there. Mahcr lent himself more to English ways and customs. cus-toms. He, I believe, became an English Eng-lish subject. But tho point Is. that American passion pas-sion for winning and the American ability abil-ity to put that passion into effect, did not tond to moko us popular with tho British people. Americans who went to England and who wero beaten wero popular. Americans who swept the boards werok unpopular. There were many Americana though, r who began to dcnorcate the wlnnlus passion of wlnnig. LIkc the Egllah, they said that we tralcd too hard, gave ourselves too much to tho desire- to win. They said that wo were almost professionals. profes-sionals. They tried to toll us that tho winning was not the c-nd of our purpose of athletics. I bcllcvo that tho British trick of taking thcln-gamos j'as a Joke has extended ex-tended itself to their fighting In the great war. There are no braver men than tho British; they take a beating with extraordinary pluck, but 1 do not think that they put enough "devil." enough "kick," "wallop,1' "smash" Into their fighting. There can bo no doubt that while our college boys have been tho leaders In the cultivation of the passion for winning win-ning in athletics, Americans have been deeply dyed by the national passion-Professional passion-Professional baseball "gave the tempo.'" as musicians say. to all our sports Baseball Is not a college game. It was developed on the lots by the children of the nation. It preceded and set the style for all other American sports. It was from tho baseball players that Americans Amer-icans have imbibed the passion to win. From earliest times of baseball winning win-ning has been the great aim of its players. play-ers. At limes as a baseball writer I have tried to cultivate irj myself and In others oth-ers a passion for tho game itself, entirely en-tirely r.part from winning. I succeeded largely in cultivating the feeling In myself, my-self, but failed to Inspiro others with It. And I am Just as glad that 1 did fall. I havo often wondered why it Is that Americans, from schoolboys .to gray-beards, gray-beards, never seem to care how the game was played, whether it was skillfully skill-fully done or not, only who won. I havo often wondered why It was that pirtlsans of the homo team wildly cheered when a miserable error by a visiting player gavo their favorites wholly undeserved chance to win. Now I am thankful for tho American passion for winning. It will win the great var. Cobb's Spirit of Win. THE greatest exponent of this American Ameri-can passion for winning, the will to victory, is Tyrus lUiymond Cobb, greatest great-est of all the ballplayers. Cobb never has had any other idea in his head than that of winning. He has won :norc games of baseball than any man that has ever played the game. It is very probable that Cobb lias won more, Just won, than any man that has ever lived. Thero never has lived a man more thoroughly a-nlmalod and inspired, by the American spirit of win. than Cobb. Physically there arc many men better adapted to winning baseball games than Cobb. At that he Js a very perfect specimen spec-imen of the American athlete. G feet tall, 1S5 pounds in weight, slim limbs and waist, good shoulders and chest, small head. etc'. In fnct, Cobb is th; very picture of an athlete. But he Is not by anv means the perfect physical specimen spec-imen Joe Jackson, who raced for a shipyard, is. He Is not so strong as Hans Wagner was. Speaker, Slsler. Jackson, Fclsch, Robertson, Ruth and many other players arc Just as strong. Just as fast, have Just as good eyes as Cobb. He exceeds them only In winning spirit. Scores, hundreds, thousands of men have legs, arms, ears, eyes as good as those of Cobb. Not one man In ono million mil-lion Is so animated by the desiro to win which Is 'tho result of. that splendid por-- por-- sonal pride which will not admit that , any man or any combination of men can whip. nim. Cobb has been playing professional baseball for fourteen years. He began as a boy of 10 with the team of Augusta, Au-gusta, Ga., near his home at Royston. Ga. In 1005 he was purchased for $700 by W. D. Armour, then manager of tho Detroit club. Cobb's first season, one of twenty-two games In the Amorican Lcaguo, was not exceptionally brilliant. He batted only .225. Jealousy and Baseball. TfEY tell a story about Cobb's first appearance ap-pearance with Detroit in 1005. It was against tho New Yo?k club, which almost al-most won the championship of the American League that year. Che'sbro, a great spltballcr, was pitching. "Who's the kid. Bill?" inquired Chcs-bro Chcs-bro of old Bill Coughlln, then playing third for Detroit. "Some Georgia bushcr that Bill Armour Ar-mour has picked up." (said Coughlln. "What does he hit?" asked Chcsbro. "Oh, speed, I guess," said Coughlin. "Most bushcrs adore speed, you know." Cobb, then a slender boy, came to tho plate. Chcsbro thought that a good, fast ball, high and Inside, "through his whiskers." whis-kers." would get him. So he put all he had on It and sent it along. Cubb tore a lino double against tho Wl-flcld fence, scoring two runncis. That was Cobb's way of introducing himself to tho big leagues. It was a brilliant introduction, but nonetheless Tyrus had to fight his way foot by foot to the top. He had to whip half his teammates and most of the other players In tho league bc-foro bc-foro they would let him alone. Cobb started out by engaging in a lot of fisticuffs with his teammates. Eddie Sievcrs. tho pitcher; Matty Mc-Intyre, Mc-Intyre, tho outfielder; Charley Schmidt, the catcher; Eddie Summers, a fast-ball pitcher of merit, and half a dozen olhor Dctroitcrs did not like Cobb'a j.opularity. For there are baseball players play-ers who are as Jealous of each otner as prima donnas. Many a good team has been wrecked by tho Jealousy of o!ic star for anolhcr. Een old aam Crawford, a hard-hoaded, vnoncy-gst-tliig Scoti was Jealous of Cobb's amazing amaz-ing popularity. Crawford could hit and was a good fielder, too; a star until un-til Cobb camo along Sam could hit the ball harder than Cobb could and was even a bolter fielder, but ho lacked tho flame that burned so brightly in Cofcb'c bosom. Cobb won most of tho battles with njn . mates, though he had to whip some ot them twico or thrice. He never could vHp Schmidt. The burlcy backstop, a coal miner by trade, was also a wrestler, wrest-ler, a very strong follow, and prowiu too much for Cctb in threo trials. Schmidt was entirely loo powerful tor the slender stripling and Cobb was not clever enough to offset Schmidt's advantage ad-vantage in strength. But he gave the big catcher so many good battles tliat Schmidt, a bit of a grouch, let tho Georgia Peach alone. Hit; lights never laid on Cobb's mind. Ho would finish his battle In tho clubhouse club-house and go out and play the game ot his life. It was not until the season of 1Uuf that Cobb got started. About June be began to hit and to run bases and to mako almost every other player in th lcaguo soro at him because of tho things he did to him. Cobb has a sad way of showing up opposing playci-M. llu will snatch a baso on a pitcher or catcher, catch a baseman asleep and iTvfe - ' ; i 1 ; the base unguarded, run an extra baso on a careless outfielder, who takes too much for granted, act "fresh" on the diamond, etc. Tho players whom he showed up got core. They knocked Cobb all around tho circuit. Thoy claimed that Crawford Craw-ford was a better man for the club. They wero always going to "show Coso up " Sometimes they did show him up. Cobb takes great chances and he qan ae showed up. But nlno times out ot ten ho showed them up because he was always on tin ofi'onslvo and they hau to defend themselves instead of making him defend hinuclf. ThOre is a lot in that. Cobb's Great Play. T HAVE seen Cobb shown up again A and again, mostly when he took lib-ortico lib-ortico off thlr.-l base, tried to steal homo, etc. I havo seen him show up ten men whera they showed him up once. Tho greatest play I over saw Cobb make was In a world's series game or l'JOS. IIo wa3 on first when Kossman drovo a hard liner to center. Arthur Hoffman made a nlco pickup. Cobb loafetf. Into second and was 30 feet short of the bag when Hoffman tossed tno ball to Evors, As soon as Cobb saw that Hoffman was going to throw to second he ohot for third. He was sliding slid-ing Into that bag while Evers was bwlnqlng to touch him going to second. Cobb Is not rated highly as a fielder aid it is true that he is not a pretty or finished fielder, but he gets them Just as well as the next man. He throws well to tho right spot. Ho is good on ground balls, and I do not know that he has a single weakness. If ho .nas I never havo sesn ic. Tho man has broken all batting, baso-running baso-running and .vroring records. Ho always al-ways has led his league In almost every department of run-gctting for Ho leads in number of hits, to"1 ft mado on lilts, bases on balls got. 1 A runs scored, runs driven In. etc J t I after year. His fielding record . H that he gets as many pylouts and t sists as tho next man. But it is his spirit, his nover-wr ; soul, that counts for most Co never beaten in a baseball Eamf'frj3 u loves a forlorn hope and lo c0n' : 0! behind. There is no doubt that n J won more games of baseball than other individual player. ' His performance In i0S moro remarkable than In k: year. Ho bega n slowly, batted tho first ix weeks of tho J Meanwhile George Slsler. can ; "coming Cobb," was bowling alonS 'a -.450 average. Cobb was n stealing bases. His team was a badly. Then everyone said. "Cobb Is beginning to slow "P-About "P-About Juno 1. Cobb got into hU. p He got out and ran over tho ne . never hit so well In his Ufo. , away down the lino and ho ra the top of the nylnu Slsler. Bur" . as If they were Ucd to tho gran - ; Ho Is away opt in iront now and f Jae to stay- there to 1 abbreviated ccason of J ' stayed there for thirteen preUu t sorns. j5t , He took the bit in his teeth, rushed to the top of the ba He made 2-i-ycar-old George SU , But when Cobb Is gone , w wavs remember him 33 tne ljlt J , . sonlflcatlon of the American , "Win." the spirit that Js jo d tho four-year established un France and' Belgium. , |