Show 0 1 also WHO Is the greatest hitter that baseball ever knew it seemed to us that the best way to round out this argument was to go in a direct line to one ona who was a master at applying the ash so I 1 looked up ty cobb author and producer of more than base hits no ty name cobb he named shoeless joe jackson I 1 i cl C l u tell you why y ua L J jackson belongs on ty y cobb top P cobb said bald back in those years we not only had to swing at a dead ball but also a ball that was doctored I 1 in n every k known noam way we had the spit ball the emery ball the fuzzed up ball a ball that would do a lot of queer things and come at you with odd dips and breaks so the good hitters of 0 that period had to choke the bat and go in tor for punch lal hitting t ting all except jackson joe still till took his full swing and he was often up there from to 1 I know I 1 could never have hit above with that type of swing only jackson old shoeless joe had bad the eye and the smoothness and the he timing to do that I 1 used to wonder why be strike out at least twice a a game gam taking a full cut at a ball that flopped and ducked from the treatment I 1 it t got alth either r by emery or thumbnail or saliva taking nothing away from babe ruth the B babe be never had to swing at a slippery or fuzzed up ball in those days you could lead the league with 10 or 12 home runs the T lie trick stuff had ended before babe moved to the outfield in 1919 ive often wondered what joe jackson would have hit against the pitching and the livelier ball that came in around 1920 the same might go tor for nap lajoie another great natural hitter who have as deep or as full a lash as jackson used with the livelier ball jackson and lajoie would have had infielders playing back in the outfield to keep out of hospitals in one ot of the old timers games played in boston with the lively ball lajocies Laj oies line drive hit the center field fence and that was after lajoie was through about Hitt hitting irig I 1 asked ty it if he was ever tempt ed to become a slugger not with that dead fuzzed up ball he said 1 I always believed belle v e d in playing percentage and the p percentage e r was all against a free swinger in those days later on I 1 tried a lew few times to go out lor for distance but by that time I 1 had been around nearly 20 years and it was a little late in life to change my swing or learn new tricks you cant change the habits of 20 years in anything like a hurry if you can change them at all but I 1 remember a series in st louis where I 1 decided to take a chance on the slugging side and as I 1 recall it 1 I picked up five home runs to in two games walter johnson was the greatest pitcher I 1 ever faced ty went on except ed walsh in 1908 when he won 40 ball games and saved 10 or 12 others but when you speak of great pitchers how can anyone overlook cy young cy had been pitching 15 years before I 1 came to 0 o the tigers but he was still a great pitcher ile he won something like ball games which Is more than most pitchers ever worked in in cy was a big burly fellow and he could hide that ball better than anyone I 1 ever eve r saw lie ile would turn his back bach to you in the windup and the ball would be on you before you knew what was happening i lal cy had fine speed a ado good curve ball and perfect control ile he could pitch into a tin cup lie ile was also smart and game the great thing about walter johnson was that you knew a fast ball was coming but it 11 help you never had bad to worry about a curve in those days from walter or any change ot of pace just speed raw speed blinding speed too much speed the answer is that johnson still holds the shutout shut out and the strike out record with a better hitting better scoring ball club johnson would have had several 40 game seasons on the winning side some day look up the records and see bee how many I 1 to 0 games he lost I 1 can see that th at long rubber right arm unwinding now with the ball on top of you before you could even blink no wonder a lot ot of ball players used to get sick on the day johnson was to pitch trazy cazy stunts I 1 asked ty what was the gr greatest eanest thrill he got out of 0 baseball on the bases he said 1 I liked to run and at times try out a few crazy things such as scoring from farst on a single or scoring from rom second on an outfield fly every now ow and then id take a crazy chance where I 1 actually had no chance at all I 1 knew that thal but I 1 also knew that a certain amount 0 of crazy running would put more pressure on the defense and maybe start a little hurrying |