Show I 1 A 11 released by western newspaper union T THE HE average individual who fol lows baseball rather closely knows that tyrus raymond cobb was the g greatest greatest hitter of all time with a lifetime life time average of but how many can name the runner up the second best As frequent a guess as any is babe ruth but the babe rate second net nei ther did honus wagner nor tris speaker or george that place of honor bonor belongs to rogers hornsby who turned in a batting Y lm average e of in P A 22 years of service cobb won american t league batting honors every single L year from 1907 ty cobb through 1919 his top year was in 1911 when he hit for detroit As a matter oi of statistical information cobb played in games was at bat times and accounted for hits and 2244 runs lifetime rankings hornsby led the Nati national league in batting during 1920 21 22 23 24 25 and 28 he set the modern national league record for the highest batting ting percentage in 1924 he played in 2256 games w was as at bat times made 2930 hits and ad n 1579 runs A much debated subject is the lifetime rogers ranking of the hornsby games leading hitters its the kind of an argument that breaks out in army camps in drug stores and on the golf course here are a few of the marks established by players with from 15 to 25 sea seasons active service service ty cobb lou gehrls rogers R f hornsby 0 1 SM george willie keeler adrian anson tris speaker 3 nap lajoie babe ruth eddie collins colling nouns warner wagner 3 19 keeler was the greatest scientific hitter of all time in explaining his success as a place hitter wee willie height 5 feet 4 inches weight made the famous remark 1 I hit I 1 em where they aint he dian didn t have the power of a ruth or a hornsby but his place hitting more than made up for that lack ruth the games greatest home run hitter and certainly the greatest drawing card of all time compiled a record of home runs during his career hitting 40 or more in 11 different years with the new york yankees and establishing a record of 60 round trippers grippers trip pers in the 1927 season ruths record the babe appeared in 10 world series encounters seven of them with the yanks and in most of these his bat played a highly important part he smacked 15 home runs in world series play alone and finished his career with a series batting mark of in the 1928 series L his batting average was an all time high babe ruth lou gehrig long will be remembered and for a variety of reasons he was much more than a power hitter he had an unsurpassed devotion to the game and was without peer as a true sportsman his outstanding ding performance most consecutive games played major league record 2130 starting june 1 1925 he played in 2164 games was at bat times made 2721 hits for 1888 runs napoleon lajoie batted with the best of them through 21 years of action in the national and american leagues he hit for a mark high over in a majority of his seasons and hit the exceptionally high mark of in 1901 home hoine run rim baker lajoie led the american league in batting on three separate occasions and smacked 13 home runs a big total at that time in 1901 to lead the league in that category remember too that in 1913 J J lfrank franklin baker third baseman for the philadelphia athletics earned the name home run baker and made his name a household word by hitting 12 home runs |