Latest / Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History / 1937 • Baseball Clip • Ty Cobb interviewed by Grantland Rice on Radio

Transcript

1937 • Baseball Clip • Ty Cobb interviewed by Grantland Rice on Radio · Retro Sports Radio: Classic Games from History

• 0:00
  Well Ty, you faced Walter Johnson's past when he had more smoke than a burning oil well.
• 0:07
  Now you're facing the mic.
• 0:10
  Which team's the easier?
• 0:13
  Well I think I'll take a chance on Walter.
• 0:16
  This mic kind of gives me stage fright.
• 0:20
  Well Ty, you've asked me not to make this too personal, but you have played in more
• 0:24
  ball games, you have made more hits, you have stolen more bases, and you have scored more
• 0:29
  runs than any player that ever lived.
• 0:32
  A record like this is a personal matter with a good many million people.
• 0:36
  First of all, I would like to ask you the biggest thrill you ever got in any one game.
• 0:42
  Well Gretlin, I've played in over 4,000 ball games in the last 25 years, and the biggest
• 0:49
  thrill I ever got came in a game against the Athletics in 1907.
• 0:55
  I was only 20 years old then, not quite 21, and it looked as if this game meant the pennant.
• 1:03
  The Athletics had us beaten with Rue Baudel pitching.
• 1:08
  They were two runs ahead in the ninth inning when I happened to hit a home run that tied
• 1:13
  The score.
• 1:14
  This game went 17 innings to a tie, and a few days later we clinched our first pennant.
• 1:22
  You can understand what it meant for a 20-year-old country boy to hit a home run off the great
• 1:28
  Rueb in a pennant-winning game with two out in the ninth.
• 1:32
  Boy, I suppose you've missed the old game a lot, Ty, all the frills and crowds and the
• 1:38
  headlines and all.
• 1:41
  I thought I would miss it a lot, Graham, but I haven't.
• 1:44
  It's a great old game, but I've almost felt like a prisoner who was set free.
• 1:51
  What do you mean, Ty?
• 1:55
  Baseball to me was more work than play.
• 1:57
  In fact, it was all work.
• 2:01
  You see, I was lucky enough to lead the league when I was 20 years old.
• 2:06
  After that, I wanted to lead it every year.
• 2:09
  I never thought I was in a genius, so I gave up my life to the game for 25 years.
• 2:16
  I suppose I was in nearly 30,000 plays, and I at least tried to think about every play
• 2:24
  and how it should be made.
• 2:26
  Here is one example.
• 2:28
  I figured out one play to use against Hal Chase.
• 2:31
  He used to snap the ball over to third to catch me rounding the bag.
• 2:36
  I'd always slide back.
• 2:39
  I had to wait two years for the right time to work it, but one day I just kept on going
• 2:45
  and managed to score the winning run.
• 2:48
  Did you have any set system to work on, Ty?
• 2:51
  Yes.
• 2:52
  My system was all offense.
• 2:55
  I believed in putting up a mental hazard for the other fellow.
• 3:00
  If we were five or six runs ahead, I'd try some wild play, such as going from first to
• 3:06
  home on a single.
• 3:07
  This helped to make the other side hurry to play in a close game later on.
• 3:13
  I worked out all the angles I could think of to keep them guessing and hurrying.
• 3:18
  Every play was a problem of some sort.
• 3:21
  That's what I meant by the strain and grind of 25 years.
• 3:26
  Who was the best pitcher you ever faced, Ty?
• 3:29
  Walter Johnson had more stuff, although Ed Walsh in his prime was a wonder.
• 3:36
  But the ones who gave me the most trouble were pitchers like Moegridge, Carl Wildman,
• 3:43
  and Carter, all left-handers who depended more on slow curves and dinky dinks.
• 3:50
  They bothered me more than speed or fast curves.
• 3:53
  Well, who was the hardest hitter you ever saw?
• 3:56
  Well, you can't beat the babe.
• 4:00
  Ruth is one of the few who can take a terrific swing and still meet the ball solidly.
• 4:06
  His timing is perfect.
• 4:08
  Lazioey was the hardest line-hitter I ever saw, and I'd like to see Sam Crawford, Joe
• 4:14
  Jackson, and Frank Schulte lay against this modern ball.
• 4:19
  But none of them had the combined eye and power of Ruth.
• 4:23
  There's one thing, Ty, I've always wanted about, and so have many others.
• 4:28
  How did your legs ever stand the strain of more than 4,000 ball games and more than 4,000
• 4:34
  hits when you were always at top speed?
• 4:37
  Well, in the first place, I always tried to keep in condition.
• 4:44
  And I can tell all the boys that means everything.
• 4:47
  For instance, I only ate two meals a day.
• 4:52
  I built up my legs in two ways.
• 4:55
  I hunted all through the winter, frequently walking all day long.
• 5:00
  I almost lived on my legs.
• 5:03
  In addition, I always hunted in heavy boots.
• 5:07
  When the training season opened, I fixed a piece of lead to my shoes.
• 5:14
  I took the lead off when the pennant race opened, and I felt as if I could run faster.
• 5:20
  I lost some of the old spring in the last year or two, but my legs today are as strong
• 5:27
  as they were.
• 5:30
  If you want good legs, you have to put them to work.
• 5:33
  I never gave mine any holidays.
• 5:37
  How did you steal so many bases, Ty?
• 5:39
  There were others just about as fast.
• 5:42
  As I said before, you had to do more thinking in the old days when home runs were fewer.
• 5:49
  Games were close, and every play counted.
• 5:52
  The two most important things in base stealing are getting the jump on the pitcher and making
• 5:57
  your slide away from the baseman.
• 6:00
  On stealing bases, I always watched the baseman's eyes to know where the ball was coming.
• 6:07
  His eyes had to watch the ball.
• 6:10
  I didn't have the time for this, but his eyes told me, and then I knew where to throw my
• 6:16
  body away from the baseman.
• 6:18
  I am pretty sure, Ty, everybody would like to have you pick the next two pennant winners.
• 6:25
  For any good pennant-winning ball club, the second year is the easiest to repeat.
• 6:31
  The athletics and the Cubs were both good teams, and I think they will be fighting it out again
• 6:38
  in the next World Series.
• 6:40
  That's my pick anyway.