18 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 18 days from today. This off-season, the countdown will be based on books. Each day between now and Opening Day 2008, I will pick a random book out of my library and excerpt a passage off the page number corresponding with the number of days remaining to the first pitch of the new season. I will try not to repeat a book during the countdown.

Today’s book is Ty and The Babe by Tom Stanton. The book is about Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, and a golf competition between the two in 1941. This part is from the first induction ceremonies at the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. Cobb has just arrived after purposefully missing the photograph below.

Cobb’s eyes welled with tears as he hugged a bony Connie Mack. Despite his reputation, which would grow more severe after his death, Cobb was admired by most of the men on the platform. Lajoie referred to him as “the cream of the crop.” Wagner praised him, too. Walter Johnson and he had played poker with presidents. Collins and Speaker had hunted with him. Even Babe had shared drinks and meals with Ty.

When he spotted Cobb, Ruth offered his hand. “Hello, rookie,” he said as they shook.

Later, at Doubleday Field before the all-star scrimmage, Cobb paid a price in humility for not having been formally introduced from the induction stage: Many failed to recognize him. It took convincing before the ticket taker would let him into the park, and then the New York Giants groundskeeper Henry Fabian, a once-familiar acquaintance, responded with indifference when Cobb called his name.

“You don’t know who I am, do you, Henry?” asked Cobb.

“No, I don’t.”

Moe Berg was stunned. He turned to Jimmy Cobb. “I’ll bet that’s the first time your dad ever had to introduce himself to anybody,” Berg said.

“No, it isn’t,” responded Jimmy, who was not phased by the unintentional slight. Jimmy had missed his dad’s glory days. He knew his father best not as a baseball star but as a former star. And while the name “Ty Cobb” remained celebrated, the face that went with it was much less familiar. Cobb’s appearance had never lent itself to memorable caricature. But Ruth’s features – bulbous nose, rounded cheeks, plump lips – certainly had. Cartoonists and writers seemed in constant competition to trump each other with their depictions of Ruth. (One reporter covering the induction described Ruth as “a weather-beaten, spade-nosed gargoyle with a crescent-moon grin.”)

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.


Back row left to right: Honus Wagner, Pete Alexander, Tris Speaker, Nap Lajois, George Sisler, and Walter Johnson.

Front row left to right: Eddie Collins, Babe Ruth, Connie Mack, and Cy Young.