The Pecan Park Eagle

“That ought to do it!” ~ Ty Cobb Ty Cobb of the Tigers Belts walk-off HR in 9th as Detroit beats Chicago, 16-15. ********** June 2, 1925

Ty Cobb and Power: Upon Further Review

In our previous article, “Ty Cobb’s 1925 Power Show”, we covered the Games of May 5th and 6th at St. Louis in which Ty Cobb and the Tigers routed the Browns twice on the heels of a supposedly expressed Georgia Peach promise to show the world what he also was capable of doing with power, if he chose to play the game in Babe Ruth’s preferred style.

We made the comment that “His two-day game totals from May 5th and 6th of 1925 were 9 hits in 12 tries at bat (.750), 6 runs scored, 11 runs batted in on 5 HR, 1 double, and 3 singles. The experience must have sated his need to prove anything further, because Ty Cobb never repeated the dramatic two-game showing elsewhere from there.”

A fairly quick post-publication comment from good SABR colleague and distinguished baseball researcher and writer Gregory Wolf notably urged me to re-examine what Cobb did almost exactly a month later for the Tigers in a 16-15 punch out of the White Sox on a 9th inning walk-off homer by Cobb at home.

On June 2, 1925, the Tigers and Pale Hose were involved in a slap-happy slugfest, but the Tigers seemed to have secured a prospective win when they mounted a 15-5 lead by the end of the 6th.

Then. What do you know? The Sox battled back to tie the game at 15-15 going into the bottom of the 9th. Setting the table.

With one out, Ty Cobb blasted a walk-off HR to deep right center that gave the game to the Tigers, 16-15. Veteran viewers of the ballpark said it was the longest homer they ever saw Cobb hit at home. (Uh, forgiveness here. We were too late to get direct quotes and we haven’t had a chance to check the news files on what people actually said about the Cobb walk off blast. We do know from Gregory Wolf’s article. Here’s the quote: “Cobb’s blast was ‘undoubtedly the longest hit he has ever made on the Detroit lot,’ opined Detroit sportswriter Salsinger.”

While you are at it, check out the link to Gregory H. Wolf’s much more eloquently detailed report of that June 2, 1925 game. I think you will be glad you did:

https://sabr.org/gamesproj/game/june-2-1925-tigers-win-16-15-game-wild-bedlam

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Bill McCurdy

Principal Writer, Editor, Publisher

The Pecan Park Eagle