Ted Williams vs. Ty Cobb
In the August 30, 1905 edition of Detroit’s Free Press, the sportswriters ran a small blurb announcing the arrival of a Detroit Tigers rookie, Ty Cobb. They stated, “Cobb left the South Atlantic League with a batting average of .328. He will not pile up anything like that in this league, and he doesn’t expect to” (Allen 177). Their prediction ironically rung true. Cobb hit better than their projected .328 batting average twenty times in his twenty four seasons (McCallum 217). Tyrus Raymond Cobb’s prolific career leads many fans and historians to believe that he deserves the title of greatest hitter of all time. However, some critics would argue that Ted Williams warrants this distinction. Unfortunately for Williams and his fans, the hitting prowess of Williams falls short of Cobb’s. While Williams arguably displayed a great hitting ability, Cobb remains the better batsman.
When asked to name great hitters, fans would probably mention the likes of Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, and Ted Williams. It would not come as a surprise if they forgot to include the Georgia Peach, Ty Cobb, on their list. The reason for their forgetfulness stems from the era in which Cobb played. Beginning his career in 1905, Cobb played baseball through the period dubbed “the dead ball era.” During this era (1900-1919), players hit marginally fewer homeruns than players from other eras. The reason for this homerun shortage resulted from the baseball used at the time. Indeed, the ball had no life. Loosely wound, one baseball often served throughout an entire game. Moreover, larger ball fields also kept the homerun totals down (“1900-1919”). Legal pitches also included the spitball, a terrib...
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...est Players: A Celebration of the 20th Century’s Best. St. Louis: The Sporting News Publishing Co., 1998.
Williams, Ted. My Turn at Bat. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1969.
“Ted Williams: By the Numbers.” Statitudes. Sports Illustrated. 21 Oct. 2003.
<http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/statitudes/news/2001/01/31/tedwilliams_btn/>.
“Ty Cobb.” Historic Baseball. 19 Oct. 2003 <http://www.historicbaseball.com/players/ cobb_ty.html>.
[1] Cobb: (4191 hits)/(3033 career games/ 150 games) Williams: (2654 hits)/(2292 career games/ 150 games)
[2] Slugging % equals (total # of bases for a hit)/(total at-bats)
[3] (4191 hits –x hits) / (11429) = .344
[4] total hits/total at bats.
[5] (7706 at-bats) / (19 seasons) = 406 at-bats/season (2654 hits + x hits) / ((406 * 4) + 7707) = .366 x = 760.78 hits (760.78 hits) / (406 * 4) = .468
Greg Maddux has received four Cy Young Awards in his thirteen-year career. The Cy Young Award is the award that is given to the best pitcher for the year. Nolan Ryan never received a single Cy Young Award. This is an especially hard accomplishment now. The recent years in baseball have been the biggest offensive years that the sport has ever seen. There has been more batters with 30, 40, or 50 homeruns than there has any other time in history. Greg Maddux has to face at least one thirty-homerun man every time he pitches and still has a career e.r.a. (earned run average) of 2.75. Ryan’s career e.r.a. is 3.19 and he did not have to face as many hitters that could hurt a pitcher.
Baseball has been of the longest living sports in our world today. The game started with the idea of a stick and ball and now has become one of the most complex sports known in our society. Several rules and regulations have been added to help enhance the game for everyone. Although baseball has endured several issues during its history and development of the game the game has still been a success throughout the world.
...rst all time in total accumulated bases with 6,856. He was second all time in at bats with 12,364. He was third all time in hits with 3,771. He was third all time in runs scored with 2,174. He was also third all time in games played with 3,298. He was elected into the Hall Of Fame in 1982. His autobiography, I had a Hammer, was published in 1990. In 1999, to celebrate the 25th anniversary of breaking Babe Ruth’s record, Major League announced the Hank Aaron Award, given to the best overall hitter in each league.
Baseball statistics are meant to be a representation of a player’s talent. Since baseball’s inception around the mid-19th century, statistics have been used to interpret the talent level of any given player, however, the statistics that have been traditionally used to define talent are often times misleading. At a fundamental level, baseball, like any game, is about winning. To win games, teams have to score runs; to score runs, players have to get on base any way they can. All the while, the pitcher and the defense are supposed to prevent runs from scoring. As simplistic as this view sounds, the statistics being used to evaluate individual players were extremely flawed. In an attempt to develop more specific, objective forms of statistical analysis, the idea of Sabermetrics was born. Bill James, a man who never played or coached professional baseball, is often credited as a pioneer in the field and for coining the name as homage to the Society of American Baseball Research, or SABR. Eventually, the use of Sabermetrics became widespread in the Major Leagues, the first team being the Oakland Athletics, as depicted in Moneyball. Bill James and other baseball statisticians have developed various methods of evaluating a player performance that allow for a more objective view of the game, broadly defined as Sabermetrics.
The greatness cannot begin to be quantified in statistics and numbers. Ty Cobb redefined the words hard work and determination by stretching his limited God-given ability to the maximum, and making himself into a baseball legend. Cobb throughout his lifetime insisted that he was "not a super athlete, rather he had a great desire to win." Thus, Ty Cobb’s motivation and determination to excel created a pathway to his success.
As a 20 year old youth in 1883, Billy played baseball in the lots of his neighborhood in Marshalltown, Iowa. One day the captain for the Chicago White Sox, A.C. Anson, was in the lots watching all the teenagers, young adults, and Billy Sunday playing baseball. Anson was so impressed with what he had seen in Billy’s baseball performance that Billy was signed unto the White Sox soon after.
One of the most iconic names in baseball is the team name “New York Yankees”, and along with it have come some equally as famous players. The Yankees have had so much talent come through their stadium, names including Babe Ruth, Yogi Berra and Mickie Mantle to name a few. Though there are several arguments about who the greatest players of the game are it is no question who the top ten are from the New York team. Based on up to date career statistics these players have a ninety year span of talent between them. These players may not have top score in all parts of the game but they have all set certain records that either have yet to be broken or held for a longer time than most students have been alive.
714 career home runs, had 2,209 career RBI's, and 2,873 total hits, all in only
Having a child can be the happiest moment of a person’s life. A sweet little baby usually gives new parents tremendous joy. That joy can be accompanied with anxiety about the baby and the responsibility the new parents are faced with. The anxiety, in most cases, fades and joy is what remains. For some new mothers, however, the joy is replaced with a condition known as postpartum depression. “Postpartum depression is a serious disorder that until recently was not discussed in public…Women did not recognize their symptoms as those of depression, nor did they discuss their thoughts and fears regarding their symptoms” (Wolf, 2010). As such, postpartum depression is now recognized as a disorder harmful to both mother and infant, but, with early detection, is highly treatable with the use of psychotherapy, antidepressants, breastfeeding, and other natural remedies, including exercise.
Tygiel, Jules. 2001; 2000. Past time: Baseball as history. Oxford England; New York: Oxford University Press.
The subject of campaign finance reform sounds so dull, but it is necessary to understand that reform helps to keep the society flowing smoothly. Therefore, what is the current status of campaign finance reform? In 2002 the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act was passed by Congress. It was also known as the McCain-Feingold Act (Sidlow, 2013, p.213). It banned soft money at federal levels and regulated campaign ads from interest groups because the enormous amount of money spent by interest groups for their ads had the appearance of corruption (South University Online, 2013). There is so much money floating around right now that I fear the common man may soon have little say in what happens in this country. Now the super PACs and 501c's are spreading their influences too. Can reform be a realistic expectation of the American political process?
Malcolm X and Martin Luther King are both remembered as leaders who fought for a difference in black America. Both tried to bring hope to blacks in the United States. They also tried to instill within blacks power and strength so they could rise above all the hatred that surrounded them, but both of them had very different ways of promoting their message. Malcolm X had a much more extremist approach. Many say that this approach came from his neglectful childhood and early adulthood. King had a much more calm approach. Some have said that this non-violent approach came from his safe, middle-class environment. Even though they were different in addressing their messages about black respect and pride, they both had the same goal in mind. That goal was to achieve equality between all races.
Despite the physical changes that a woman is to expect during her pregnancy, a major concern that requires attention is a period of expected feelings of depression that a woman may encounter known as baby blues. Although normal, and expected baby blues can lead into post partum depression that involves a myriad of emotions and mood swings. If not addressed postpartum depression can lead to a more severe form of baby blues known in the clinical world as postpartum non-psychotic depression that requires professional intervention. The therapeutic goal during this time is to prevent the new mother from committing suicide where she poses a danger to both herself and her newborn.
Sable, M. & Washington, C. (2007). Social wellbeing in pregnant women. Journal of Psychosocial Nursing & Mental Health Services, 45(12), 24-32.
The Web. Menke, Frank G. The Encyclopedia of Sports. South Brunswick and New York: A.S. Barnes and Company, 1987. Print.