If it was a couple inches longer than his other arm we might - MIGHT - get someone in the bullpen ready. In my day, we monitored a pitcher by measuring his arm with a yardstick between innings. That's why we wore such loose-fitting flannels. Pansies.Īnd what's all this body armor I see players wearing? Crap, batting helmets? We didn't even have protective cups until One Ball Heilmann started sticking a spittoon down his pants. So instead, they play at night when they should be out chasing whores and drinking boilermakers. But heck, today's lazy players can't even be bothered to play in the sun anymore. A real man earns a run by legging out a Baltimore chop, then sweating in the broiling sun on the base paths while his teammates perfectly execute a bunt and a hit-and-run, followed by a passed ball in a 2-1 barn burner. Hitting a home run is a coward's way of scoring. OFF BASE: How about all the home runs being hit? What do you think of the power game?ĬOBB: Worst thing that ever happened to baseball. OFF BASE: So you never had a teammate shoot a syringe into your butt? And they had to milk the goat themselves.
#POKERTH TYRUS BETTER PLAY FOR FREE#
And speaking of milk, we didn't have to pay a batboy to drink a gallon of milk in my day - he drank it for free to keep from getting scurvy. And believe me, you knew whether a guy was overdoing it because he would get all gassy from the milk. The only performance enhancer we had was Wheaties.
We never did anything like that when I was playing. Ty Cobb played baseball when men were men.ĬOBB: It's appalling. Let me tell you, Pete Rose never would have broken my hits record if I hadn't had to declare bankruptcy in 1926. I had to hold out one spring just to get the Tigers to lower my fee to $10 a game. Hell, we didn't make money at all - we had to pay the owners to let us play for them. We didn't make anywhere near that kind of money in my day. OFF BASE: What about the money? Are you surprised by the salaries today's players make?ĬOBB: I'm not surprised, I'm offended. I didn't want to purposely injure opponents - I just needed the traction. That's why I had to keep my spikes sharpened.
And at Tiger Stadium, it was uphill all the way around the bases. Not only that, it was uphill to first base. OFF BASE: Two hundred feet between the bases? Are you sure?ĬOBB: You calling me a liar? Hell yes, it was 200 feet. One season, I had 22 doubles just on slow rollers to third. Let me tell you, that really forced managers to play the infield in. In my day, it was 200 feet between bases. We were tougher and in better shape because we had to be. OFF BASE: What do you think of today's players? Could they have played in your day?ĬOBB: Not a chance. Direct from the afterlife, the Georgia Peach speaks out on the state of the game. How much has baseball changed in that century? Off Base went right to the source. This week marks the 100th anniversary of the major-league debut of one of the finest, most ornery and thoroughly unlikable players in baseball history, Tyrus Raymond Cobb.
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