Honus put the onus on Cobb

In the movie "Cobb", there is a great scene early in the movie where a gang of sportswriters are gathered arguing about who was the best athlete in a variety of sports. As is to be expected, every one of them has a different idea. The one thing on which they all agree is that Cobb was the best ballplayer. I watched something on the All-Century team last year and a baseball historian made a comment that it was amazing that Ruth had overtaken Cobb as greatest of all time long AFTER both of them had retired. Somewhere in the forties or fifties, Ruth suddenly became the better player. Having read some of Ruth's unbelievable stats, I cannot disagree that he was the best. However, the reason I bring it up is that maybe Cobb wasn't even the best player of his era and history just doesn't remember the other guy because he wasn't as flashy. I doubt this is so, but maybe, just maybe, Honus Wagner gave Cobb a run for his money.

A shortstop with the Pirates in the early part of the century, Wagner compiled some rather gaudy numbers. As Scoop has said, baseball was a different game in those days. There were no McGwires and Sosas. If you follow baseball now but don't know a lot about its history, think about a field full of Craig Biggios. They just hit the ball hard and ran like hell. That's what Biggio does now. Maybe Scoop can think of a better example of current player who would most fit in with that time, but Biggio seems to be the ticket.

Getting back to Wagner, he never hit more than ten homers in a season, yet he had over 1700 RBI in a twenty one year career. This number is more impressive when you consider that he averaged less than 50 RBI in his last five seasons. He hit over .300 for an unbelievable 17 consecutive years. He also holds the Senior Circuit record for most batting titles with eight.

He and Cobb met in the 1909 World Series. Not surprisingly, Cobb brought up Wagner's German heritage when he was on the basepaths. "Hey Krauthead," Cobb shouted from first base. "I'm coming down, I'll cut you to pieces." "Come ahead," said Wagner, and Cobb did. When he got to second, however, Wagner tagged him out, hard in the mouth, and split the Peach's lip. Wagner went on to outhit Cobb in the Series by a hundred points and stole six bases, including home, to Cobb's two.

I still believe Cobb was the better player, but there's no arguing that Wagner was a dominant player in the 1900's and his victory in this poll is probably accurate.

I say probably because I voted for a different guy and I would like to make a case as to why he might be the best. Cal Ripken, Jr. has done everything one would want from a major league player and then some.

He won the rookie of the year in 1982 with 28 homers and 93 RBI. There was no sophomore slump for Cal, though. He won the MVP in his second season, with a OPS (On Base plus Slugging Percentage) of .890, and his Orioles were World Series Champions. Cal hit 20 or more homers in his first ten seasons, culminating with his second MVP in 1991, when he had 34 bombs, 114 RBI, and an OPS of .945 on a last place Orioles team.

All bat, no glove, you say? Ripken holds the record for most assists in a single season in the AL. He has led the league six times in assists and four times in putouts and double plays. Now Ozzie, whose second place finish is justified just because he was the best I have ever seen with the glove in what is the toughest fielding position in baseball, is in a universe by himself when it comes to fielding at shortstop. But Ripken ain't half bad, as they say.

So let's see, over 400 homers, soon to be over 3000 hits, rookie of the year, two MVP's, more All-Star games than I can remember...yep, this guy's pretty much done it all. Oh yeah, he also played in 2,632 straight games, breaking Lou Gehrig's "unbreakable" record by more than 500 games, but everybody knows that. I'm not saying that he is better than Honus, but you can make a pretty damn good argument he is the best ever at his position.

I need noms for the Wednesday poll. Which actress/supermodel has the best legs? Let's try to keep this to current actresses. I doubt I can find many .jpgs of Grable and all those ladies. Send them to me at lawdogusc@hotmail.com.

Poll Topic: Greatest 20th Century Shortstop
Honus Wagner	31.6% - (82 Votes)
Ozzie Smith	23.5% - (61 Votes)
Cal Ripken, Jr.	18.1% - (47 Votes)
Ernie Banks	14.2% - (37 Votes)
Barry Larkin	4.2% - (11 Votes)
Luis Aparicio	2.7% - (7 Votes)
Robin Yount	2.7% - (7 Votes)
Lou Boudreau	1.5% - (4 Votes)
Luke Appling	0.7% - (2 Votes)
Rabbit Maranville	0.3% - (1 Votes)
Joe Cronin	0% - (0 Votes)
Total Votes: 259