Encounters to remember
The appendix to Ty and The Babe includes details of all two hundred-plus games in which Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth played against one another. Here, author Tom Stanton selects some of his favorites of their many colorful ball-field encounters.
May 11, 1915
Detroit 5, Boston 1 at Navin Field
Ty: 3 for 3. Babe: 1 for 2.
In their initial encounter, Ruth, beginning his first full season as a pitcher with Boston, surrenders a run-producing single to Cobb in the first inning. Cobb, who at twenty-eight has won eight straight batting titles, collects two singles and a walk off the twenty-year-old Ruth. Ruth doubles and knocks in Boston’s only run before being removed.
July 20, 1916
Detroit 3, Boston 2 at Fenway Park
Ty: 3 for 6. Babe: 0 for 2.
Cobb gets three hits and scores the winning run after Ruth throws wildly to first in the thirteenth inning, allowing Ty to advance to second on an infield hit and to come home on a single to right.
September 21, 1916
Boston 10, Detroit 2 at Navin Field
Ty: 0 for 4. Babe: 2 for 4.
Ruth strikes out Cobb and Bobby Veach on six straight pitches, holding Ty hitless while pounding two hits, including a long triple. In later years, Ruth will recall an embellished version of this pitching feat as one of his greatest accomplishments, contending he struck out the Tigers’ side on nine pitches in the ninth inning of a close game. With both teams battling for first, the series breaks midweek attendance records in Detroit.
May 11, 1917
Boston 2, Detroit 1 at Navin Field
Ty: 1 for 3. Babe: 2 for 4.
Ruth wins his seventh straight game and gathers two hits to Cobb’s one and even fans Ty with a runner on third. “Ruth made Tyrus look cheap…,” reports the Boston Globe. “The Red Sox bench warmers gave Tyrus a great riding, getting just what they were after – his goat.” In the ninth, Cobb daringly tries to take third on an infield out. But Ruth darts to the abandoned third base and swats Cobb with the ball, executing a rally-killing double-play.
August 25, 1919
Boston 5, Detroit 4 at Navin Field
Ty: 3 for 5. Babe: 2 for 4.
Ruth clouts his fourth home run of the series, the first time he has accomplished the feat. He also singles in the winning run. The Tigers’ ninth-inning rally falls short by one run as Cobb gets tagged at home plate trying to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park home run.
May 24, 1920
Detroit 3, New York 1 at Polo Grounds
Ty: 1 for 4. Babe: 2 for 3.
Ty and Babe – “the supermen of baseball,” according to the New York Times – face each other for the first time in New York. Ruth, the star of a baseball-crazed country, outshines Cobb with a single and a triple, but Cobb’s team wins, with Ty contributing a single, a run, and sparkling defense.
August 8, 1920
Detroit 1, New York 0 at Navin Field
Ty: 2 for 3. Babe: 0 for 3.
The largest crowd of the season turns out to catch a glimpse of Ruth, who grounds out three times and gets caught stealing after a walk. The spotlight belongs to Cobb, who singles and doubles and scores the game’s lone run on a wild pitch. Over the four-game series, which Detroit and New York will split, Ruth gets four hits – three of them home runs. Cobb bats .500, leading Detroit with nine hits. But even the Detroit newspapers declare that Ruth has dethroned Cobb as the biggest name in baseball.
May 11, 1921
Detroit 2, New York 1 at Navin Field
Ty: 1 for 4. Babe: 2 for 4.
Cobb robs Bob Meusel of a home run on a leaping catch, throws out Ruth trying to stretch a single, and then engineers a fake steal that allows Donie Bush to score the winning run. Ruth gets nailed attempting to steal home. “Head work of Cobb does in Yankees,” says the headline in the Washington Post. The next day, Cobb will double and score two runs, but Ruth will triumph with a home run and a triple, driving in the tying run and scoring the winning one in the ninth.
June 12, 1921
New York 12, Detroit 8 at Polo Grounds
Ty: 2 for 5. Babe: 3 for 4.
Before the game, in retaliation for Cobb’s continuous heckling, Ruth snubs Cobb by refusing a photographer’s request that the two stars have a picture taken together. Throughout the game, they trade putdowns. Finally, after Ty needles Ruth following a strikeout, they face off with fists clenched. At bat, Ruth tallies two doubles and a home run, his nineteenth. Reports the Detroit Free Press, “This was one of the wildest games ever staged here and kept a crowd of nearly 32,000 all stirred up.” The New York Herald agrees: “Fight was in the air all day.” The day prior, Ruth erased Cobb’s three-hit performance with a game-tying home run in the seventh. On June 13, Ruth, hoping for revenge against Cobb, will insist on a rare pitching start. After walking Cobb and getting him to fly to center, Ruth will strike out Ty to the delight of the crowd. He also will launch two home runs, one estimated at more than 450 feet.
June 17, 1922
Detroit 9, New York 8 at Navin Field
Ty: 2 for 5. Ruth 0 for 4.
A crowd of 25,000 – the largest ever on a Saturday at Navin Field – watches Detroit finish a four-game sweep of the Yankees. Fans jam into foul territory and into the outfield, separated from the action by ropes. Ground rules are established mandating that a ball hit into the crowd in the air will be a triple. Nine triples are recorded, two by Cobb. The home rule sparks a major dispute in the seventh when Aaron Ward drives a long ball into center. Cobb drifts back to the rope barrier. With the ball still in the air, fans open a path for Cobb who steps into the mob and catches the fly. Ward is called out. Led by Babe Ruth – who was hit by a pitch earlier in the game – the Yankees argue the call. The Tigers convince the umpire that fans have been encroaching further and further into the playing area. Manager Miller Huggins protests the game. Ruth continues to struggle against Detroit, getting four infield outs in the game and only two singles in the series.
August 6, 1922
New York 11, Detroit 6 at Navin Field
Ty: 1 for 4. Babe: 3 for 6.
Thirty thousand people – another record for Navin Field – turns out to see Ruth and the Yankees. Police officers lock the gates, repelling thousands of fans who will mill around the stadium, some watching from trees and telegraph lines as Ruth hits a home run and a double and scores three times. Cobb, in a race with George Sisler for the batting title, gets a double and is robbed of two hits on fine defensive plays. Three days later, Ruth cracks a home run after being deprived earlier when Cobb makes what writer Harry Salsinger describes as one of the greatest catches ever at Navin Field. Cobb climbs over collapsed bleachers and leaps at the fence to deny Ruth in the first inning.
June 13, 1924
New York 9, Detroit 0 victory by forfeit at Navin Field
Ty: 0 for 4. Babe: 0 for 2.
Tension between Cobb and Ruth contributes to a Friday the 13th riot on the ball field. Bob Meusel charges the mound after being struck by a pitch. The field explodes in fights, with a clenched-fist Ruth confronting Cobb and accusing him of directing bean balls. (Ruth had been hit the day prior and nearly hit again in today’s game.) Fans flood onto the field and police lose control. The Tigers forfeit. The league suspends Meusel and pitcher Bert Cole and fines Ruth. In the preceding games, both Cobb and Ruth contributed strong performances: Cobb helped the Tigers win the first with two triples, a single, and three runs; Ruth led New York in the second with a two-run shot.
September 21, 1924
Detroit 4, New York 3 at Navin Field
Ty: 3 for 4. Babe: 1 for 3.
More than 40,000 fans watch the Tigers sweep the Yankees and take the season series, thirteen games to nine. Cobb scores on a squeeze play and draws Lou Gehrig into an argument that gets Gehrig ejected. Ruth performs poorly in the September series, collecting only two singles. The Yankees will finish the season in second, two games behind Washington. During the series, Cobb plays like a man possessed, stealing bases, crashing into the scoreboard in pursuit of a ball, scoring the winning run in the ninth inning of one game – all to deny the Ruth and Yankees a return to the World Series.
May 9, 1926
Detroit 14, New York 10 at Yankee Stadium
Ty: 4 for 4. Babe: 0 for 3.
With 55,000 New York fans as witness – the biggest crowd at Yankee Stadium since 1924 – Cobb puts on a memorable show, slugging two home runs and scoring three times. Teases the New York Times: “As soon as the young fellow gets the hang of things, they will let him play every day.” Ruth hit home runs in the previous two games against Detroit and will hit another in the one that follows.
April 12, 1927
New York 8, Philadelphia 3 at Yankee Stadium
Ty: 1 for 4. Babe: 0 for 3.
The largest crowd ever to see a game – 72,000 – cheers Cobb in his first appearance as an Athletic, providing vindication in his comeback after gambling charges are dropped. Ty and Babe pose for photos together before the game, teasing each other and looking like close chums.
September 11, 1928
New York 5, Philadelphia 3 at Yankee Stadium
Ty: 0 for 1. Babe: 1 for 3
Before 60,000 fans, Cobb pinch hits in the ninth inning and unceremoniously pops out to the shortstop. It proves to be his last major-league at bat, and, fittingly, Ruth is one the field to witness it.