Cobb Blows It
Browns at Tigers, April 23, 1908
Cobb Blows It
I was going to write about how surprising it is to see Detroit in last place this early in the season. It turns out that they were just as bad in real life:
In real life, the Tigers beat the Browns, 5-2, to end a losing skid. In the replay, well, they didn’t quite have as much luck.
The Fateful 9th
Once again, we’ll skip right to the good stuff.
St. Louis scored first in this one, though Detroit did have a 3-1 lead after 3. The Browns came back, going up 5-3 in the top of the 7th. Detroit came back with one in the bottom of the 8th, and this one went down to the wire.
Veteran Harry Howell was out there pitching for the Browns, and he had a pretty rough time.
There were two outs in the bottom of the 9th with none on bases, which, as you know, is code for “something’s about to happen.”
Catcher Boss Schmidt walked, brining up the pitcher’s spot. I decided to go with Ira Thomas to pinch hit:
That single sent Schmidt all the way over to 3rd, bringing up none other than Ty Cobb.
I seriously considered taking Howell out at this point. Harry was a D pitcher, and Cobb had all sorts of ways to hurt him. However, after some consideration, I decided to leave the pitcher in and test my luck:
I guess it’s been bad luck for Ty Cobb so far this season.
Both Howell and Summers pitched fairly well, though the combined 24 hits for both teams isn’t what you expect from 1908. Cobb is hitting .250 and is certainly one of the reasons why the Tigers can’t produce any offense. The Browns, meanwhile, are right in the thick of things in the American League pennant race.