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Ty Cobb Pitches in a Game…Against George Sisler!
“I often tried plays that looked recklessly daring, maybe even silly. But I never tried anything foolish when a game was at stake, only when we were far ahead or far behind. I did it to study how the other team reacted, filing away in my mind any observations for future use.”
—Ty Cobb in The New York Times
I think we can safely file today’s essay into the category of “Useless Baseball Trivia!” But we’re baseball fans…so useless trivia is right up our alley!
I discovered today that in the last game of the 1925 season, played on October 4, 1925, exactly one hundred years ago today, the great “Georgia Peach,” Ty Cobb made a relief appearance in the ninth inning in the Tigers 11-7 victory over the St. Louis Browns at Sportsman’s Park. And who should be on the mound in the same inning for the Browns? None other than “Gorgeous George” Sisler! That must have been quite a matchup! At the time, both were player managers of their respective teams.
Cobb actually pitched a perfect frame; while Sisler, who had entered the game in the eighth, faced a total of seven batters over two scoreless innings, giving up one hit, but also allowed no runs. This marked the first time in baseball history both teams used a position player to pitch in relief in the same game. It’s certainly the only time that two future Hall of Fame position players faced off against each other as pitchers in a game.
Checking the boxscore for this game, I found a couple other players of note making appearances: two future Hall of Famers took the field for the Tigers: Harry Heilmann and Charlie Gehringer; while there were two players with great baseball nicknames: Bob “Fats” Fothergill for the Tigers, and “Baby Doll” Jacobson for the Browns. The two-man umpiring crew included future Hall of Famer Tommy Connolly. It was played in 1:42 in front of 12,000 fans.
Doing a little more “research” – meaning I checked their records on Baseball Reference – into the pitching careers of these two greats, I was surprised to find that Cobb actually appeared in three games over five innings as a pitcher, all in relief, with two appearances prior to this game in 1918. Overall, Cobb had no record with a 3.60 ERA, giving up a total of six hits and two runs. Sisler, on the other hand, was no stranger to the mound, appearing in 24 games over 111 innings, with a 5-6 record and a 2.35 ERA, 110 of these innings coming as a member of the Browns, and one inning at the tail end of his career while a member of the Boston Braves.
This oddity of position players pitching against each other didn’t happen again until 2012, when Orioles’ DH Chris Davis won a 16-inning game with Red Sox outfielder Darnell McDonald taking the loss, marking the first and only time both pitchers of record were position players.
Let’s be thankful that neither of these two greats tried to make it as pitchers– and instead focused on their game while holding a bat!
And while I’m at it, here’s some information on Cobb’s great 1911 season:
Ty Cobb led the American League in 1911 in numerous categories, including 248 hits, 147 runs scored, 127 RBI, 83 stolen bases, 47 doubles, 24 triples, a .621 slugging percentage, and a 40-game hitting streak. Cobb hit eight home runs but finished second in that category to Frank Baker, who hit eleven. He was awarded a second Chalmers car, this time for being voted the American League MVP by the Baseball Writers Association of America.
Gary Livacari
Information: National Pastime website; stats from Baseball Reference
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