Earle Combs was an exceptional player in every sense of the word who made key contributions to the mighty Yankees teams of the 1920s and 1930s.
Born in Pebworth, Kentucky, in 1899. Hoping to be a teacher, attended the State Normal School in Richmond Western Kentucky, where he played basketball and ran track and field, and starred in the baseball field, batting .591 in his last year.
During the summer teaching in one-room schools, but soon he learned that he could make more money and enjoy more to play semiprofessional baseball. When he hit .444 for the team of Harlan, the Louisville Colonels of the AA signed it.
His first professional game was a total disaster. Installed in the center, soon he made two mistakes with boulders. The Colonels overcame these errors to liderear in the ninth. With two runners based opposition, he Combs another ball bounced and rolled between his legs. Before he could catch and send back to the infield, both runners and the hitter had come happily bases to win the game.
After that, he sat in front of his locker, slightly contemplating his life as a school teacher in Kentucky. The leader of the Colonels and future Hall of Fame manager Joe McCarthy, the rookie walked disconsolately. "Look," he said, "If I had not thought belonged to center on this club, I had not put there. And I will keep you there."
Combs soon became an excellent gardener, trapping high and hard shot. He finished his first season in Louisville with a batting average of .344. In 1923 he raised his average to .380, and the Yankees bought his contract for $ 50,000 and two players.
By spring, however, he refused to report to training camp in New York. The Colonels had promised a percentage of the purchase price, but received nothing. "I'm not a stupid animal to abuse me with a whip, harassment, coercion or carried like cattle to do anything that does not make right," he announced. The Colonels was paid.
Combs had been a very good base stealer in the minor leagues Louisville fans called him "E". Although when he became the leadoff New York Yankees, the manager Miller Huggins explained that times had changed, with sluggers like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Bob Meusel in the lineup, the Yankees did not need much help score runs. The steal bases no sense when the next to hit would give a drive into the seats. "Up here," Huggins said, "we'll call the waiter".
As a result, Combs never stole more than 16 bases in a major league season. Having played for any other team could have doubled or tripled that figure. However, his scoring record shows the wisdom of the strategy Huggins. Although most of three seasons have been lost due to injury, the waiter scored more than 100 runs in eight of his 12 seasons for a total of 1,186 runs, an average of 99 per season.
Considered the greatest leadoff hitter of the LA, Combs collected no less than 190 hits five times on his way to a vocation batting normal of .325. While Ruth, Gehrig and others were hitting home runs, specialty Combs left-handed hitter was batting line around the grounds, though he collected enough extra-base hits. When one of his line drives fell among gardeners, it had a good chance of ending in third. It lead my salespeople to LA in triples three times and finished with a career total of 154, averaging more than tripled for every 10 games he played.
Combs also touches deftly put and were especially good at getting walks, the last thing he wanted a pitcher before facing Ruth or Gehrig. His career on-base percentage was .397.
The speedy player 6 feet, 185 lbs. he soon adjusted to the Yankees in 1924, batting .400 in his first 24 games before breaking his ankle and misses the rest of the season. Comb injury you probably cost him the championship Yankees. After winning pennants in 1921, 1922 and 1923, New finished second against Washington for two games.
In 1925 Combs, fully recovered, showed his great start last year was not a water hole. It gave 203 hits, batted .342 and scored 117 runs. But Ruth was out of the lineup for most of the year, and several other players had disappointing seasons. The Yankees fell to seventh place chopped.
In 1926, Ruth returned in shape, Gehrig flourished at first base; second baseman Tony Lazzeri included another powerful batting lineup. The Yankees caught the championship with a victory in St. Louis.
The next day clowning through a double game with the Hapless Browns. Among other antics, Combs played a burlesque struck. Maybe he should have played with more commitment; He finished the year with 299 batting average, the only time could not hit 300 until his last major league season.
The energizing 1926 World Series was highlighted by Pete Alexander struck Tony Lazzeri with the bases stacked in the final game. The St. Louis Cardinals defeated the Yankees in seven. The following year the club had in New York, many experts considers the best team of all time, the Yankees 1927. With Murderers Row bats behind them, the Bronx Bombers moved nimbly to the championship and demolished Pirates in four straight games in the series. During the regular season, Ruth established his at that point record 60 homers, and Combs set a club record with 231 hits. In 1986 Don Mattingly Combs surpassed the mark of 238.
Gehrig was a favorite of Yankees fans, and Ruth was, of course, the most powerful figure baseball. But Combs was also among the favorites of the fans and reporters. As a sign of appreciation for his good 1927 season, fans right field at Yankee Stadium took up an accumulation and purchased a gold watch. In 1931 sportswriter Fred Lieb wrote, "I believe that if a vote is cast among sports writers about who is the most popular player in New York, I think Combs win."
The Yankees won another championship and swept another World Series in 1928 but were short Durantes the next three seasons. In 1929 the leader Miller Huggins, having chosen as favorites and Combs Gehrig, died suddenly. In 1931 Joe McCarthy, the unique pioneer of Combs in St. Louisville, the pioneer of the Yankees became. The following year, New York was back in the series, knocking the Chicago Cubs in four games.
Combs never played in another Series. The July 24, 1934, crashed against the wall center Sportsman Park in St. Louis while chasing a high, he suffered a skull fracture in addition to injuries of the knee and shoulder.
In 1935 he appeared in 89 games as a player-coach before retiring as a player to train full time. His initially drilling task was to instruct a youthful prospect named Joe DiMaggio, the intricacies of playing center field at Yankee Stadium.
Combs trained with the Yankees and several other teams through 1954 and then retired to his farm of 400 hectares in Kentucky. He was named to the Hall of Fame in 1970, six years before his demise. "I thought the Hall of Fame was for whizzes,"," said the modest gardener, "not for average players as I was."
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