Before our podcast started, we like so many others, sat around and talked about
baseball. What recently got us going was the idea that Ty Cobb's .366 career
batting average back before and after the 'Dead-ball' era was fattened up by
facing tired pitchers in innings 7/8/9. Pitchers today rarely throw complete
games and today hitters have to face a bevy of hard throwing late-inning
relievers who have nasty stuff.
How did Cobb perform in the first six innings vs. the last three? How about
Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams? And what of today's players like
Albert Pujols and Miguel Cabrera? Those two will-be HOFers had to face much
more dominating relief pitchers late in games than did their HOF forebears from
forty or more years ago.
The answers were not always exactly what we expected!
Correction: Barry Bonds had an OBA of .582 in 2002 when he hit .370. He
actually exceeded that in 2004 with an OBA of .609 w/a BA of .362.
Thanks for listening, follow us on Twitter @Almostcoop, FB page Almost
Cooperstown or email us at almostcooperstown@gmail.com and please tell your
friends!
Thu Apr 15 2021
