They Couldn’t Cut Ty Cobb Out

How determined was Ty Cobb to become a success in baseball? According to his biographer, it was almost a matter of life and death.

William Gildea of the Washington Post, quoting from the book, “Ty Cobb,” by Charles Alexander, said Cobb, early in his career, suffered a severe case of tonsillitis while the Detroit Tigers were on a spring barnstorming tour. Without telling the club, for fear he’d be taken out of the lineup, Cobb went to a hotel doctor in Toledo.

Wrote Alexander: “Without anesthetic, proper surgical equipment or much of anything else, the man went ahead anyway, cheerfully cutting away at Cobb’s grossly swollen tonsils. Periodically, when the hemorrhaging in his throat threatened to suffocate him, Cobb would ask to be let up to rest awhile.

“The next morning, though, he was in the physician’s chair for more unanesthetized cutting and bleeding. A gory third session took place the morning after that, following which Cobb caught a train to Columbus, where he played seven innings and got a hit as the Tigers beat the American Assn. team.

“About a year later, he learned that the physician had been committed to an asylum for the insane.”

Manute Bol, the 7-6 center from the Sudan who was drafted by the Washington Bullets, is listed as 5-2 on his passport.

Explained Bol: “They measured me when I was sitting down.”

Residents in the neighborhood of Wrigley Field are opposed to lights and are also lobbying against a proposal to move the club to a new location.

Cub Manager Jim Frey said it figures.

“I hear that some people, several hours before the game, move their cars about eight blocks away and then rent their space and space on their roof,” Frey said. “I wonder if the IRS knows about it. It’s no wonder they don’t want lights at Wrigley Field.”

A leading candidate for the 1985 Bad Timing Award would have to be the magazine Texas Sports World, which quoted Texas Rangers owner Eddie Chiles as saying: “I don’t know why it’s standard procedure in baseball to fire the manager if things aren’t going well. I don’t think that makes sense.”

The magazine hit the stands four days after Chiles fired Doug Rader as manager.

From Hubert Mizell of the St. Petersburg Times: “If you haven’t seen Leeman Bennett, you haven’t been looking. The new head coach of the Tampa Bay Bucs has attended more area functions and participated in more gimmicks, projects and civic merrymaking in six months than predecessor John McKay did the previous nine years.”

Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe quotes Cleveland shortstop Julio Franco as saying: “I hope we strike. That way I won’t have to talk to any sportswriters for at least three weeks.”

The subject was the Buffalo Bills and their problems over the years, and former receiver Elbert (Golden Wheels) Dubenion, now a scout for the club, told Gary Pomerantz of the Washington Post: “I remember some of the great halftime speeches Harvey Johnson used to give in ’68.

“We’d be getting beat bad at the half, and Harvey would come in and say, ‘Look, I don’t want to go back out there, either, but we have to finish the game.’ You check the coaching records and you won’t find Harvey Johnson’s name next to Knute Rockne’s.”

After succeeding Joe Collier in 1968, Johnson was 1-10-1. He returned in 1971 for the full season and was 1-13.

Quotebook

Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, on a former player who had problems in the field: “I kept moving him around, but sooner or later, the other team always found him.”