| Mickey Cochrane | |
|---|---|
Cochrane 1933 Goudey baseball card |
|
| Catcher | |
| Born: April 6, 1903 Bridgewater, Massachusetts |
|
| Died: June 28, 1962 (aged 59) Lake Forest, Illinois |
|
| Batted: Left | Threw: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| April 14, 1925 for the Philadelphia Athletics | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| May 25, 1937 for the Detroit Tigers | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .320 |
| Home runs | 119 |
| Runs batted in | 832 |
| Teams | |
|
As player As manager |
|
| Career highlights and awards | |
| Member of the National | |
| Baseball Hall of Fame | |
| Induction | 1947 |
| Vote | 79.5% (fifth ballot) |
Gordon Stanley "Mickey" Cochrane (April 6, 1903 – June 28, 1962) was a professional baseball player and manager.[1] He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers. Cochrane was considered one of the best catchers in baseball history and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame.[2][3][4]
Contents |
Cochrane was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts to Northern Irish immigrant John Cochrane, whose father had immigrated to Ulster from Scotland and Scottish immigrant Sadie Campbell.[2] He was also known as "Black Mike", because of his fiery, competitive nature.[2][3] Cochrane was educated at Boston University where he played five sports, excelling at football and basketball.[5] Although he considered himself better as a football player than as a baseball player, professional football wasn't as established as Major League Baseball at the time so, Cochrane signed a contract to play for the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in 1924.[6]
After just one season in the minor leagues, Cochrane was promoted to the major leagues, making his debut with the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1925 at the age of 22.[1] He made an immediate impact by earning the starting catcher's assignment over Cy Perkins, who was considered one of the best catchers in the major leagues at the time.[7] A left-handed batter, Cochrane ran well enough that manager Connie Mack would occasionally insert him into the leadoff spot in the batting order. Most frequently, Cochrane would bat third, but wherever he hit, his primary job was to get on base so that hard-hitting Al Simmons and Jimmie Foxx could drive him in. In May, he tied a major league record by hitting three home runs in a game.[8] He ended his rookie season with a .331 batting average and a .397 on base percentage, helping the Athletics to a second place finish.
By the start of the 1926 season, Cochrane was already considered the best catcher in the major leagues.[9] Cochrane won the 1928 Most Valuable Player Award mostly due to his leadership and defensive skills, when he led the American League in putouts and hit for a .293 batting average along with 10 home runs and 58 runs batted in.[2][10] Cochrane was a catalyst in the pennant-winning years of 1929, 1930 and 1931 when he hit .331, .357 and .349 respectively.[1][5] He played in three World Series with the Athletics, and was sometimes blamed for the loss of the 1931 World Series, when the St. Louis Cardinals led by Pepper Martin, stole eight bases in the series, although, in his book, The Life of a Baseball Hall of Fame Catcher, author Charlie Bevis cites the Philadelphia pitching staff's carelessness at holding baserunners close to their bases as a contributing factor.[11][12] Regardless, the blame for the World Series loss would dog Cochrane for the rest of his life.[11]
In 1934, Connie Mack started to disassemble his dynasty for financial reasons and sold Cochrane to the Detroit Tigers, who made him player-manager.[5] It was with the Tigers that Cochrane cemented his reputation as a team leader.[5] His competitive nature drove the Tigers, who had been picked to finish in fourth or fifth place, to the 1934 American League championship, their first pennant in twenty-five years.[5][13][14] Cochrane's leadership skills won him the 1934 Most Valuable Player Award, remarkable considering that Lou Gehrig won the Triple Crown and also finished with a much higher W.A.R. (10.7 versus 4.3).[5][15] He followed this by leading the Tigers to another American League pennant in 1935 and a victory over the Chicago Cubs in the 1935 World Series.[16] Due in part to his high strung nature, he suffered a nervous breakdown during the 1936 season.[5]
Cochrane's playing career came to a sudden end on May 25, 1937 when he was hit in the head by a pitch by Yankees pitcher Bump Hadley. Hospitalized for seven days, the injury nearly killed him. His accident generated a call for batter helmets, but tradition won out. [17] Ordered by doctors not to play baseball again (he was just 34 years old), Cochrane returned to the dugout but had lost his competitive fire.[14] He managed for the remainder of the 1937 season and was replaced midway through the 1938 season.[5] Cochrane's all-time managerial record was 348-250, for a .582 winning percentage.[18]
Despite his head injury, Cochrane served in the United States Navy during World War II,[3][5] as did Bill Dickey of the Yankees, giving the Navy the two greatest catchers baseball had yet seen; with Yogi Berra also serving but not yet having reached the major leagues, there were actually three possible "greatest catchers ever" in the WWII-era Navy. Having been a heavy smoker, Cochrane died in 1962 in Lake Forest, Illinois of lymphatic cancer, at the age of 59.[3]
Cochrane compiled a .320 batting average while hitting 119 home runs over a 13 year playing career.[1] His .320 batting average was the highest career total for catchers until being surpassed by Joe Mauer in 2009.[19] His .419 on-base percentage is among the best in baseball history, and is the highest all-time among catchers.[2][20] In 1932, Cochrane became the first catcher in Major League Baseball history to score 100 runs and have 100 RBI in the same season.[21] He hit for the cycle twice in his career, on July 22, 1932 and on August 2, 1933.[22][23] In his first 11 years, he never caught fewer than 110 games.[2] Cochrane led American League catchers six times in putouts, and twice each in double plays, assists and fielding percentage.[23][24]
In 1947, Cochrane became the second catcher enshrined into the Baseball Hall of Fame, after Roger Bresnahan.[4][25] With the Athletics having moved out of Philadelphia in 1954, and never retiring the uniform number 2 he wore with them, the Philadelphia Phillies honored Cochrane by electing him to the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame at Veterans Stadium.[26] The Athletics' plaques from that display have been moved to the Philadelphia Athletics Museum in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. The Tigers honored him by renaming National Avenue, behind the third-base stands at Tiger Stadium, Cochrane Avenue, but have never retired the uniform number 3 he wore with them.
In 1999, he ranked number 65 on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was a nominee for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.[27][28] New York Yankees Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle was named after Cochrane.[2][29]
| Awards and achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Lou Gehrig |
American League - League Award 1928 |
Succeeded by Lefty Grove |
| Preceded by Jimmie Foxx |
American League Most Valuable Player 1934 |
Succeeded by Hank Greenberg |
| Preceded by Bucky Harris |
Detroit Tigers Manager 1934–1938 |
Succeeded by Del Baker |
| Preceded by n/a |
Detroit Tigers General Manager 1936–1938 |
Succeeded by Jack Zeller |
| Preceded by n/a |
Philadelphia Athletics General Manager 1950 |
Succeeded by Arthur Ehlers |
|
|||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
||||||||
|
|||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||
|
|||||