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Old 07-02-2004, 12:34 PM   #1491
jdw
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 1,161
scprideandms wrote:

> Nice to see Whiskey getting ripped again!!!

Now come on, scprideandms. You had the chance to own the Indians and "Write Whiskey History The Right Way".

Hmm... I'm looking forward to Whiskey's bio ala Cobb...

"I laugh at people who call Willard Schwarz a great catcher. If you told me I could hit .260 for my career and focus on home runs, I would have hit 600 of 'em. Let's see Schwarz hit .343 in his career, playing with a deadball to boot!"

"What the fans don't know about Harry Cohan is that none of his teammates liked him. They always thought he was a glory hound kissing the ass of the press. Oh sure, the fans always loved him because of all those glowing stories the press wrote. But his teammates hated him. Bowie Castellon, God rest his soul, always told me that he blamed the decline of his great career on the moment that Cohan got traded to Chicago. Three Pitcher of the Year Awards, the last one the year before Cohan got trade over. He always said Harry couldn't call a game if his life depended on it. He didn't know how to frame a pitched, and spent most of the game talking friendly to batters being too stupid to know that he was tipping off pitches. That is Harry Cohan for you."

"Let me tell you another story about the man that Harry Cohan really was. Tyke Walls, who in my opinion is the greatest Chicago Nationals player of them all, was a spry young kid in his third season. He was coming off a great season in his sophmore campaign, but in 1923 he was even better. He was so hot he had a chance to break Woody Woodson's single season batting record of .444. Now you'd think that all his teammates would rally around him in the chase. But not Haary Cohan. All Cohan cared about was that Tyke might break Cohan's team record in batting. So he started telling the opposing pitchers ways to get out Tyke. In return, those pitchers 'went soft' on Harry, especially on situtations that weren't in the pinch. So you have washed up 34 year old Harry Cohan out of nowhere hitting .428 at the end of June chasing Tyke's .440.

This only managed to piss Tyke off. Tyke was a gentleman, but he had a hot temper when he knew he was being wronged. The first thing he did was go out and have one of the greatest months in the history of baseball, peppering the ball to the tune of .528 in July. The next thing he did was punch Cohan right in the nose during a road trip to St. Louis. So much for that "Haymaker" nickname, since it was Tyke who threw the Haymaker and Cohan who took the ten count.

Of course none of this was good for the Chicago ball club. Despite Tyke having a POY campaign, the team sunk to last place amid all the infighting between Cohan and the rest of the players. Any sensible team would have run Cohan right out of town. The problem was that the Chicago owner was a longtime drinking buddy of Cohan and sided with him in the feud. It was a terrible, ugly season in the Windy City. Despite this, Tyke Walls did break Woody Woodson mark to set a new TWB record of .445.

That's the type of player that Tyke was, and the type of man he still is. I am always happy to buy him a round when we get together each year at the Hall of Fame. That's also the type of man that the great Harry Cohan was, and why everyone who ever played with him on the Chicago Nationals hated his guts. If Harry was a man enough to show up at the Hall of Fame, I have no doubt that Tyke would pop him right in the nose again. And I have no doubt that the 'Haymaker' would be taking the ten count again.

Don't even get me started on the story of how he was in on it with Ed Whelan to fix the 1917 World Series as he knew it was the only way the Cubs could beat that great White Sox club! The Great Harry Cohan, my ass!"




John, still never above throwing lighter fluid on the old Whiskey vs. Haymaker Feud...

Last edited by jdw; 07-02-2004 at 12:37 PM.
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