Earle Bryan Combs (May 14, 1899 – July 21, 1976) was an American
professional baseball
Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world.
Mod ...
player who played his entire career for the
New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
(1924–1935). Combs batted leadoff and played
center field
A center fielder, abbreviated CF, is the outfielder in baseball who plays defense in center field – the baseball and softball fielding position between left field and right field. In the numbering system used to record defensive plays, the c ...
on the Yankees' fabled 1927 team (often referred to as
Murderers' Row). He is one of six players on that team who have been inducted into the
Baseball Hall of Fame
The National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum is a history museum and hall of fame in Cooperstown, New York, operated by private interests. It serves as the central point of the history of baseball in the United States and displays baseball-r ...
; the other five are
Waite Hoyt
Waite Charles Hoyt (September 9, 1899 – August 25, 1984) was an American right-handed professional baseball pitcher who played in Major League Baseball for seven different teams during 1918–1938. He was one of the dominant pitchers of the 19 ...
,
Herb Pennock
Herbert Jefferis Pennock (February 10, 1894 – January 30, 1948) was an American professional baseball pitcher and front-office executive. He played in Major League Baseball from 1912 through 1933, and is best known for his time spent with the ...
,
Tony Lazzeri
Tony may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Tony (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters
* Gregory Tony (born 1978), American law enforcement officer
* Motu Tony (born 1981), New Zealand international rugby leag ...
,
Lou Gehrig
Henry Louis Gehrig (born Heinrich Ludwig Gehrig ; June 19, 1903June 2, 1941) was an American professional baseball first baseman who played 17 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the New York Yankees (1923–1939). Gehrig was renowned f ...
and
Babe Ruth
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
.
Combs led the league in
triples three times and was among the top ten in the category in several other seasons. He suffered a fractured skull and other injuries from a crash into an outfield wall in 1934, then retired after another injury the next season. Nicknamed "the Kentucky Colonel", Combs was known as a gentleman on and off the field. He remained in baseball as a coach for many years after his retirement as a player.
Biography
Early years
Combs was born in
Pebworth
Pebworth is a village and civil parish in the county of Worcestershire, lying about 5 miles north-north-west of the town of Chipping Campden in Gloucestershire. Until 1931, the parish – which includes the hamlet of Broad Marston – was itself ...
,
Owsley County, Kentucky
Owsley County is a county located in the Eastern Coalfield region of the U.S. state of Kentucky. As of the 2020 census, the population was 4,051, making it the second-least populous county in Kentucky. The county seat is Booneville. The county ...
. As a child, he played baseball games with tree limbs as bats and with baseballs made out of string and the material of old shoes.
College
Combs left Pebworth in 1917 to enter
Eastern Kentucky State Normal School in
Richmond
Richmond most often refers to:
* Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States
* Richmond, London, a part of London
* Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England
* Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada
* Richmond, California, ...
. In those early days, Eastern prepared its students to become teachers. On completion of a two-year program, graduates were often employed in rural one-room schools. They were often responsible for forty or more students, ranging in age from six to teen-age in grades 1–8, so the work required much management skill.
In his first year at Eastern, Combs put on a stellar performance in a faculty-student baseball game and was encouraged to join the school team by Dr. Charles Keith (Dean of Men and baseball coach).
[ He hit .591 at Eastern during his last season. After graduating from Eastern, Combs went back to his native Owsley County and taught in one-room schoolhouses in both Ida May and Levi.
]
Early baseball career
Combs continued to play baseball in his spare time. He played for High Splint (Harlan County coal company team) in the Pine Mountain League (summer of 1921) and hit .444. He also played semi-pro
''Semi-Pro'' is a 2008 American sports comedy film. The film was directed by Kent Alterman in his directorial debut, written by Scot Armstrong, and produced by Jimmy Miller. It stars Will Ferrell, Woody Harrelson, André Benjamin and Maura Tier ...
baseball for the Lexington, Kentucky
Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County, Kentucky, Fayette County. By population, it is the List of cities in Kentucky, second-largest city in Kentucky and List of United States cities by popul ...
based Lexington Reos of the Blue Grass League
The Blue Grass League was a minor league baseball circuit at the Class D level that existed in the early 1900s. There were two incarnations of the league, one that ran from 1908 to 1912 and one that existed from 1922 to 1924. It consisted entire ...
. It was in Lexington (in 1922) that Combs drew the attention of the Louisville Colonels
The Louisville Colonels were a Major League Baseball team that also played in the American Association (AA) throughout that league's ten-year existence from 1882 until 1891. They were known as the Louisville Eclipse from 1882 to 1884, and as ...
of the American Association American Association may refer to:
Baseball
* American Association (1882–1891), a major league active from 1882 to 1891
* American Association (1902–1997), a minor league active from 1902 to 1962 and 1969 to 1997
* American Association of Profe ...
. After scouting him, Louisville offered him a contract which provided a salary that exceeded the $37 per month ($ today) he made as a teacher in Owsley County.
His Louisville debut was unsettling; he committed several outfield errors. The last one gave the opposition the two runs they needed to win the game. Distraught afterward, Combs said, "As I went after the dropped ball I was tempted to keep right on going, climb the fence and not stop running until I got to Pebworth." He had married Ruth McCollum, his high school sweetheart, the year before and was concerned about his future.
Joe McCarthy, the manager of the Colonels and later his manager with the Yankees, knew what Combs could do and told him, "Look, if I didn't think you belonged in center field on this club I wouldn't put you there, and I'm going to keep you there." Combs soon found his stride,[ hitting .344 in 1922 and .380 in 1923 for the Colonels and also earning a reputation for speedy ball-hawking in the outfield and reckless base- stealing on offense.
]
Major league years
In 1924, the New York Yankees
The New York Yankees are an American professional baseball team based in the Boroughs of New York City, New York City borough of the Bronx. The Yankees compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Amer ...
won a spirited bidding war and bought Combs' contract for $50,000 ($ in current dollar terms). This was a rather large sum at that time, but it bore fruit for the Yankees as Combs proved an immediate success in New York. In his rookie season (summer of 1924), Combs played center field and hit .400 before breaking an ankle sliding into home plate at Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
's League Park
League Park was a baseball park located in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was situated at the northeast corner of Dunham Street (now known as East 66th Street) and Lexington Avenue in the Hough, Cleveland, Hough neighborhood. It was built ...
on June 15. Except for one pinch-hitting appearance, he saw no more action that rookie season.
The following year, manager Miller Huggins
Miller James Huggins (March 27, 1878 – September 25, 1929) was an American professional baseball player and manager. Huggins played second base for the Cincinnati Reds (1904–1909) and St. Louis Cardinals (1910–1916). He managed the ...
made Combs the Yankees' leadoff
In baseball, a lead or lead off is the short distance that a player stands away from their current base.
On the bases
In baseball
Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batti ...
hitter. He held this position for the remaining eleven years of his playing career. He hit .342 and scored 117 runs in 1925. In his best year (1927), he hit .356 with 231 hits, 131 runs scored, 36 doubles and a league-leading 23 triples. He led the league in triples again the next year, batting .310 and finishing sixth in Most Valuable Player voting. He hit .345 in 1929, then .344 in 1930, again leading the league in triples.
Combs suffered a serious accident in July 1934. On a 100+-degree day at St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
' Sportsman's Park
Sportsman's Park was the name of several former Major League Baseball ballpark structures in St. Louis, Missouri. All but one of these were located on the same piece of land, at the northwest corner of Grand Boulevard and Dodier Street, on the ...
, he crashed into the outfield wall going for a fly ball, sustaining a fractured skull, a broken shoulder and a damaged knee. He was reportedly near death for several days, and was hospitalized for more than two months. The next season, he attempted a comeback but suffered another serious injury. That injury, coupled with the knowledge that the Yankees were set to bring up a rookie center fielder named Joe DiMaggio
Joseph Paul DiMaggio (November 25, 1914 – March 8, 1999), nicknamed "Joltin' Joe", "The Yankee Clipper" and "Joe D.", was an American baseball center fielder who played his entire 13-year career in Major League Baseball for the New York Yank ...
the next season, led to Combs' decision to retire at the age of 36.
For his career Combs hit .325, had an on-base average of .397 and averaged nearly 200 hits, 75 walks and only 31 strikeouts a season. He was a part of three World Series
The World Series is the annual championship series of Major League Baseball (MLB) in the United States and Canada, contested since 1903 between the champion teams of the American League (AL) and the National League (NL). The winner of the World ...
championships (in 1927, 1928
Events January
* January – British bacteriologist Frederick Griffith reports the results of Griffith's experiment, indirectly proving the existence of DNA.
* January 1 – Eastern Bloc emigration and defection: Boris Bazhanov, J ...
and 1932
Events January
* January 4 – The British authorities in India arrest and intern Mahatma Gandhi and Vallabhbhai Patel.
* January 9 – Sakuradamon Incident (1932), Sakuradamon Incident: Korean nationalist Lee Bong-chang fails in his effort ...
). He also set the Yankees' team record for most triples in a season (23 in 1927). He hit no lower than .282 in any of his eleven seasons, and scored no fewer than 113 runs from 1925 through 1933. In four World Series, Combs hit .350 with a .443 on-base average. He averaged 17 triples a season, and had a lifetime fielding percentage seven points better than the league average.
Miller Huggins
Miller James Huggins (March 27, 1878 – September 25, 1929) was an American professional baseball player and manager. Huggins played second base for the Cincinnati Reds (1904–1909) and St. Louis Cardinals (1910–1916). He managed the ...
once said, "If you had nine Combs' on your ball club, you could go to bed every night and sleep like a baby". Joe McCarthy
Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most vis ...
(another longtime Yankee manager) said, "They wouldn't pay baseball managers much of a salary if they all presented as few problems as did Earle Combs." Said Babe Ruth: "Combs was more than a good ballplayer; he was always a first-class gentleman." American sportswriter and baseball historian Fred Lieb wrote of Combs, "If a vote were taken of the sportswriters as to who their favorite ballplayer on the Yankees would be, Combs would have been their choice."
After his retirement as a player, he remained in the game as a coach for almost two decades. He was offered a coaching job with the Yankees in 1936, and started his new position by instructing his replacement (DiMaggio) on the nuances of Yankee Stadium
Yankee Stadium is a baseball stadium located in the Bronx, New York City. It is the home field of the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball, and New York City FC of Major League Soccer.
Opened in April 2009, the stadium replaced the origi ...
's outfield. He coached for the Yankees through 1944, for the St. Louis Browns
The St. Louis Browns were a Major League Baseball team that originated in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as the Milwaukee Brewers. A charter member of the American League (AL), the Brewers moved to St. Louis, Missouri, after the 1901 season, where they p ...
in 1947 and for the Boston Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox are an American professional baseball team based in Boston. The Red Sox compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Founded in as one of the American League's eight ...
(1948–1952). When he announced his retirement from the Boston coaching staff in March 1953, he said that he was going to spend more time with family and his Kentucky farm. He returned to coaching for the Philadelphia Phillies
The Philadelphia Phillies are an American professional baseball team based in Philadelphia. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. Since 2004, the team's home sta ...
in 1954.
Life after baseball
After retiring from baseball in 1954, Combs returned to his 400-acre farm in Madison County. He served as the Kentucky state banking commissioner during Governor (and former Baseball Commissioner) A. B. 'Happy' Chandler's second administration (1955–1959), and on Eastern's Board of Regents (1959–1975). In November 1962, he laid the foundation stone for Earle B. Combs Hall, a dormitory at Eastern. In June 1970, the Little League field at Irvine-McDowell Park in Richmond was named in his honor. In 2006, he was inducted as a charter member of Eastern's Athletics Hall of Fame, and the university provides an athletic scholarship in his honor each year.
Combs was selected for induction into the Hall of Fame
A hall, wall, or walk of fame is a list of individuals, achievements, or other entities, usually chosen by a group of electors, to mark their excellence or Wiktionary:fame, fame in their field. In some cases, these halls of fame consist of actu ...
in 1970 by the Veterans Committee
The Veterans Committee is the popular name of various committees of the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum that elect participants other than recently retired players.
Originally, it referenced the National Baseball Hall of Fame Committee ...
. When he learned of the honor, he said "I thought the Hall of Fame was for superstars, not just average players like me." Sabermetrician
Sabermetrics, or originally SABRmetrics, is the empirical analysis of baseball, especially baseball statistics that measure in-game activity. Sabermetricians collect and summarize the relevant data from this in-game activity to answer specific ques ...
Bill James
George William James (born October 5, 1949) is an American baseball writer, historian, and statistician whose work has been widely influential. Since 1977, James has written more than two dozen books devoted to baseball history and statistics. ...
has listed Combs as one of ten examples of Hall of Fame inductees who do not deserve the honor."Bill James Answers All Your Baseball Questions"
an April 2008 entry from the ''Freakonomics
''Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'' is the debut non-fiction book by University of Chicago economist Steven Levitt and ''New York Times'' journalist Stephen J. Dubner. Published on April 12, 2005, by Will ...
'' blog
Combs and his wife Ruth (1901–1989) had three sons, Earle Jr, Charles and Donald. After a long illness, he died on July 21, 1976 (age 77) in Richmond, Kentucky
Richmond is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of Madison County, Kentucky, United States. It is named after Richmond, Virginia, and is home to Eastern Kentucky University. In 2019, the population was 36,157. Richmond is the fourth-la ...
. He is interred in the Richmond Cemetery.[
]
Career statistics
In four World Series covering 16 games (1926, 1927, 1928 and 1932), Combs batted .350 (21-for-60) with 17 runs, 3 doubles, a home run, 9 RBI and 10 base on balls.
See also
*List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders
In baseball, a triple is a hit in which the batter advances to third base in one play, with neither the benefit of a fielding error nor another runner being put out on a fielder's choice. Triples were more common in baseball's dead-ball era, whe ...
*List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
Listed are all Major League Baseball (MLB) players with 1,000 or more career runs scored. Players in bold face are active as of the 2022 Major League Baseball season.
Key
List
*Stats updated through the 2022 season.
Through the end of the ...
* List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders
*List of Major League Baseball triples records
There are various Major League Baseball records for triples.
175 career triples
Closest active players
There are no active players that are considered close to realistically reaching 175 career triples.
As of August 2020, there are no active p ...
*
References
External links
earlecombs.com
– Official website
The Baseball Biography Project
*
:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Earle
1899 births
1976 deaths
National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees
Major League Baseball center fielders
New York Yankees players
Baseball players from Kentucky
Philadelphia Phillies coaches
New York Yankees coaches
Boston Red Sox coaches
St. Louis Browns coaches
Eastern Kentucky Colonels baseball players
People from Owsley County, Kentucky
Louisville Colonels (minor league) players