Eddie Collins biography
Eddie Collins, in full Edward Trowbridge Collins, Sr., additionally referred to as Cocky, (born May 2, 1887, Millerton, N.Y., U.S.—died March 25, 1951, Boston, Mass.), American skilled baseball participant who was one of the proficient hitters and base stealers within the sport’s historical past.
Collins was raised in prosperous circumstances within the suburbs exterior New York City. He attended Columbia University, the place he was the quarterback of the soccer workforce in addition to the shortstop of the baseball workforce. While nonetheless in school, he started taking part in semiprofessional baseball underneath an assumed title. When his facet job was uncovered by Columbia, he forfeited his senior 12 months of eligibility. His moonlighting paid dividends, nevertheless, when a vacationing Philadelphia Athletics participant noticed Collins play and raved about him to Athletics supervisor Connie Mack. Mack signed Collins to a contract, and the younger infielder performed abbreviated seasons with the Athletics in 1906 and 1907 earlier than becoming a member of the workforce full-time in 1908 after graduating from Columbia.
Nicknamed “Cocky”—not for any vanity however for his supreme self-confidence in his talents—Collins switched his major place to second baseman in 1909, and his profession subsequently flourished. In 1910 he had a .324 batting common and stole a league-high 81 bases. That season he helped the Athletics win their first World Series championship by batting .429 within the workforce’s five-game victory over the Chicago Cubs. The Athletics repeated as champions in 1911, as Collins batted .365 in the course of the common season. The Athletics captured a 3rd title in 1913, and the next season Collins received the Chalmers Award, the equal of at the moment’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, after main the Athletics to their fourth American League (AL) pennant in 5 years (the workforce was denied a fourth championship by the Boston Braves within the 1914 World Series). After the 1914 season the financially troubled Mack started promoting off his star gamers, and Collins was despatched to the Chicago White Sox.
In his third 12 months in Chicago, Collins helped the White Sox to their first 100-win season in membership historical past and to a World Series victory over the New York Giants. In 1919 the White Sox received one other AL pennant however have been infamously defeated within the World Series by the Cincinnati Reds, as eight Chicago gamers—not together with Collins—conspired to lose the collection in what is named the Black Sox Scandal. Collins batted a career-high .372 in 1920 and completed second within the balloting for the League Award, the successor to the Chalmers Award, in 1923 and 1924. However, his workforce successes have been restricted in the course of the early to mid-Nineteen Twenties. He was a player-manager for the White Sox for a part of the 1924 season and for the whole thing of the next two seasons, however he was fired in 1926 after failing to information the workforce to anyplace greater than fifth within the AL and was launched as a participant quickly thereafter. He then signed with the Athletics, for whom he performed sparingly (typically as a pinch hitter) and primarily served as a coach till his ultimate sport look in 1930.
At the time of his retirement, his 3,315 profession hits was the fifth highest complete in baseball historical past, and his 741 stolen bases was the fourth finest profession complete. He spent two seasons as a full-time coach for the Athletics (1931–32) earlier than serving as the overall supervisor of the Boston Red Sox from 1933 to 1947. Collins was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.