Cobb: Is This Heaven? No, It’s Boggstown

Boggstown – He strides to the plate with a calm confidence. He works the count. The strokes a single up the middle inches away from an outreaching pitcher. He rounds first looking for an extra base. He takes everything that is given to him and then a good chunk more… Ty Cobb has not only been the best player in the league this season, he has been the happiest player in the league doing what he does best; play ball the way he wants to.

Cobb, not known for this chipper demeanor on a baseball diamond has found a little chunk of heaven in the Boggstown Boilers clubhouse this season and has arguably posted the greatest season in the history of the game. After a disappointing KCBL playing for the Merrimack Owls, Cobb seems to have discovered his stroke and positioned himself among the games elite players.

“He looks really happy over there,” previous manager Ed Bailey of the Merrimack Owls said recently. “It’s no secret that certain guys fit into a system better than other guys. When he was here he just seemed to never find his groove. He wasn’t happy… We knew, and he knew what he was capable of but things just never ‘clicked’.”

“Clicked” they have for Cobb in Boggstown, who seems to be thriving in the hot-tempered Jack McKeon clubhouse. He is hitting 255 points higher under McKeon, has 12 more hits and has an impressive 184 point higher on-base percentage. In a recent three game set against the Fogelberg Falcons, Cobb was retired three times in the ENTIRE SERIES. It has been rumored that after McKeon’s well documented verbal explosion to the media, Cobb quietly approached the manager hours later, shook his hand and bought him a beer.

“I was not sure how those two hot-heads would do in the same dugout, but I knew one thing, Jack McKeon is a tough son-of-a-bitch and if anyone could earn the respect of Ty Cobb it would be him,” Joe Gordon said on ASB Tonight. “I think the McKeon tirade and the support that management showed for that kind of behavior showed Cobb that he could play the game the way he wanted to, without restrictions… Other teams hate him, but they respect him.”

Cobb declined interviews Wednesday night after destroying the all-time records in batting average (.638) and on-base percentage (.758). Perhaps “destroying” is not even a strong enough term for the way Cobb dismantled pitching this season. He embarrassed the league by posting an OBP that is 77 points higher than the best season that Ted Williams has put up (.681,  in two 12 games seasons) and 56 points higher than George Brett’s newly minted second best all-time average from last years Holiday Baseball Classic (.582).

In a season that will be remembered for its outstanding pitching and lackluster offense, Ty Cobb has posted the greatest season in the history of the game… but don’t expect him to tell you about it anytime soon, he lets his bat do the talking, and right now it is screaming.

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