<Archive Obituary> Earle Combs (July 21st 1976)
Bill Schenley
Led Off 'Murders' Row'
Photo: http://www.owsleykyhist.org/Owsley/combs_earle.jpg
FROM: The New York Times (July 22nd 1976) ~
By Sports Desk Writers
Earle Combs, a member of baseball's Hall of Fame who was the leadoff man in
the New York Yankees "Murders' Row" batting order that featured Babe Ruth
and Lou Gehrig, died yesterday in Richmond, Ky., after a long illness. He
was 77 years old.
His major league career spanned 12 seasons, from 1924 to 1935, all with the
Yankees. He had a .325 career batting average, and led the American League
in triples three times.
His finest season came in 1927, the year the Yankees were considered by many
experts the best baseball team ever, when he batted .356 and led the league
with 231 hits.
Combs's contract was purchased by the Yankees in 1924 from the Louisville
team of the American Association for a reported $50,000, a considerable sum
those days. He batted .380 the previous season and came to the Yankees with
a reputation as an outstanding center fielder and fleet baserunner.
Broke Article as Rookie
He immediately pushed Whitey Witt out of the starting lineup and took up his
position flanked by Bob Meusel in left and Ruth in right. But a broken
ankle limited his rookie season to 24 games.
In spring training the following season Combs's speed was the subject of a
discussion between the outfielder and his manager, Miller Huggins.
"Down in Louisville," Combs said, "they call me 'The Mail Carrier.'"
"Up here," Huggins said, "we'll call you 'The Waiter.' When you get on first
base, you just wait there for Ruth or Gehrig, or one of the other fellows,
to send you the rest of the way around."
Combs was very good at waiting, and his patience was rewarded as the
slugging Yankee teams of the 1920's and 1930's sent him home again and
again. He scored 1,186 runs in his career.
"He was the table-setter for Ruth and Gehrig," said Joe Cronin, president of
the American League when Combs was inducted into the Hall in 1970.
"He was always on base, it seemed, when they'd hit a homer."
Combs was always considered the gentleman of the Yankee teams; he was
nicknamed the Kentucky Colonel by the press. In discussing the 1927
Yankees, Bill Dickey, the catcher and also a Hall of Fame member, once said,
"The only one I could guarantee as a full-fledged gentleman was Earle
Combs."
And yesterday, in a tribute to Combs, Pee Wee Reese, the former Dodger
shortstop, said, "I never heard anyone say an unkind word about him."
Combs was injured seriously three times. First there was the broken ankle
in his rookie season, and last a broken collar bone in 1935 that ended his
playing career. But the most serious injury came in 1934 when he fractured
his skull crashing into the outfield wall in St. Louis.
He was carried unconscious from the field and placed on the critical list.
He stayed in the hospital more than two months. Doctors feared not only for
his career, but also for his life.
But Combs was apparently made of sterner stuff than a concrete wall could
dent.
Comes Back From Injury
"You see, I'm made of tough stuff," he said from his hospital bed, vowing to
return to the Yankees in 1935. "They said I was through in 1924 when I
broke my ankle. I fooled them once and I believe I will do it again."
He came back in 1935 as a player-coach, only to suffer the broken
collarbone. He became a full-time coach with the Yankees, and his first
assignment was to train his replacement a youngster brought up from San
Francisco.
"If this boy does as well as you," wrote Ed Barrow, then the Yankees general
manager, in a letter to Combs, "I'll be satisfied."
The new center fielder was Joe DiMaggio.
Combs remained in baseball, coaching with the St. Louis Browns, Boston and
the Philadelphia Phillies. In 1970, long after having retired from baseball
and having served as Kentucky's Banking Commissioner and on the board of
regents at Eastern Kentucky University, he was elected to the Hall of Fame
by an old-timers' selection committee.
"When I heard I'd been named," Combs said during his induction speech, "it
was like a bullet shot between my eyes. It was the last thing I expected.
I thought the Hall of Fame was for superstars, not just average players like
I was."
If he was average, it was only in his throwing arm. He was exceptional as a
fielder and batter. Many observers said it was Combs who had made Ruth look
so good as an outfielder because Combs's speed in shagging flies, they said,
kept Ruth's lack of speed from being exposed.
"The Yankees of 1927," Combs said,"had to be the greatest baseball team of
all time. Five of them are now members of the Hall of Fame."
He was the fifth. And some observers said the Hall would not have been
complete without him.
Surviving as his widow, Ruth McCollum Combs; three sons, Earle Jr., Charles
and Donald; a brother, Conley Combs, and a sister, Elsie Seale, and 12
grandchildren.
---
Photos:
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/1927/27_Combs_swinging.jpeg
http://images.art.com/images/products/large/10041000/10041171.jpg
http://www.angelfire.com/pa/1927/270914_Combs_Ruth_Meusel_2.jpeg
(LtR - Earle Combs, Babe Ruth and Bob Meusel)
1928 Yuengling's Ice Cream (#21) baseball card:
http://www.martyspsagradedcards.com/67764.jpg
1932 USC baseball card:
http://www.thedeadballera.com/Cards/CombsEarl1932USC.jpg
1933 Goudey (#103) baseball card:
http://www.vintagecardtraders.org/virtual/33goudey/33goudey-103.jpg
1954 Topps (#183) baseball card:
http://www.basehit.net/CatImages/54Topps183.jpg
2003 Upper Deck Legendary Cuts (#21/45) baseball card:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/pics/earle_combs_autograph.jpg