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Tris Speaker was one of baseball’s best all-around players. He was dominant at bat and in the field. Speaker’s career numbers on both sides of the ball rank among the game’s greatest.

With the bat in his hand, Speaker was elite. His name is peppered throughout the career majors’ career leaderboards.

The major’s all time leader in two-base hits, Speaker smashed 792 doubles in 22-year career. His .345 lifetime batting average has been exceeded by only five players – Ty Cobb (.367), Rogers Hornsby (.359), Shoeless Joe Jackson (.356), Lefty O’Doul (.345), and Ed Delahanty (.346). Only ten men in big league history have a higher on-base percentage than Speaker’s .428. His 3,514 career hits is surpassed only by Cobb, Pete Rose, Hank Aaron and Stan Musial. Only 5 batters tallied more triples than Speaker, while only 7 reached base more.

Born in 1888, Speaker ranks as one of baseball’s greatest defenders. Because of his speed and reads as the ball left the bat, Speaker played a shallow centerfield. This allowed him to get to more balls. His 2,691 games in centerfield and his 6,788 outfield putouts rank second only to the great Willie Mays. Speaker stands alone in terms of assists and double plays by big league outfielders. Any conversation of greatest fielding fly-catchers must include Tris Speaker.

Speaker broke in with the Red Sox and led them to World Series championships in 1912 and 1915. His average dropped to .322 in 1915, his lowest mark since 1909. When he refused to take a pay cut, Boston traded him to the Indians.

His first year with the Tribe was outstanding. Speaker led the league in hits, doubles, batting average, on-base percentage, and OPS+. In the middle of 1919 the Indians fired manager Lee Fohl and installed Speaker as their field chief. The following season he hit .388 with an AL-best 50 doubles to lead Cleveland to its first World Series title.

In the collection is this letter dated May 2, 1921 written to former teammate Marty McHale. The day before, the Indians beat the White Sox behind a six-hitter from ace Stan Coveleski. Century-old letters from a titan of the game such as Speaker remain highly desirable.

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Tris Speaker is considered one of the finest-fielding center fielders in the history of the game. From 1910 through 1915 he was part of the “Golden Outfield” along with Harry Hooper and Duffy Lewis. The three of them were without question the best defensive outfield trio of their day, and perhaps ever.

In the collection is this letter – one page of a four-page response – from Harry Hooper. In it, Hooper identifies his all-time team. Hooper selects Speaker as his choice in center and Lewis as his choice in right.

Speaker was a dominant player of his era and maybe any era. Playing shallow with the glove allowed Speaker to take away what would otherwise be routine base hits. His speed, reads, and routes allowed him to retreat and cover ground behind him. Speaker led the league in double plays by an outfielder 10 times and was in the top-10 in the league nineteen time in his career.

His 145 double plays as an outfielder are first all time by a wide margin. Second and third on the list are Ty Cobb and Willie Mays with 74 and 59 respectively.

At the plate Speaker was the only player to interrupt Cobb’s run of 12 batting championships in 13 years, hitting .345 for his career and setting a still-standing mark of 792 doubles. Only 6 men – Hank Aaron, Cobb, Willie Mays, Babe Ruth, and Barry Bonds – have a higher career WAR.

He was a rare star who won in multiple cities. After earning two rings in Boston, Speaker completed his trifecta in Cleveland as player-manager, hitting .388 with a league-leading 50 doubles in giving the Indians franchise their first World Series title.

From there Hooper’s outfield choices are more dubious. In left field he picks Duffy Lewis, a 12-year big leaguer with a .284 career average with a .333 on-base percentage. With his two Red Sox teammates – Speaker and Lewis – already penciled in as his all-time outfield, Hooper could not resist making his choice for fight field clear, writing in the space for the selection, “Modesty will not permit”.

This question is just one of eight that Hooper replied to in answering a fan’s baseball queries. The others regarding how he wants to be remembered, what it means to be in Cooperstown, and his thoughts on the Black Sox scandal can be seen by clicking here.

 

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Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, and Joe Wood were involved in a gambling scandal that almost cost the trio their position among the game’s greats. Former pitcher Dutch Leonard charged that Cobb, Speaker and Smoky Joe Wood had bet on a game they all knew was fixed. Hoping to cover it up, AL President Ban Johnson paid $20,000 for the evidence Leonard submitted — letters from the three about the game. Commissioner Landis exposed the cover up as the players denied any involvement. Landis eventually cleared the players. Some years later, Cobb claimed that the players’ lawyers had brokered their reinstatement by threatening to expose further scandal in baseball if the two were not cleared.

Speaker claimed his letters to Leonard had been misunderstood, that he was merely speaking of business investments. Landis took the case under advisement and eventually let both players remain in baseball because they had not been found guilty of fixing any game themselves. It was after this case, though, that Landis instituted the rule mandating that any player found guilty of betting on baseball would be suspended for a year and that any player found to have bet on his own team would be barred for life.