Our love with Wagner

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Posted By: jay behrens

Fielding is a rela nebulous thing. If you look at the errors, Ozzie Smith doesn't look that great. He commited 281 errors with approximately 13k chances in 19 years. Cal Ripken on the other hand made 225 errors on 10k chances in 21 years. No one would would ever confuse Ripken with a great fielding SS, yet according to to these numbers, he was.

Part of the reason that Ozzie's numbers don't look great is because his range was such that he could get to balls that no other SS could get to. Ozzie had 684 chances per year, where as Ripken only had 487. That's more than hit a game getting past Ripken that Ozzie Smith turns into an out.

I'm willing to be that Cobb's range was much greater than that of Ruth's. You also need to factor in changes in equipment. Gloves had improved from the time Cobb came into the game until Ruth retired. Parks had also change dramtically in this time too.

I will agree with you that I probably won't change Bryan' mind since his dislike for Ruth seems to be for the type of type he was and not as a player. Which doesn't make a lot sense since Cobb was a truly dispicable person on so many more levels than Ruth.

Jay

My place is full of valuable, worthless junk.