“Colby Jack”
lie’s one of the greatest figures
that baseball has produced and
his work at Duke University has
been of a truly outstanding
nature.
By W. W. (“Cap”) Card
COLBY JACK,’' they dubbed
him, when John Wesley
Coombs
саше
from the Colby
College Campus to major league base¬
ball in 1906.
Sly derision may have lurked be¬
hind this nickname conferred upon
the strapping six-footer by the griz¬
zled veterans of the professional
diamond. For John Wesley Coombs
was among the first college graduates
to step directly into the big-time.
But it wasn’t long before this enger-
to-learn youngster, who saw light of
day in Legrande, Iowa, made the old-
timers — the hardened baseball critics
— sit up and take notice.
Cornelius McGillicuddy — we all
know him as Connie Mack — was sold
on John Wesley'Coombs the first time
he watched the collegian cut loose with
his fast one in a work-out at Shibe
Park, Philadelphia, one summer
morning in 1906.
‘‘Mr. Coombs will be pitching
regularly for our ball club,” Mr.
Mack told the eccentric Rube Wad¬
dell, who was an uninvited observer
when the rookie hurler first displayed
his wares before the crafty manager
of the Philadelphia Americans.
With the A’s Eight Seasons
And Coombs did pitch regularly
for the Athletics for eight seasons. He
became a member of that far-famed
pitching threesome of Coombs, Bender
and Plank. He helped the A’s to
three world championships— and he
set some records that American league
pitchers are still trying to break.
We said it didn't take Coombs long
to convince the baseball world that
he "had it.” On the first day of
September, 1906 — his first season with
the .Vs — "Colby Jack” pitched and
won the longest game on record in
the junior circuit.
It was a gruelling 24-inning strug¬
gle. Coombs and the A’s whipped
the Boston Red Sox, 4-1. Talk to
Jack today in his comfortable apart¬
ment on the campus of Duke Uni¬
versity, where he has built an enviable
reputation as a tutor of college ball¬
players, and he can recall for you
every tense situation that came up
in that thrilling marathon contest.
In 1910 — he, of course, was a star
in his own right by that time — “Colby
Jack” blanked American league op¬
ponents on 19 separate occasions to
establish a loop record for shut-outs.
The year 1910 was the same year
Coombs won 31 games — the most any
Athletics’ pitcher won until Robert
Moses Grove came along some two
decades later. And it was also the
year that Coombs captured three
World Series decisions within a five-
day span as the Mackmon triumphed
over the Chicago Cubs.
That Chicago club had that famous
double-play infield, featuring Tinker,
Evers and Chance. It was a real ac¬
complishment to whip them in the
days when defensive baseball meant
considerable more than it does now.
Four other big league moundsmen
have equalled Coombs’ performance
in the 1910 Series— Dinneen of Bos¬
ton, the great Christy Mathewson of
New York, Adams of Pittsburgh, and
Coveleskie of Cleveland.
Retired Because of Illness
Coombs remained with Mack and
the A’s through the 1914 campaign.
In 1915, ho hopped to the National
League and the Brooklyn Dodgers
where he enjoyed continued success.
But a siego of typhoid fever had
robbed him of some of his effective¬
ness. He retired to manage the Phila¬
delphia Phillies in 1919, and went to
Detroit as a pitcher-coach in 1920.
Then it was that the college coach¬
ing ranks made room for one of its
greatest figures. John Wesley Coombs
went back to the campus, this time
as a builder of young men to con¬
tribute to American youth from his
vast store of experience.
He became baseball coach at Wil¬
liams College in 1921 — remained at
that post through 1924. Princeton
I*Iioto from Blank * Slollor.
JOHN WESLEY COOMBS
claimed him as a coach of pitchers
from 1925 through 192S — and in 1929
he came to North Carolina and Duke
University.
The man who was a five-letter man
during his Colby career (baseball,
football, basketball, track, and ten¬
nis) proceeded to carrv the Blue
Devils to a foremost position among
the college baseball teams of the
nation.
Seven times since 1929, Coombs
coached teams have been champions
of North Carolina. Four times they
have carried off top honors in the
Southern Conference.
Over fourteen seasons, Duke, under
Coombs, has won 236 out of 309
games — a percentage of .763.
Proteges Make Good
He has watched with pardonable
pride as many of his young proteges
made good in professional baseball.
Bill Werbcr, now with the New York
Giants, was one of his greatest Duke
developments.
Other pupils were Lovill (Chubby)
Dean, a winner this year with the
Cleveland Indians; Hal Wagner,
catcher, and Lawrence (Crash) Davis,
infielder, both with the Athletics:
(Continued on jxi gc eighteen)
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