Baseball & Softball Codexery

Mickey Cochrane

Hall of Fame catcher with a .320 career batting average.

Last updated

Gordon Stanley "Mickey" Cochrane was an American professional baseball catcher and manager who played for the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers from 1925 to 1937.[1][2] Cochrane's nickname "Black Mike" came from his intense, combative style of play.[3][4]

Life and work

Cochrane was born on April 6, 1903, in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, the fifth of seven children of immigrants John Cochrane and Sadie Campbell.[2][4] After one minor league season, Cochrane made his major league debut with the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1925.[5][6] Cochrane was a catalyst in the Athletics' three consecutive pennants from 1929 to 1931, winning the World Series in 1929 and 1930.[2] In 1934, he became player-manager of the Detroit Tigers and led them to their first pennant in 25 years.[2][7]

Cochrane's playing career ended on May 25, 1937, when he was hit in the head by a pitch from Yankees pitcher Bump Hadley.[6][3] He served in the United States Navy during World War II, commissioned as a lieutenant.[8][6] Cochrane received the American League Most Valuable Player Award in both 1928 and 1934.[3][9]

What the cited sources add

The Baseball Almanac obituary reports that Cochrane was the American League's Most Valuable Player of 1928.[6] The Hall of Fame website quotes pitcher Lefty Grove saying, "Greatest catcher of them all, (Mickey) Cochrane was"[3] The same source quotes Tigers slugger Hank Greenberg stating, "We needed somebody to take charge and show us how to win and that’s what Mickey did"[3] Bevis's biography adds that Cochrane's only son, Gordon Jr., died on a battlefield in Europe in World War II.[2]

References

  1. Wikipedia, "Mickey Cochrane" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mickey Cochrane at Baseball Reference", Baseball-Reference.com (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  2. Bevis, "The Baseball Biography Project: Mickey Cochrane", Society for American Baseball Research. facts only, no text reused. sabr.org
  3. "Mickey Cochrane at The Baseball Hall of Fame", Baseballhall.org. facts only, no text reused. baseballhall.org
  4. Wikipedia, "Mickey Cochrane" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Bevis, "The Baseball Biography Project: Mickey Cochrane", Society for American Baseball Research; Bevis, "The Baseball Biography Project: Mickey Cochrane", Society for American Baseball Research; "Mickey Cochrane Obituary at Baseball Almanac", Baseball-almanac.com; Hawkins, "The Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia, Honoring a Detroit Legend, by Jim Hawkins, Dan Ewald, George Van Dusen, Sports Publishing LLC, 2002, ISBN 1-58261-222-6, ISBN 978-1-58261-222-5", Sports Publishing LLC, 2003; "Mickey Cochrane minor league statistics", Baseball-Refere en.wikipedia.org
  5. Wikipedia, "Mickey Cochrane" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mickey Cochrane at Baseball Reference", Baseball-Reference.com; "Pick Mickey Cochrane As Biggest Find Of The Season", The Southeast Missourian, 20 August 1925, p. 9 (original not read by us) en.wikipedia.org
  6. "Mickey Cochrane Obituary at Baseball Almanac", Baseball-almanac.com. facts only, no text reused. baseball-almanac.com
  7. Wikipedia, "Mickey Cochrane" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Hawkins, "The Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia, Honoring a Detroit Legend, by Jim Hawkins, Dan Ewald, George Van Dusen, Sports Publishing LLC, 2002, ISBN 1-58261-222-6, ISBN 978-1-58261-222-5", Sports Publishing LLC, 2003; "1934 World Series at Baseball Reference", Baseball-Reference.com; Whitt, "They Earned Their Stripes: The Detroit Tigers' All-Time Team, Detroit News, Sports Publishing LLC, 2001, ISBN 1-58261-365-6, ISBN 978-1-58261-365-9", Sports Publishing LLC, 2001-05-01; Loomis, "Don't Blame Casey Stengel For Inventing Platoon System" en.wikipedia.org
  8. Wikipedia, "Mickey Cochrane" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: "Mickey Cochrane Obituary at Baseball Almanac", Baseball-almanac.com; Hawkins, "The Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia, Honoring a Detroit Legend, by Jim Hawkins, Dan Ewald, George Van Dusen, Sports Publishing LLC, 2002, ISBN 1-58261-222-6, ISBN 978-1-58261-222-5", Sports Publishing LLC, 2003; Bedingfield, "Biography, Mickey Cochrane", Baseball in Wartime, April 13, 2007; Bedingfield, "Biography, Mickey Cochrane", Baseball in Wartime, April 13, 2007; Westcott, "Philadelphia's Top Fifty Baseball Players", University of Nebraska Press, 2013, p. en.wikipedia.org
  9. Wikipedia, "Mickey Cochrane" (CC BY-SA 4.0), which cites: Farrell, "Mack certain team to cop A.L. pennant", The Herald-Press, 1926-03-18, p. 7; Bevis, "The Baseball Biography Project: Mickey Cochrane", Society for American Baseball Research; "1928 American League Most Valuable Player Award voting results", Baseball-Reference.com; "Mickey Cochrane at Baseball Reference", Baseball-Reference.com; Hawkins, "The Detroit Tigers Encyclopedia, Honoring a Detroit Legend, by Jim Hawkins, Dan Ewald, George Van Dusen, Sports Publishing LLC, 2002, ISBN 1-58261-222-6, ISBN 978-1-58261-222-5", Sports Publish en.wikipedia.org

Each numbered sentence above was checked against the source it cites before publication. Sentences citing Wikipedia adapt text from the English Wikipedia article Mickey Cochrane (contributors), used under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is available under the same licence. Other sources were used for facts only; no text or images are copied from them.

More in Baseball & Softball

Leo DurocherLefty GroveKenesaw Mountain LandisKen Griffey Jr.Johnny BenchJohn McGrawJoe MorganJoe McCarthy (baseball manager)Jimmie FoxxJacob RuppertHonus WagnerHarry Hooper

Sources

Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.

Spotted an error? Know more?

Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced

Comments

Loading…
Open in the interactive codex →