Flint’s Hands
In 1896, Hugh Fullerton said in The Chicago Record:
“It is not hard to tell ‘Old Silver’ (Flint) is a ballplayer.”
Fullerton told a story about how a train carrying the catcher and the rest of the White Stockings had derailed during their “Southern tour” the previous season:
“The train jumped the track and several of the passengers were injured. Silver stood near the scene of the wreck watching the proceedings, when one of the surgeons who had tendered his services caught sight of Silver’s fists.
“’Too bad, my man, too bad,’ said the man with the scalpel, ‘but both those hands will have to come off.’”
King Kelly told Fullerton that Flint “had to shake hands with the doctor before the latter would believe that Silver’s hands were not knocked out in the wreck.”
Young’s Perfect Game
In 1910, The Boston Post said Napoleon Lajoie asked Cy Young about his 1904 perfect game while the Naps were playing a series in Boston.
“’Oh,’ remarked Cy in that native natural dialect that six years’ residence in Boston did not change, ‘there ain’t nothing to tell. Nothing much at any rate. They just ‘em right at somebody all the time that was all. Two or three drives would have been good, long hits if Buck (Freeman) and Chick (Stahl) hadn’t been laying for ‘em. I didn’t know nobody reached first until we were going to the clubhouse. Then Jim (Collins) told me.’”
Young beat the Philadelphia Athletics and Rube Waddell 3 to 0 on May 5, 1904; the third perfect game in MLB history; the previous two had both taken place 24 years earlier during the 1880 season–making it the first one thrown under modern rules.
Cobb’s Base Stealing
Before the 1912 season, Joe Birmingham, manager of the Cleveland Naps told The Cleveland News that Sam Crawford was the reason Ty Cobb was a successful base stealer.
“I haven’t made such a statement without considering the matter.”
Birmingham said:
“Put Sam Crawford up behind any one of a half dozen players in this league and their base stealing records would increase immensely…In the first place, every catcher is handicapped almost five feet in throwing to second when Sam is up. You know Sam lays way back of that home plate.
“A catcher would take his life in his hands if he dared get in the customary position behind the plate, for Sam takes such an awful wallop. Five feet doesn’t seem like a great distance, but when it is taken into consideration that a vast number of base stealers are checked by the merest margin of seconds, five feet looms up as considerable distance.”
Then there was Crawford’s bat:
“(He) wields a young telegraph pole. There are few players in baseball who could handle such a club. And Sam spreads that club all over an immense amount of air. It’s usually in the way or thereabouts. At least it’s a factor with which the catcher must always reckon. Finally, Sam is a left-handed batter. Any time a pitcher hurls a pitchout to catch Cobb stealing the catcher is thrown into an awkward position. He can’t possibly be set for a throw. There’s another portion of a second lost.”
Cobb and Crawford were teammates from 1905 through 1917; Cobb led the league in steals six times during that period.
Birmingham’s overall point was to suggest that Joe Jackson, of the Naps, would be a better base stealer than Cobb:
“Joe has shown more natural ability during his first (full) year in the league than Cobb did.”
Birmingham said Jackson was as fast going from home to first as Cobb and “No one can convince me to the contrary.”
While he said Jackson did not get the same lead off the base as Cobb, he said:
“When that is acquired you’ll find little Joey leading the parade or just a trifle behind the leader.”
In 24 season Cobb stole 897 bases; Jackson stole 202 in 13 seasons.
Baseball History Daily 
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