The Ultimate Philadelphia Athletics Reference Book 1901–1954

About the Book

Jack Coombs (1906-14) won three games in the 1910 World Series, an amazing accomplishment for any pitcher. (In three World Series he was lifetime 5-0.) That year he had gone 31-9 to pace the A’s and lead the league in victories. He was 28-12 the following season and 21-10 in 1912, clearly the best years of his fourteen-year-career. He spent four years with Brooklyn and finished up with Detroit. Lifetime in 355 games Jack was 159-110. After his playing days were over he became head baseball coach at Duke University and sent a number of players to the A’s during that time. Orge “Pat” Cooper (1946) a pitcher, not the comedian, who was one of those “Cup of Coffee” guys who saw action in one game, one inning and was never seen or heard from again in the majors. In the minors he pitched, played the outfield and first base and got into 622 games over ten years batting, of all things, .318. As a minor-league pitcher, he was 24-16. Arthur “Bunny” Corcoran (1915) was a member of the ’15 A’s. He was 0-4 in his one game at third base. Played just two minor-league campaigns (1920 at Norfolk and 1921 at Rocky Mount), played in 238 games and batted .230. Ensign “Dick” Cottrell (1913) spent small parts of five different years in the majors—and every one of them with a different team. With the A’s he was 1-0, with the rest of them, combined, he was 0-2. In four minor-league seasons, he won 34, lost 26. Why would someone give their kid a military rank as a first name? Stan Coveleski (1912) Hall of Famer, a native of Shamokin, PA, Stan started his fourteen-year career with the A’s in 1912 and, somehow, they let him get away after he went 2-1. In fact he spent four years in the minors and was twenty-seven before he was back in the majors to stay, mostly with Cleveland (1916-24). He also saw service with Washington and the Yankees. Lifetime in 450 games, Coveleski won 215, lost 142 with an ERA of 2.88. He was the brother of Harry Coveleski a very good southpaw major-league pitcher who appeared with the Phillies, Reds, and Tigers over nine years (1907-18). Ironically the two brothers never faced each other on the mound. The correct spelling of his last name was Coveleskie, but he never corrected anyone and, as a consequence, his Hall of Famer The Ultimate Philadelphia Athletics Reference Book 1901-1954 93 plaque has his last name spelled incorrectly. (The original spelling of his name was Kowalewski, he and his brother changed it legally). Stan Coveleskie shared the same name (and they spelled it right, too) not the same talents as the well-known Hall of Famer. Stan played in the minors for six seasons (1944-51), five of them in the Phillies farm system, one in the A’s organization. A catcher by trade, Coveleskie appeared in 346 games and batted .261. Homer Cox was signed as a catcher by the A’s in 1938 and spent the majority of his ten-year minor-league career in their organization. He played in 578 games and had a .301 lifetime batting average, but never really got out of the low minors. He batted .367 for Lexington in 1945 in eighty-four games, his best season. Martin “Toots” Coyne (1914) went zero for two in his one game for the A’s. No other pro record exists. Born and died in St. Louis. Jim Roy Crabb (1912) in seven games for the A’s he was 2-4, in two games with the White Sox to start the season, he was 0-1. Lifetime, one year, nine games. Spent seven seasons in the minors, winning seventy-six, losing seventy-one. Once lost twenty games playing for three different teams in 1914. George Craig (1907) no decisions in two appearances. He was a left hander. Was 6-5 in his one minor-league season. Roger “Doc” Cramer (1929-35) who belongs in the Hall of Fame and will never get there despite his twenty-year-career and lifetime batting average of .296. His best A’s year was 1935 when he batted .332 in 149 games. Cramer appeared in 2,239 games, had 2,705 hits and batted over .300 eight times

About the Author

Henry Roth (Ted) Taylor, a lifelong baseball fan, was the founding president of The Philadelphia Athletics Historical Society (1996–99), an educational foundation that was formed in 1995 to honor the memory and accomplishments of Philadelphia’s American League baseball team (1901–54). Widely regarded as an authority on baseball cards and sports memorabilia, Ted served as the “expert witness” in the Federal Anti-Trust suit filed in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia (Fleer vs. Topps) that revolutionized the entire baseball card industry. He wrote a weekly “Collectors Corner” column in The Philadelphia Daily News for twelve years (that column continues at www.tedtaylor.com) and was a long-time regular columnist for Sports Collectors Digest. He was an op ed columnist for four Philadelphia area weekly newspapers for a decade (1999–2009). Ted has written hundreds of magazine articles and has had three baseball-related books published—the most recent in 2009 The Philadelphia Athletics by the Numbers.or Let’s give Skeeter #2. He served as host of the nationally syndicated radio show “The Collectibles Hour” on Sports By-Line USA 63 times, and has frequently appeared as a baseball hobby expert on national and local TV. Ted was founding president of the Glenside PA Youth Athletic Club, Commissioner of the Keystone State Football League, first president of The Eastern Pennsylvania Sports Collectors Club and was copromoter of the Philadelphia Baseball Card & Sports Memorabilia Shows. He is Managing Partner, since 2005, of STAT Authentic LLC, Abington PA.—an authentication and appraisal company. A career educator, he has been a college teacher, baseball coach (at Ursinus and Spring Garden Colleges), administrator and athletics director (at Spring Garden and Philadelphia University). Later in his career, Ted served both the Fleer Corporation and The Score Board Inc. as a vice president and headed his own public relations and marketing firm. He then returned to education, teaching at Wissahickon High School, Ambler, PA for three years and has been an adjunct professor of Business Communications at Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia since 2000. Taylor is vice chairman of the board of Act II Playhouse, a professional equity theatre in Ambler, PA and a member of the board of directors for the Celestia Performing Arts Association of Horsham, PA. In addition to his three published sports books, Ted also wrote a best-selling cookbook with Jimmy Rubino Jr. Ralph’s Restaurant—100 Years and 100 Recipes. Ted is married, the father of four and grandfather of four, and lives with his wife Cindy in Abington, PA—and slips off to his Wildwood Crest NJ retreat whenever and as often as he can.