They Played the Game by Norman L. Macht

Author:Norman L. Macht [Macht, Norman L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: SPO003030 Sports & Recreation / Baseball / History
Publisher: University of Nebraska Press

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Barney McCosky

Venice, Florida, December 1991

This left-handed batter’s level swing produced over-.300 batting averages in six of his first seven years and a career .312 over eleven seasons (1939–1953) with the Detroit Tigers, Philadelphia Athletics, and Cleveland Indians. He served three years in the navy and missed one year following a crippling back injury in 1948 that limited his playing time and effectiveness for the rest of his career. Sitting on the patio of his canal-front home, we were accompanied by his close friend and 1940 Tigers teammate, catcher Billy Sullivan Jr.

I was born in Coal Run, Pennsylvania, five miles from Punxsutawney, in 1917. There were nine kids in the family, and I was the baby. My name was William, but I went by my middle name, Barney, all my life. My mother died when I was one, and an older brother and sister raised me. My father was a coal miner. I remember running down to meet him coming out of the hole in the ground with his lunch bucket, just like in the movies. When I was four, my brother moved to Detroit and brought the family there.

My brothers played sandlot ball, and they were all right-handed batters. When I was about eight, they turned me around to bat left-handed, and I did from then on. It doesn’t matter if you do everything else right-handed; you can still bat left-handed, and it’s a step and a half closer to first base.

Sullivan: And with a man on first, you’ve got this beautiful big hole to pull the ball through.

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