Earle Combs
| Earle Combs | |||
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| Center fielder | |||
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Born: May 14, 1899 Pebworth, Kentucky |
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Died: July 21, 1976 (aged 77) Richmond, Kentucky |
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| MLB debut | |||
| April 16, 1924, for the New York Yankees | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| September 29, 1935, for the New York Yankees | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .325 | ||
| Home runs | 58 | ||
| Runs batted in | 632 | ||
| Teams | |||
| Career highlights and awards | |||
| Member of the National | |||
 Baseball Hall of Fame
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| Inducted | 1970 | ||
| Election Method | Veteran's Committee | ||
Earle Bryan Combs (May 14, 1899 – July 21, 1976) was an American professional baseball player who played his entire career for the New York Yankees (1924–35). Combs batted leadoff and played center field on the Yankees' fabled 1927 team (often referred to as Murderers' Row). He is one of six players on that team who have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame; the other five are Waite Hoyt, Herb Pennock, Tony Lazzeri, Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth.
Combs led the league in triples three times and was among the top ten in the category in several other seasons. He suffered a fractured skull and other injuries from a crash into an outfield wall in 1934, then retired after another injury the next season. Nicknamed "the Kentucky Colonel", Combs was known as a gentleman on and off the field. He remained in baseball as a coach for many years after his retirement as a player.
Combs was born in Pebworth, Owsley County, Kentucky. As a child, he played baseball games with tree limbs as bats and with baseballs made out of string and the material of old shoes.
He left Pebworth in 1917 to enter Eastern Kentucky State Normal School in Richmond, Kentucky. In those early days, Eastern prepared its students to become teachers. On completion of a two-year program, graduates were often employed in rural one-room schools. They were often responsible for forty or more students, ranging in age from six to teen-age in grades one through eight, so the work required much management skill.
In his first year at Eastern, he put on a stellar performance in a faculty-student baseball game and was encouraged to join the school team by Dr. Charles Keith (Dean of Men and baseball coach). He hit .591 at Eastern during his last season. After graduating from Eastern, Combs went back to his native Owsley County and taught in one-room schoolhouses in both Ida May and Levi.
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