Kleiner’s Korner: Two American Pastimes Brought Together
This post commemorates the start of the 2020 baseball season by showing how automobiling has always been a significant part of America's favorite pastime. And for those of you who don't know, Kleiner's Korner commemorates the Pittsburgh Pirate great and NY Mets announcer, Ralph Kiner, whose post game segment "Kiner's Korner" was a fan favorite. Play Ball!
Art Kleiner
Christy Mathewson
New York Giants great Christy Mathewson in a Rambler. (Automobile Topics April 17, 1909)
Chalmer's Batting Champions
In 1910, Hugh Chalmers, President of the Chalmers Automobile Company offered a new luxurious Chalmers 30 automobile to the player with the highest batting average. Detroit Tiger baseball great, Ty Cobb, was a contender. (The Sporting News)
With one game to go and Cobb (with average of .383) out with an injury, Napoleon Lajoie of the Cleveland Indians went 8 for 9 (with 7 bunt hits) in a doubleheader ending his season with a .384 batting average. However, the American League's final statistics gave Cobb a .385 average. (Baseballhall.org) (thisgreatgame.com)
Controversy ensued (including the assertion that Lajoie's nearly perfect hitting was due to help from the opposing team) and Chalmers decided to give a car to both Cobb and Lajoie.
The following year Chalmers changed the way the award would be given - to the player who "should prove himself as the most important and useful player to his club and to the league . . ." in other words the Most Valuable Player. Notice the baseball diamond between the tables. (Baseballhall.org)
However, the Chalmers award lasted only a few more years.
One of Baseball's Greatest Players
Ty Cobb was a Chalmers fan and is reported to have owned 4 or 5 touring cars and racers beginning in 1909 when he participated in the New York - Atlanta Good Roads Tour, having been sought out by Hugh Chalmers. (firstsuperspeedway.com)
Cobb handled (owned?) a Chalmers-Detroit store in Augusta, GA with plans to permanently enter the automobile industry when his playing days were over. However, several businesses did not do well including the Ty Cobb Tire Co. started in 1919 and which went bankrupt in 1922. (Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nov. 10, 1909 and hemmings.com)
Automobile Topics November 13, 1909
Detroit Public Library
Brooklyn Daily Eagle Nov. 4, 1909
Automobile Topics Nov. 20, 1909
In a Grant automobile (Heritage Auctions)
1912 Chalmers (Detroit Public Library)
Hugh Jennings
Another Detroit Tiger baseball star of the times, Hugh Jennings, in a Studebaker E-M-F "30".
Cobbs and Jennings together in a baseball card inserted in Hassan cigarette packs. While a different company, Hassan was the name of the supplier of the road material for much of the Motor Parkway.
The Automobile Manufacturers' League
Detroit had a baseball league comprised of automobile manufacturers, The Automobile Manufactures' League. Here is the Packard team of 1905. (Automobile Topics Sept. 23, 1905)
This is the Aerocar team of 1907 which looks more like a college stunt of how many players can fit in a car! (The Motor Way July, 1907)
The Automobile to the Rescue
Automobile Topics, Sept, 1911
Baseball and Automobile Advertising (consumerguide.com unless otherwise noted)
Baseball celebrities have always been used in product advertising. Here are just a few examples used by the auto industry through the years.
Barney Oldfield and Joe Tinker of the Chicago Cubs - 1912 (Heritageautions)
Babe Ruth - 1926
Ted Williams - 1951
Yogi Berra - 1951
Mickey Mantle- 1961
Whitey Ford -1964
Reggie Jackson - 1978
Much more about Ty Cobb's role in the automobile industry can be found online including his significant involvement (and investment) with General Motors. Here's one such site to get you started.
Ralph Kiner - does anyone know where Kiner's Korner actually was and why it came to be known as that? (baseballdigest.com)
Comments
“Kiner’s Korner” was the name given to the bullpen of Forbes Field in PIttsburgh, which was in left field, and where Kiner hit many home runs. Before that, it was known as “Greenberg Gardens,” after Kiner’s predecessor Hank Greenberg.
The theme song of the Kiner’s Korner is called Flag of Victory Polka, written by Alvino Rey.
Another example of the affinity that Hugh Chalmers of the Chalmers Automobile Company had for baseball - attending the opening game of the 1916 season for the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League. From “American Motorist” of June, 1916.
Art-
The Detroit Public Library has quite a few photos of Ty Cobb his Chalmers and other vehicles in their archives.
https://digitalcollections.detroitpubliclibrary.org/islandora/search/catch_all_fields_mt%3A%28Ty%20Cobb%20Chalmers%29%20OR%20catch_all_fields_et%3A%28Ty%20Cobb%20Chalmers%29
Here’s another automobile related company sporting a baseball team: the Republic Rubber Company of NY entered its team in the Automobile Trades League in 1910. I wonder if any of the tires these players worked on ever made it onto an entry in a Vanderbilt Cup Race! Or if any of the players themselves made it into the big leagues - lol. Pictures are from the Detroit Public Library, article is from Automobile Topics of July 16, 1910. More on tires here in the races can be found here:
https://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/blog/article/the_tire_and_repair_stations_of_the_vanderbilt_cup_races
One more picture showing the company’s building in NYC.