Eddie Collins Philadelphia-A 10/28/09

This entry catalogs a Sporting News Supplement of Philadelphia Athletics second baseman Edward Trowbridge Collins dated October 28, 1909 — printed at the close of the season in which the 22-year-old Columbia graduate had nailed down a regular spot in Connie Mack's infield. The player is Collins (1887–1951), the left-handed-hitting, right-handed-throwing keystone man whose 25-year career would produce 3,315 hits, six World Series appearances with Philadelphia and the White Sox, and four championships. By the time this supplement was distributed he was on the cusp of the four-pennant Athletics run of 1910–1914 that gave Mack his first dynasty. Collins is generally rated the best second baseman of the deadball era, ahead of Lajoie on defense and on-base skill if behind him on raw average. He died March 25, 1951 in Boston and was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1939, becoming one of the few subjects of these Sporting News supplements to receive his Cooperstown plaque while still in his prime years of front-office work.