Collins, Eddie

Eddie Collins, in full Edward Trowbridge Collins, Sr., also called Cocky, (born May 2, 1887, Millerton, N.Y., U.S.—died March 25, 1951, Boston, Mass.), American professional baseball player who was one of the most proficient hitters and base stealers in the sport’s history.

Collins was raised in affluent circumstances in the suburbs outside New York City. He attended Columbia University, where he was the quarterback of the football team as well as the shortstop of the baseball team. While still in college, he began playing semiprofessional baseball under an assumed name. When his side job was uncovered by Columbia, he forfeited his senior year of eligibility. His moonlighting paid dividends, however, when a vacationing Philadelphia Athletics player saw Collins play and raved about him to Athletics manager Connie Mack. Mack signed Collins to a contract, and the young infielder played abbreviated seasons with the Athletics in 1906 and 1907 before joining the team full-time in 1908 after graduating from Columbia.

Nicknamed “Cocky”—not for any arrogance but for his supreme self-confidence in his abilities—Collins switched his primary position to second baseman in 1909, and his career subsequently flourished. In 1910 he had a .324 batting average and stole a league-high 81 bases. That season he helped the Athletics win their first World Series championship by batting .429 in the team’s five-game victory over the Chicago Cubs. The Athletics repeated as champions in 1911, as Collins batted .365 during the regular season. The Athletics captured a third title in 1913, and the following season Collins won the Chalmers Award, the equivalent of today’s Most Valuable Player (MVP) award, after leading the Athletics to their fourth American League (AL) pennant in five years (the team was denied a fourth championship by the Boston Braves in the 1914 World Series). After the 1914 season the financially troubled Mack began selling off his star players, and Collins was sent to the Chicago White Sox.

In his third year in Chicago, Collins helped the White Sox to their first 100-win season in club history and to a World Series victory over the New York Giants. In 1919 the White Sox won another AL pennant but were infamously defeated in the World Series by the Cincinnati Reds, as eight Chicago players—not including Collins—conspired to lose the series in what is known as the Black Sox Scandal. Collins batted a career-high .372 in 1920 and finished second in the balloting for the League Award, the successor to the Chalmers Award, in 1923 and 1924. However, his team successes were limited during the early to mid-1920s. He was a player-manager for the White Sox for part of the 1924 season and for the entirety of the following two seasons, but he was fired in 1926 after failing to guide the team to any place higher than fifth in the AL and was released as a player soon thereafter. He then signed with the Athletics, for whom he played sparingly (often as a pinch hitter) and primarily served as a coach until his final game appearance in 1930.

At the time of his retirement, his 3,315 career hits was the fifth highest total in baseball history, and his 741 stolen bases was the fourth best career total. He spent two seasons as a full-time coach for the Athletics (1931–32) before serving as the general manager of the Boston Red Sox from 1933 to 1947. Collins was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1939.