Gordon Stanley "Mickey" Cochrane (April 6, 1903 – June 28, 1962), nicknamed "Black Mike," was an American professional baseball player, manager, and coach. He played in Major League Baseball as a catcher for the Philadelphia Athletics and Detroit Tigers. Cochrane was considered one of the best catchers in baseball history and is a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame. In his first season as a manager, he led the Tigers to 101 wins. This was the most wins by a rookie manager for 27 years. Since then, six other managers have won 100 games in their first season.
Cochrane was born in Massachusetts and played multiple sports at Boston University. After college, he chose baseball over basketball and football. He made his major league debut in 1925, having spent only one season in the minor leagues. He was named the American League (AL) Most Valuable Player in 1928. He played in the World Series from 1929 to 1931. Philadelphia won the first two of those series, but Cochrane was criticized for allowing stolen bases when his team lost the 1931 series. His career batting average (.320) is still an MLB record for a catcher.
Cochrane’s career ended suddenly after a near-fatal head injury from a beanball in 1937. After his baseball career, he served in the United States Navy during World War II and ran an automobile business. Cochrane died of cancer in 1962. In 1999, The Sporting News ranked him 65th on its list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players.
Early life
Cochrane was born in Bridgewater, Massachusetts. His father, John Cochrane, moved to the United States from Omagh, County Tyrone, which is now part of Northern Ireland. His mother, Sadie Campbell, came from Prince Edward Island, Canada, where her family had previously moved from Scotland. He was called "Black Mike" because he was very competitive and determined. Cochrane studied at Boston University, where he played five sports and performed well in football and basketball. Although he believed he was a better football player than baseball player, professional football was not as popular as Major League Baseball at that time. Because of this, he joined the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in 1924.
Playing career
After one season in the minor leagues, Cochrane was promoted to the major leagues. He began playing for the Philadelphia Athletics on April 14, 1925, when he was 22 years old. He quickly became the starting catcher for the team, replacing Cy Perkins, who was one of the best catchers in the major leagues at that time. Cochrane was a left-handed batter, and his speed allowed him to sometimes bat first in the lineup. More often, he batted third, but his main job was to reach base so that strong hitters like Al Simmons and Jimmie Foxx could score runs. In May, he tied a 20th-century major league record by hitting three home runs in one game. He finished his first season with a .331 batting average and a .397 on-base percentage, helping the Athletics finish in second place.
By the start of the 1926 season, Cochrane was considered the best catcher in the major leagues. He won the American League Most Valuable Player Award in 1928, mainly because of his leadership and defensive skills. That year, he led the league in putouts, hit .293, and had 10 home runs and 58 runs batted in. Cochrane helped the Athletics win league championships in 1929, 1930, and 1931. During those years, he hit .331, .357, and .349, respectively. He played in all three World Series, winning the first two. However, some people blamed him for the Athletics’ loss in the 1931 World Series, when the St. Louis Cardinals, led by Pepper Martin, stole eight bases and won the series. In his book The Life of a Baseball Hall of Fame Catcher, author Charlie Bevis wrote that the Athletics’ pitchers may have also been partly to blame for the loss.
In 1934, Connie Mack began breaking up his team for financial reasons and put Cochrane on the trade block. The Detroit Tigers, who were also struggling financially, agreed to trade for him. Detroit’s owner, Frank Navin, had hoped to get Babe Ruth but instead got Cochrane. Navin immediately named Cochrane player-manager.
With the Tigers, Cochrane became known as a strong leader. He helped the team win the 1934 American League championship, their first in 25 years. The Tigers won 101 games, the most in the team’s history at that time, and Cochrane became the first rookie manager to achieve 100 wins. He often used Gee Walker, a right-handed batter, to play left field while left-handed batters Goose Goslin and Jo-Jo White rested. Cochrane’s leadership earned him the 1934 Most Valuable Player Award, even though Lou Gehrig had won the Triple Crown and had a much higher WAR rating than Cochrane. In 1935, Cochrane led the Tigers to another American League championship and helped them win the 1935 World Series against the Chicago Cubs, giving Detroit its first undisputed world championship. In late 1935, the Detroit Free Press suggested Cochrane might one day become the team’s president. However, his stress and pressure to join the Black Legion, a group active in Detroit, led to a nervous breakdown during the 1936 season.
On May 25, 1937, Cochrane’s playing career ended suddenly. He hit a home run in the third inning but was hit in the head by a pitch during his next plate appearance in the fifth inning. He was hospitalized for seven days and nearly died from the injury. This event led to calls for protective helmets for batters, but tradition prevented their use at the time. Doctors told him he could not play again, so he retired at age 34.
Over 13 seasons, Cochrane had a .320 batting average, hit 119 home runs, and had 830 runs batted in. He also had 1,652 hits, 1,041 runs scored, 333 doubles, 64 triples, 64 stolen bases, and a .478 slugging percentage. His .320 batting average is the highest for any catcher in major league history. His .419 on-base percentage is among the best in baseball history and the highest for catchers, aside from players in the Negro Leagues, like Josh Gibson. In 1932, he became the first major league catcher to score 100 runs and have 100 runs batted in during the same season.
Cochrane hit for the cycle twice in his career: on July 22, 1932, and August 2, 1933. In his first 11 seasons, he caught at least 110 games every year. He led American League catchers six times in putouts and twice each in double plays and fielding percentage.
After retiring as a player, Cochrane returned to manage the Tigers but lost his competitive drive. He managed for the rest of the 1937 season but was replaced in the middle of the 1938 season by Del Baker, a former catcher and coach. His overall managerial record was 348 wins and 250 losses, for a .582 winning percentage.
Later life and legacy
Cochrane served in the United States Navy during World War II, even though he had a head injury. He was promoted to the rank of lieutenant and assigned to Naval Station Great Lakes, where he was in charge of training new recruits and coached the baseball team. On July 7, 1942, Cochrane managed an All-Service team that played against an American League all-star squad at Cleveland’s Municipal Stadium. The American League team won the game, 5–0. Later during the war, Cochrane, now a lieutenant commander, held a similar role in the Pacific Theater.
In 1947, Cochrane became the third catcher to be honored in the Baseball Hall of Fame, following Roger Bresnahan and Buck Ewing. After the Athletics moved from Philadelphia to Kansas City in 1954 without retiring his uniform number 2, the Philadelphia Phillies honored him by selecting him for the Philadelphia Baseball Wall of Fame at Veterans Stadium. The Athletics’ plaques from that display were later moved to the Philadelphia Athletics Museum in Hatboro, Pennsylvania. The Tigers honored Cochrane by renaming National Avenue (behind the third-base stands of the old Tiger Stadium) Cochrane Avenue. Despite being in the Hall of Fame, the Tigers did not retire his uniform number No. 3. In 2018, the number was retired for Alan Trammell—22 years after Trammell’s retirement.
After World War II, Cochrane briefly worked in baseball, serving as a coach and then as general manager of the Athletics during the 1950 season, which was Mack’s final year as manager. He also owned an automobile business after his baseball career and sold it in the mid-1950s. A heavy smoker, Cochrane died in 1962 at the age of 59 in Lake Forest, Illinois, from lymphatic cancer.
In his book, The Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract, baseball historian Bill James ranked Cochrane fourth all-time among major league catchers. During MLB’s Centennial celebrations in 1969, he was honored as the greatest catcher of all time by being named to the All-Time Team. In 1999, he was ranked 65th on The Sporting News list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players and was considered for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team. Yankee Hall of Fame slugger Mickey Mantle was named after him.
In 2013, the Bob Feller Act of Valor Award recognized Cochrane as one of 37 Baseball Hall of Fame members for his service in the United States Navy during World War II.