Earle Combs

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 (1924‑1935). Combs batted leadoff and played center field on the Yankees' fabled 1927 team (often referred to as Murderers' Row). He is one of four players on that team who have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The other three are Tony Lazzeri, Lou Gehrig, and "Babe" Ruth. Nicknamed "the... more

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 (1924‑1935). Combs batted leadoff and played center field on the Yankees' fabled 1927 team (often referred to as Murderers' Row). He is one of four players on that team who have been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. The other three are Tony Lazzeri, Lou Gehrig, and "Babe" Ruth. Nicknamed "the Kentucky Colonel", Combs was known as a great gentlemen on and off the field. Miller Huggins once said: "If you had men like Combs on your ballclub, you could go to bed every night and sleep like a baby." Joe McCarthy (another longtime Yankee manager) said: "They wouldn't pay baseball managers much a salary if they all presented as few problems as did Earle Combs." Said Babe Ruth: "Combs was more than a good ballplayer. He was always a first-class gentleman." American sportswriter and baseball historian Fred Lieb wrote of Combs, "If a vote... less