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{{short description|American baseball player (1899–1976)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
|name=Earle Combs
|position=[[Center fielder]]
|image=EarleCombsGoudeycard.jpg
|bats=Left
|throws=Right
|birth_date=May 14, 1899
|birth_place=[[Pebworth, Kentucky]], U.S.
|death_date={{Death date and age|1976|7|21|1899|5|14}}
|death_place=[[Richmond, Kentucky]], U.S.
|debutleague = MLB
|debutdate=April 16
|debutyear=1924
|debutteam=New York Yankees
|finalleague = MLB
|finaldate=September 29
|finalyear=1935
|finalteam=New York Yankees
|statleague = MLB
|stat1label=[[Batting average (baseball)|Batting average]]
|stat1value=.325
|stat2label=[[Home run]]s
|stat2value=58
|stat3label=[[Run batted in|Runs batted in]]
|stat3value=633
|teams=
* [[New York Yankees]] ({{mlby|1924}}–{{mlby|1935}})
|highlights=
* 9× [[World Series champion]] ({{wsy|1927}}, {{wsy|1928}}, {{wsy|1932}}, {{wsy|1936}}–{{wsy|1939}}, {{wsy|1941}}, {{wsy|1943}})
|hoflink = National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
|hoftype = National
|hofdate=[[1970 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|1970]]
|hofmethod=Veterans Committee
}}
'''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-fielder|center field]] on the Yankees' fabled 1927 team (often referred to as [[Murderers' Row]]). He is one of six players on that team who have been inducted into the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]]; the other five are [[Waite Hoyt]], [[Herb Pennock]], [[Tony Lazzeri]], [[Lou Gehrig]] and [[Babe Ruth]].

Combs led the league in [[triple (baseball)|triples]] three times and was among the top ten in the category in several other seasons. He suffered a fractured skull and other injuries from a crash into an outfield wall in 1934, then retired after another injury the next season. Nicknamed "the Kentucky Colonel", Combs was known as a gentleman on and off the field. He remained in baseball as a coach for many years after his retirement as a player.

==Biography==

===Early years===
Combs was born in [[Pebworth, Kentucky|Pebworth]], [[Owsley County, Kentucky]]. As a child, he played baseball games with tree limbs as bats and with baseballs made out of string and the material of old shoes.<ref name=LOC>{{cite web|title=Remembering Earle B. Combs|url=http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r112:S28FE1-0021:|publisher=[[Library of Congress]]|access-date=December 29, 2014|archive-date=December 10, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191210114141/http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r112:S28FE1-0021:|url-status=dead}}</ref>

===College===
Combs left Pebworth in 1917 to enter [[Eastern Kentucky University|Eastern Kentucky State Normal School]] (now Eastern Kentucky University) in [[Richmond, Kentucky|Richmond]]. In those early days, Eastern prepared its students to become teachers. On completion of a two-year program, graduates were often employed in rural one-room schools. They were often responsible for forty or more students, ranging in age from six to teen-age in grades 1–8, so the work required much management skill.

In his first year at Eastern, Combs put on a stellar performance in a faculty-student baseball game and was encouraged to join the school team by Dr. Charles Keith (Dean of Men and baseball coach).<ref name=LOC/> He hit .591 at Eastern during his last season. After graduating from Eastern, Combs went back to his native Owsley County and taught in one-room schoolhouses in both Ida May and Levi.

===Early baseball career===
[[File:Earle b combs.jpg|right|thumb|225px|Combs with the Louisville Colonels]]
Combs continued to play baseball in his spare time. He played for [[Highsplint, Kentucky|High Splint]] (Harlan County coal company team) in the [[Pine Mountain League]] (summer of 1921) and hit .444. He also played [[semi-professional|semi-pro]] baseball for the [[Lexington, Kentucky]] based [[Lexington Reds]] of the [[Blue Grass League]]. It was in Lexington (in 1922) that Combs drew the attention of the [[Louisville Colonels (minor league baseball)|Louisville Colonels]] of the [[American Association (20th century)|American Association]]. After scouting him, Louisville offered him a contract which provided a salary that exceeded the $37 per month (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|37|1922}}}} today) he made as a teacher in Owsley County.

His Louisville debut was unsettling; he committed several outfield errors. The last one gave the opposition the two runs they needed to win the game. Distraught afterward, Combs said, "As I went after the dropped ball I was tempted to keep right on going, climb the fence and not stop running until I got to Pebworth." He had married Ruth McCollum, his high school sweetheart, the year before and was concerned about his future.

Joe McCarthy, the manager of the Colonels and later his manager with the Yankees, knew what Combs could do and told him, "Look, if I didn't think you belonged in center field on this club I wouldn't put you there, and I'm going to keep you there." Combs soon found his stride,<ref name=sabr/> hitting .344 in 1922 and .380 in 1923 for the Colonels and also earning a reputation for speedy ball-hawking in the outfield and reckless base- stealing on offense.

===Major league years===
In 1924, the [[New York Yankees]] won a spirited bidding war and bought Combs' contract for $50,000 (${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|50000|1924}}}} in current dollar terms). This was a rather large sum at that time, but it bore fruit for the Yankees as Combs proved an immediate success in New York. In his rookie season (summer of 1924), Combs played center field and hit .400 before breaking an ankle sliding into home plate at [[Cleveland, Ohio|Cleveland]]'s [[League Park]] on June 15. Except for one pinch-hitting appearance, he saw no more action that rookie season.

The following year, manager [[Miller Huggins]] made Combs the Yankees' [[leadoff]] hitter. He held this position for the remaining eleven years of his playing career. He hit .342 and scored 117 [[run (baseball)|runs]] in 1925. In his best year (1927), he hit .356 with 231&nbsp;hits, 131 runs scored, 36 doubles and a league-leading 23 triples. He led the league in triples again the next year, batting&nbsp;.310 and finishing sixth in Most Valuable Player voting. He hit .345 in 1929, then .344 in 1930, again leading the league in triples.<ref name=BR>{{cite web|title=Earle Combs Statistics and History|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/combsea01.shtml|publisher=[[Baseball-Reference.com]]|access-date=December 29, 2014}}</ref>

Combs suffered a serious accident in July 1934. On a 100+-degree day at [[St. Louis]]' [[Sportsman's Park]], he crashed into the outfield wall going for a fly ball, sustaining a fractured skull, a broken shoulder and a damaged knee. He was reportedly near death for several days, and was hospitalized for more than two months. The next season, he attempted a comeback but suffered another serious injury. That injury, coupled with the knowledge that the Yankees were set to bring up a rookie center fielder named [[Joe DiMaggio]] the next season, led to Combs' decision to retire at the age of 36.

For his career Combs hit .325, had an on-base average of .397 and averaged nearly 200 hits, 75 walks and only 31&nbsp;strikeouts a season. He was a part of three [[World Series]] championships (in [[1927 World Series|1927]], [[1928 World Series|1928]] and [[1932 World Series|1932]]). He also set the Yankees' team record for most triples in a season (23 in 1927). He hit no lower than .282 in any of his eleven seasons, and scored no fewer than 113 runs from 1925 through 1933. In four World Series, Combs hit .350 with a .443 on-base average. He averaged 17 triples a season, and had a lifetime fielding percentage seven points better than the league average.

[[File:Earle Combs HOF Plaque.JPG|thumb|195px|Combs' plaque in the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]].]]
 
[[Miller Huggins]] once said, "If you had nine Combs' on your ball club, you could go to bed every night and sleep like a baby". [[Joe McCarthy (manager)|Joe McCarthy]] (another longtime Yankee manager) said, "They wouldn't pay baseball managers much of 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."<ref>{{Citation |last=Partin |first=Clyde |title=Earle Bryan Combs, 1899- 1976 |url=http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/NASSH_Proceedings/NP1985/NP1985zt.pdf |access-date=7 Apr 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402011100/http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/NASSH_Proceedings/NP1985/NP1985zt.pdf |url-status=unfit |archive-date=2 Apr 2012}}</ref> American sportswriter and baseball historian [[Fred Lieb]] wrote of Combs, "If a vote were taken of the sportswriters as to who their favorite ballplayer on the Yankees would be, Combs would have been their choice."<ref name=sabr>{{cite web|url=http://bioproj.sabr.org/bioproj.cfm?a=v&v=l&pid=2702&bid=143 |title=Earle Combs: The Baseball Biography Project |publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]]|first=Ralph |last=Berger |access-date=2010-04-08}}</ref>

After his retirement as a player, he remained in the game as a coach for almost two decades. He was offered a coaching job with the Yankees in 1936, and started his new position by instructing his replacement (DiMaggio) on the nuances of [[Yankee Stadium (1923)|Yankee Stadium]]'s outfield. He coached for the Yankees through 1944, for the [[St. Louis Browns]] in 1947 and for the [[Boston Red Sox]] (1948–1952). When he announced his retirement from the Boston coaching staff in March 1953, he said that he was going to spend more time with family and his Kentucky farm.<ref name=Sarasota>{{cite news|title=Earle Combs retires after 32 years as player, coach|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1798&dat=19530330&id=qgEdAAAAIBAJ&sjid=NYoEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2128,2916130|access-date=December 29, 2014|work=[[Sarasota Journal]]|date=March 30, 1953}}</ref> He returned to coaching for the [[Philadelphia Phillies]] in 1954.<ref name="Levy">{{cite news |last1=Levy |first1=Sam |date=March 18, 1954 |title=Combs, back as Phillies coach, recalls days under McCarthy |url=https://www.genealogybank.com/doc/newspapers/image/v2%3A1477BBDEA50EB75C%40GB3NEWS-15A3B05083E379D6%402434820-15A3A83F0CE00C46%4042-15A3A83F0CE00C46?clipid=wbdukmswsiblzhfaybaxnouwjyhallcc_ip-10-166-46-188_1732490721499 |access-date=2024-11-24 |work=[[Milwaukee Journal]] |page=Part 2, 15 |via=Genealogy Bank}}</ref>

===Life after baseball===
After retiring from baseball in 1954, Combs returned to his 400-acre farm in [[Madison County, Kentucky|Madison County]]. He served as the Kentucky state banking commissioner during Governor (and former Baseball Commissioner) [[Happy Chandler|A. B. 'Happy' Chandler's]] second administration (1955–1959), and on Eastern's Board of Regents (1959–1975). In November 1962, he laid the foundation stone for Earle B. Combs Hall, a dormitory at Eastern. In June 1970, the Little League field at [[Irvine-McDowell Park]] in Richmond was named in his honor. In 2006, he was inducted as a charter member of Eastern's Athletics Hall of Fame, and the university provides an athletic scholarship in his honor each year.

Combs was selected for induction into the [[Baseball Hall of Fame|Hall of Fame]] in 1970 by the [[Veterans Committee]]. When he learned of the honor, he said "I thought the Hall of Fame was for superstars, not just average players like me."<ref name="Cohen2012">{{cite book|last=Cohen|first=Robert W.|title=The 50 Greatest Players in New York Yankees History|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r_rfS1mKpacC&pg=PA83|access-date=December 29, 2014|year=2012|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-0-8108-8393-2|page=83}}</ref> [[Sabermetrics|Sabermetrician]] [[Bill James]] has listed Combs as one of ten examples of Hall of Fame inductees who do not deserve the honor.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Dubner |first=Stephen J. |date=2008-04-01 |title=Bill James Answers All Your Baseball Questions |url=https://freakonomics.com/2008/04/bill-james-answers-all-your-baseball-questions/ |access-date=2024-11-24 |website=Freakonomics |language=en}}</ref>

Combs and his wife Ruth (1901–1989) had three sons, Earle Jr, Charles and Donald. After a long illness, he died on July 21, 1976, in [[Richmond, Kentucky]] at age 76.<ref>{{cite news |title=Earle Combs, Baseball Figure of 1920s, Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-advocate-messenger-obituary-for-earl/177521383/ |access-date=July 26, 2025 |work=The Advocate-Messenger |agency=[[Associated Press]] |date=July 22, 1976 |location=[[Danville, Kentucky]] |pages=1, 6|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref> He is interred in the Richmond Cemetery.<ref name=sabr/>

===Career statistics===
{|class="wikitable"
|-
|Years
|Games
|[[Plate appearances|PA]]
|[[At bat|AB]]
|[[Run (baseball)|R]]
|[[Hit (baseball)|H]]
|[[Double (baseball)|2B]]
|[[Triple (baseball)|3B]]
|[[Home runs|HR]]
|[[Runs batted in|RBI]]
|[[Stolen bases|SB]]
|[[Base on balls|BB]]
|[[Strikeouts|SO]]
|[[Batting average (baseball)|AVG]]
|[[On-base percentage|OBP]]
|[[Slugging percentage|SLG]]
|[[Fielding percentage|FLD%]]
|-
|12
|1455
|6514
|5746
|1186
|1866
|309
|154
|58
|633
|98
|670
|278
|.325
|.397
|.462
|.974
|}
Among all players who played a thousand games in the first fifty years of the 20th century, Combs and his .325 career batting average was 23rd best.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://stathead.com/tiny/6bfSb |title=For combined seasons, from 1900 to 1950, At least 1000 Games, in the regular season, sorted by descending Batting Average. |accessdate=July 15, 2025|website=[[Sports Reference|Stathead]]}}</ref>

In four World Series covering 16 games (1926, 1927, 1928 and 1932), Combs batted .350 (21-for-60) with 17 runs, three doubles, one home run, 9 runs batted in, and 10 base on balls.<ref name="BR" />

==See also==
{{Portal|Biography|Baseball}}
*[[List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders]]
*[[List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders]]
*[[List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders]]
*[[List of Major League Baseball triples records]]
*[[List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*{{bbhof|combs-earle}}
*{{baseballstats|mlb=|espn=|br=c/combsea01|fangraphs=1002478|brm=combs-001ear}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20070627173729/http://earlecombs.com/ earlecombs.com] – Official website
*{{Sabrbio|Earle-Combs|Ralph Berger}}
*{{Find a Grave}}
:

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{{s-sports}}
{{succession box|title=[[Boston Red Sox]] [[Boston Red Sox coaches|first-base coach]]|years=1948–1952|before=[[Larry Woodall]]|after=[[Del Baker]]}}
{{s-end}}

{{1927 New York Yankees}}
{{1928 New York Yankees}}
{{1932 New York Yankees}}
{{1936 New York Yankees}}
{{1937 New York Yankees}}
{{1938 New York Yankees}}
{{1939 New York Yankees}}
{{1941 New York Yankees}}
{{1943 New York Yankees}}
{{New York Yankees HOF}}
{{1970 Baseball HOF}}
{{Baseball Hall of Fame members}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Combs, Earle}}
[[Category:1899 births]]
[[Category:1976 deaths]]
[[Category:National Baseball Hall of Fame inductees]]
[[Category:Major League Baseball center fielders]]
[[Category:New York Yankees players]]
[[Category:Baseball players from Kentucky]]
[[Category:Philadelphia Phillies coaches]]
[[Category:New York Yankees coaches]]
[[Category:Boston Red Sox coaches]]
[[Category:St. Louis Browns coaches]]
[[Category:Eastern Kentucky Colonels baseball players]]
[[Category:People from Owsley County, Kentucky]]
[[Category:Louisville Colonels (minor league) players]]
[[Category:20th-century American sportsmen]]