Browsing through my 1934 set, I ran across this James “Rip” Collins aka “the Ripper”.
First baseman Ripper Collins had a career year for the 1934 World Champion Gas House Gang St. Louis Cardinals. He led the National League with 35 homers, 369 total bases and a .615 slugging percentage. He collected 200 hits and 40 doubles on the nose and played all 154 games of the season.
| Split | G | GS | PA | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | BB | SO | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1934 Totals | 154 | 154 | 662 | 600 | 116 | 200 | 40 | 12 | 35 | 128 | 2 | 57 | 50 | .333 | .393 | .615 |
Collins’ has a nice “clutch” 1934 card. His 1-3-5-5-6 is guaranteed to get an extra homerun chance with most base situations. On top of that, he has a 55-7 and a 15-7. His last 9 is at 61.
Interesting thing about Collins’ 1934 card is his 42-13. APBA deemed him good enough to get a 24-41 and a 26-37 but the 42 still nets him a K.
Fun numbers: 44-6, 22-5, 15-7
Just something I came up with while researching Ripper Collins… Nothing against New York Giants shortstop Travis Jackson but was there East Coast bias in the 1934 MVP voting?
Three of the top five were New York Giants players. Mel Ott, who finished fifth actually has better numbers than his teammates. Yes, I know I wasn’t there so I’m not a fair judge but Travis Jackson (.268/.316/.436) and Jo-Jo Moore (.331/.370/.486) both finished ahead of Collins in the voting. The Jackson ballot puzzles me the most even though he does play a more demanding position.
Of course, Collins’ teammate Dizzy Dean won it handily with his 30-7 record and a 2.66 ERA.
