Legend of Baseball : Eddie Collins

Hall of Fame Major League Baseball Player. Born in Millerton, New York, at age 19, he joined the Philadelphia Athletics as a second baseman in 1906. From 1910 to 1914, with the A's he won four of five AL pennants and three World Titles, After the 1914 season, he was sold to the Chicago White Sox where he played for the next twelve seasons including the 1919 Word Series Black Sox Scandal. In 1924, he was named player manager of the Sox and guided them to winning records. He was released by Chicago following the 1926 season and rejoined on the A's as a coach and player, mostly as a pinch-hitter. He ended his career with a .333 batting average, 3315 hits, 47 homeruns, 1300 runs batted in and holds the American League record for service, at 25 seasons. In 1939, he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and was inducted into the Columbia University Athletics Hall of Fame in 2005. He died in Boston, Massachusetts.
Edward Trowbridge Collins, Sr. (May 2, 1887 – March 25, 1951), nicknamed "Cocky", was an American Major League Baseball second baseman, manager and executive. He played from 1906 to 1930 for the Philadelphia Athletics and Chicago White Sox.
At the end of his career, he ranked second in major league history in career games (2,826), walks (1,499) and stolen bases (744), third in runs scored (1,821), fourth in hits (3,315) and at bats (9,949), sixth in on base percentage (.424), and eighth in total bases (4,268); he was also fourth in AL history in triples (187). He still holds the major league record of 512 career sacrifice hits, over 100 more than any other player. He was the first major leaguer in modern history to steal 80 bases in a season, and still shares the major league record of six steals in a game, which he accomplished twice in September 1912. He regularly batted over .320, retiring with a career average of .333. He also holds major league records for career games (2,650), assists (7,630) and total chances (14,591) at second base, and ranks second in putouts (6,526). Under the win shares statistical rating system created by baseball historian and analyst Bill James, Collins was the greatest second baseman of all time.

A native of Millerton, New York, Collins was a graduate of Columbia University (where he was a member of Beta Theta Pi Fraternity), at a time when few Major League players had attended college.
As a player, Collins was renowned for his solid batting skills and speed on the basepaths.
He broke into the majors in 1906 with the Philadelphia Athletics and by 1909 was a full-time player. That season, he registered a .347 batting average and 67 steals. The following year, Collins stole a career-high 81 bases and played on the first of his four World Series championship teams.