Vanderbilt Cup Races

The Planned Match Race

Tyrus (Ty) Cobb of the Detroit Tigers and Napoleaon (Nap) Rucker of the Brooklyn Superbras (forerunner of the Brooklyn Dodgers) both hailed from Georgia and shared an interest in the automobile.  To determine the "Speedway Championship of the big leagues" a match race between the two was scheduled for fall, 1910 at the Atlanta Speedway.   (Early County News Sept. 29, 1910)

Cobb at the time was a favorite to win that year's batting championship.

Winning the batting championship earned the winner a Chalmers automobile that Cobb had his eye on and probably would drive in the match race.  Cobb did win the championship but due to valid arguments brought by others a tie was declared and a second car was awarded to Cobb's rival, Nat Lajoie (Early County News Sept. 29, 1910)

Nap Rucker, noted as one of the National League's best left-handed pitchers, owned a Buick which was thought to be his auto of choice for the match race against Cobb.

Early County News Sept. 29, 1910

The Vanderbilt Connections

Prior to the race an official of the Abbott-Detroit automobile company offered Cobb the use one its models so a Detroit player could win with a Detroit car.  The particular car offered was the "Abbott White Ghost" which ran in the 1910 Massapequa Sweepstakes, one of the preludes to that year's Vanderbilt Cup Race.   (San Diego Union and Daily Bee Oct. 30, 1910)

Prior to the Cobb-Rucker match race, Mortimer Roberts drove the Abbott-Detroit in the Massaqequa Sweepstakes and finished second.  (vanderbiltcupraces.com)

The #53 Abbott-Detroit car in the Massapequa Sweepstakes.  (vanderbiltcupraces.com)

The Match Race Excitement

Over three days in early November Cobb and Rucker were scheduled to compete against one another in three 10 mile heats.  (Atlanta Georgian and News Oct. 22, 1910)

The Race That Never Happened

However after much hype, Cobb was ordered by a Detroit Tiger team official not to race.  (Atlanta Semi-Weekly Journal Nov. 4, 1910)

The car Nap Rucker was to race against Ty Cobb.  The caption notes that following the death of a driver in practice the big leaguers decided racing to be too strenuous and decided to stick to baseball.   (Baseball Magazine)

The driver that had died was Al Livingstone, the "Californian dirt eater" (named for his daredevil racing tactics), winner of the Elgin trophy and participant in the 1910 Vanderbilt Cup Race. 

Livingstone died after losing control of his National automobile during a practice run.  Two days after his death his funeral was held in another part of the city.  At the same time at the Atlanta Speedway fans and drivers paid their respects with the races beginning once again immediately afterwards.  (The New York Times Nov. 4, 1910)

"Danger Is Too Great"

The reason as noted here for denying Cobb the opportunity to race was that "the danger is too great and Detriot can't afford to take the chance".   (Montpelier Morning Journal Nov. 7, 1910)

But also around the same time Cincinnati promoter D. A. Fletcher offered the game's best players a sign-on bonus to play in an "All-Star Championship" series in the off-season.  (The Washington Post Nov. 4, 1910)

Initially supporting this series, after the National League banned its players from participating, Cobb probably assumed the organizer of the new series would not come up with the bonus money and did not want to jeopardize his current standing with Detroit's management by participating in the match race.  

Barney Oldfield Also Not Permitted to Race

Barney Oldfield was also barred from entering the Speedway grounds . . . (Atlanta Semi-Weekly Journal Nov. 4, 1910)

. . . so that he could not perform in "defiance of the American Automobile Association ruling against him".   (Buffalo Evening News Nov. 4, 1910)

In any case and for whatever reason, Nap Rucker and Ty Cobb never did race against one another at the Atlanta Speedway.  (Baseball Magazine)