Millerton’s Eddie Collins: The Hall-of-Famer with academic distinction

From Further Afield

Millerton’s Eddie Collins: The Hall-of-Famer with academic distinction
Jim Mackin Photo submitted

Baseball is back. The delay from the contract talks between owners and players is another one for the books. Starting the season a few weeks late is like a “rain delay” in a game between the Yankees and Boston. No one is leaving the stadium; America’s pastime is intact. Before the crack of the bat is heard when the season begins in mid-April, some local baseball lore is offered here for the enjoyment of fans and readers.

The baseball great Eddie Collins was born in Millerton and lived in the house on Main Street that is now the Millerton Inn restaurant and hotel at 53 Main St.

Some baseball writers consider Eddie Collins the greatest second baseman of all time. He was inducted into the Baseball Hall-of-Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., in only its fourth year of 1939. He was inducted that year along with George Sisler, Al Spaulding and Lou Gehrig.

Sisler and Spaulding along with Charlie Gehringer, Larry MacPhail and Barry Larkin all attended the University of Michigan.

Gehrig along with Collins, John Montgomery Ward, Walter O’Malley and Sandy Koufax all attended Columbia University. Thus, Columbia and the University of Michigan — until 2021 — are the institutions of higher learning that can claim association with the most players in the Baseball Hall of Fame, namely five each.

Collins graduated from Columbia’s traditional four-year undergraduate program. Gehrig and O’Malley attended Columbia but did not graduate. O’Malley (damn his eternal soul, say older Brooklynites, for sending the Dodgers to Los Angeles) attended Columbia Law School but switched to Fordham Law School.

Ward, a player-manager in the latter part of the 19th century, went to Penn State at age 13 but was kicked out for an infraction and later graduated from Columbia Law School.

Koufax took classes at Columbia in his rookie season of 1955 when he pitched for the Brooklyn Dodgers.

Jacob Ruppert Jr., who was the owner of the New York Yankees and acquired Babe Ruth from Boston, attended Columbia Grammar School and was accepted into Columbia, but went into the family brewery business instead. 

Collins had very impressive statistics of 745 stolen bases, 3,315 hits, and a .333 lifetime batting average. He is the only non-Yankee to be part of the same team winning five or more World Series. He is the only player to play on two teams for at least 12 seasons each. He is the only player to steal six bases in two separate games. His 516 sacrifice bunts is still the major league record.

The tie between Columbia and University of Michigan for the most students in the Baseball Hall of Fame was usurped in 2021 when the New York Yankee’s Derek Jeter, who attended the University of Michigan but did not graduate, was inducted.

Michigan’s six baseball Hall-of-Famers now trumps the five of Columbia University.

Notwithstanding this fact, the records of Eddie Collins continue to honor him and his hometown of Millerton.

 

Author and historian Jim Mackin is president of the Friends of Taconic State Park, which operates the Copake Iron Works Historic Site, one of the most intact examples of 19th century industrial iron making in the Northeast. Jim is also a New York City historian, co-leader of the Bloomingdale Neighborhood History Group and author of 2020’s highly acclaimed “Notable New Yorkers of Manhattan’s Upper West Side: Bloomingdale — Morningside Heights” (Fordham University Press).

Latest News

Classifieds - July 24, 2025

Automobiles For Sale

2004 Lexus ES 330 Sedan: Runs but needs some work. 176K miles. $2000. Call 860-435-0905 Leave message.
Services Offered
Hector Pacay Service: House Remodeling, Landscaping, Lawn mowing, Garden mulch, Painting, Gutters, Pruning, Stump Grinding, Chipping, Tree work, Brush removal, Fence, Patio, Carpenter/decks, Masonry. Spring and Fall Cleanup. Commercial & Residential. Fully insured. 845-636-3212.

Pets

LABRADOR ORPHAN wanted: as companion for RESCUE MIX (5 years). Sharon. 407-620-7777.


Keep ReadingShow less
Faculty Spanish lessons set to return next year

Webutuck’s Spanish for Educators program provided teachers at the district with weekly Spanish lessons intended to improve communication between teachers and students.

Photo Provided

AMENIA — The Webutuck Central School District will continue to offer the Spanish for Educators program, which instructs teachers on basic principles of the Spanish language, during the 2025–2026 school year, citing the program’s success during the last term.

Webutuck offered the optional class of ten weekly sessions to faculty members beginning in February as part of an effort to address communication issues between faculty and the high percentage of students with a limited command of the English language.

Keep ReadingShow less
Housing Board issues Silo Ridge condo plan recommendation

The entrance to the private Silo Ridge Field Club on Route 22 in Amenia.

Photo by Christine Bates

AMENIA — The Housing Board has considered an application from Silo Ridge and issued its recommendation to the Planning Board at a regular meeting on Thursday, July 17, to require that workforce housing regulations are met.

Because Silo Ridge is seeking to amend its Master Development Plan through an application to the Planning Board, and because the Silo Ridge Development consists of more than 10 dwelling units, workforce housing requirements must be accommodated either through construction of designated workforce housing units or through payment of a fee to the town to substitute for those units. Administration of workforce housing requirements is the responsibility of the Housing Board.

Keep ReadingShow less