League and American League in home runs (1901 and 1908). He was among the AL leaders in hits, RBI, extra base hits, slugging percentage and total bases for 11 consecutive years, from 1905 to 1915. Using Baseball-Reference.com's "Gray Ink Test", which awards points based on how often a player is among the league batting leaders, Crawford ranks as the ninth in baseball history. He finished his career with 2,961 hits and a .309 batting average. He ranks fifth on the Detroit Tigers all-time hits list with 2,466 hits as a Tiger. Ed Barrow, who managed Crawford in his first two years with Detroit, and went on to convert Babe Ruth to an outfielder as general manager of the Yankees, once said that there never was a better hitter than Crawford. One of his contemporaries, Fielder Jones, said of Crawford: "None of them can hit quite as hard as Crawford. He stands up at the plate like a brick house and he hits all the pitchers, without playing favorites." Rivalry with Ty Cobb Sam Crawford and Ty Cobb were teammates for parts of 13 seasons. They played beside each other in right and center field, and Crawford followed Cobb in the batting order year after year. Despite this, the two had a complicated relationship. When Cobb entered the major leagues with the Tigers in 1905, Crawford was one of the Detroit veterans who bullied Cobb. Cobb, a volatile personality, took it personally. However, Cobb soon became established as the best hitter in the game and became more accepted on the Tigers team as they won AL championships in 1907, 1908, and 1909. During this time, Cobb and Crawford had a student-teacher relationship. In interviews late in life with Al Stump, Cobb told of studying Crawford's base-stealing technique and of how Crawford would teach him about pursuing fly balls and throwing out base runners. Cobb said that he would always remember Crawford's kindness. The student-teacher relationship gradually changed to one of jealous rivals. Cobb was unpopular with his teammates, and as he became the biggest star in baseball, Crawford was unhappy with the preferential treatment given Cobb. Cobb was allowed to report late for spring training and given private quarters on the road – privileges not offered to Crawford. The competition between the two was intense. Crawford recalled that, if he went three for four on a day when Cobb went hitless,