sports department of the Providence Journal. Batchelor career in journalism actually began as a general reporter with The Providence Journal, covering local fires, crime, and social events. He eventually was assigned to sports stories and became the paper's sporting editor. Batchelor recalled that his assignment to sports came after the Journals sports writer "went off the deep end," leading Batchelor to say that he credited "booze for any success I had in life." Sportswriter in Detroit In 1906, Batchelor was hired by the Detroit Free Press at a salary of $25 per week. He began as a general reporter in Detroit before being assigned to assist the paper's sports editor, Joe S. Jackson. Batchelor became the paper's sports editor in 1910 when Jackson left Detroit to become the sporting editor of The Washington Post. Batchelor covered the Detroit Tigers from 1907 to 1917 during the years when Ty Cobb dominated the sport. Batchelor wrote extensively about Cobb, and the two became friends. Well into his 80s, Batchelor insisted that Cobb was the greatest ball player of all time. Interviewed in 1939, Batchelor said, "There never was such a combination of brains and skill. Others might have been able to imagine the plays Cobb made, but only Cobb could execute them." When asked by The Sporting News in 1965 to pick his all-time American League All-Star team, Batchelor emphasized his view that Cobb was the greatest player of all-time: "He was the best two players I ever saw." In 1916, Cobb became angry over a call during a game in which Batchelor was acting as the official scorer. Batchelor ruled that a line drive to the shortstop by Tris Speaker was a hit, costing Cobb percentage points in the race for the American League batting championship. Batchelor later recalled that the ball was hit so hard that it nearly turned the shortstop (Donie Bush) around, but Cobb wrote a six-page letter to Batchelor stating that "if Batchelor didn't value his friendship any more than that—to aid the opposition—then he was through talking to him." The two did not speak for two years after the incident. One of the highlights of Batchelor's career came in 1912 when the Detroit Tigers went on strike to protest the suspension of Cobb. The team was in Philadelphia when the players went on strike, and manager Hughie Jennings spent the morning visiting Philadelphia's sandlots to recruit