In lieu of actual baseball, I’ll be posting snippets that were cut from The Baseball Codes as a way of amusing myself and, hopefully, you. Today’s theme: intimidation.

One of Ty Cobb’s more famous marks was Hall-of-Fame third baseman Frank “Home Run” Baker of the Philadelphia A’s, who had the misfortune of reaching down with his bare hand to apply a tag to Cobb during a game in 1909. Cobb’s high kick left spike imprints in Baker’s arm, a play that drew instant condemnation in Philadelphia and quickly became a national story, earning Cobb detractors around the country. “Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men,” said Cobb. “It’s no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It’s a struggle for supremacy, survival of the fittest.”