That wasn't how he wanted to play baseball. He thought he had a better chance to get on base and thus help his team if he played the way that he knew best, which was slapping the ball to all fields i.e. Ichiro. He was wrong, then. Why is he wrong? It's obviously better to get on base as much as possible so if Cobb thought he could get on base more often by hitting to all fields rather than swinging for the fences, shouldn't that be a good thing? the best result of any at-bat in any situation is a HR also (and I've made this point to OMC before), not only was the talent pool restricted to white players, but there also wasn't the financial reward for the elite athletes to become pro baseball players. If you were really good at baseball but could become a doctor, lawyer or business owner, your best option (financially) would be the latter. Today, there is no question which path you would try, as the financial gains as a pro baseball player are multiple times higher than most other occupations