Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty

[lucas80]

Just heard a great interview on NPR's On Point about Ty Cobb. There's been so much disinformation about Cobb, most of it originated from a biography written with very little help from Cobb. Large chunks of it were untrue, but the author found out that scandal and a fallen hero sells very well. I'd read snippets over the years that dispelled some of the myths, but this book seems to do it on a broad scale and forcefully. Yet, I still believed that Cobb was a racist, and Cobb played dirty. I will definitely read this book.
Here is a link to the author's website.

http://www.charlesleerhsen.com/aboutcobb.htm

 

[mstp1992]

Just heard a great interview on NPR's On Point about Ty Cobb. There's been so much disinformation about Cobb, most of it originated from a biography written with very little help from Cobb. Large chunks of it were untrue, but the author found out that scandal and a fallen hero sells very well. I'd read snippets over the years that dispelled some of the myths, but this book seems to do it on a broad scale and forcefully. Yet, I still believed that Cobb was a racist, and Cobb played dirty. I will definitely read this book.
Here is a link to the author's website.

http://www.charlesleerhsen.com/aboutcobb.htm

Cobb, I believe, enjoyed being the villain. I believe he was an angry man, and possessed some traits akin to a sociopath.

I also think there are stories about him that exaggerated his behavior.

 

[lucas80]

In the interview with the author he mentioned that Cobb stole home an amazing 54 times in his big league career. He also pointed out Cobb's hitting prowess was amplified due to the conditions they played in, and that many games would be played with using only one ball. By the end of the game the thing would have lost its shape, been stained with tobacco juice, and have been all scuffed up.

 

[HawkFantastic]

I've read a few books on Cobb. I don't know what's true or not, and I don't care. In the end, he didn't sound like a nice guy, but I enjoyed the read anyway.

If Cobb't hitting prowess was magnified due to conditions, were others magnified as well?

Baseball and our country are completely different now. I take what I read of people, the game, and our country and not paint them with the brush of today.

 

[ANYCHawk]

One of my most prized piece of memorabilia (probably third on my list) as there are only 600 of these left in the world.

 

[strummingram]

Ty Cobb was born and raised about 30 miles from where I live now- Royston, GA. There's lots of Cobb memorials. Apparently he was a pretty intense man. His childhood and adolescence was pretty interesting, too. His mother killed his father when he tried spying on her and her lover. He told her he was going away for business and he suspected she was cheating, so he came back and while he was checking on her, She thought he was a prowler and shot him (or some say her lover shot him). He was always trying to live up to his father's expectations. He was hazed pretty bad by the pros when he first went to the majors. But, he was competitive and had the passion unlike many others of the time. The Ken Burns PBS documentary Baseball has some great information on him. The film Cobb, with Tommy Lee Jones is also very good. He was very wealthy and invested well (not something many players who came up poor had the ability to do). He was very prejudice toward blacks, but he was born and raised during Reconstruction in northeast Georgia. He had marital problems and he was somewhat estranged from his children, too. He was somewhat altruistic with his wealth- He started the Cobb Memorial Hospital. Cobb also created the Ty Cobb Educational Scholarship.

 

[lucas80]

I've read a few books on Cobb. I don't know what's true or not, and I don't care. In the end, he didn't sound like a nice guy, but I enjoyed the read anyway.

If Cobb't hitting prowess was magnified due to conditions, were others magnified as well?

For the good hitters, yes. Cobb was a machine. He relentlessly practiced his craft. Baseball was in a deadball era, and to play in poor light with a tobacco stained ball that wasn't round anymore would have been a helluva thing to hit.

 

[CarolinaHawkeye]

He commonly referred to Babe Ruth as the n***** but later in life changed his tune on black players once commenting that Willie Mays may have been the best to ever play the game.