Ty Cobb
Ty Cobb | |
---|---|
Atlanta, Georgia, U.S. | |
Batted: Left Threw: Right | |
MLB debut | |
August 30, 1905, for the Detroit Tigers | |
Last MLB appearance | |
September 11, 1928, for the Philadelphia Athletics | |
MLB statistics | |
Batting average | .366 |
Hits | 4,189 |
Home runs | 117 |
Runs batted in | 1,944 |
Stolen bases | 897 |
Managerial record | 479–444 |
Winning % | .519 |
Teams | |
As player
As manager | |
Career highlights and awards | |
| |
Member of the National | |
Baseball Hall of Fame | |
Induction | 1936 |
Vote | 98.2% (first ballot) |
Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886
Cobb is widely credited with setting 90 MLB records during his career.[3][4][5][6] His combined total of 4,065 runs scored and runs batted in (after adjusting for home runs) is still the highest ever produced by any major league player. He still holds several records as of the end of the 2022 season, including the highest career batting average (.366) and most career batting titles with 11 (or 12, depending on source).[7] He retained many other records for almost a half century or more, including most career hits until 1985 (4,189 or 4,191, depending on source),[8][9][10] most career runs (2,245 or 2,246 depending on source) until 2001,[11] most career games played (3,035) and at bats (11,429 or 11,434 depending on source) until 1974,[12][13] and the modern record for most career stolen bases (892) until 1977.[14] He still holds the career record for stealing home (54 times) and for stealing second base, third base, and home in succession (4 times), and as the youngest player ever to compile 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs. Cobb ranks fifth all time in number of games played, and committed 271 errors, the most by any American League (AL) outfielder.
Cobb's legacy, which includes a large college scholarship fund for Georgia residents financed by his early investments in Coca-Cola and General Motors, has been somewhat tarnished by allegations of racism and violence, primarily stemming from a couple of mostly discredited biographies that were released following his death.[15][16] Cobb's reputation as a violent man was fanned by his first biographer, sportswriter Al Stump, whose stories about Cobb have been discredited as sensationalized, and have largely proven to be fictional.[17][18][19][20] While he was known for often violent conflicts, he spoke favorably about black players joining the Major Leagues and was a well-known philanthropist.[16][21][22]
Early life
Cobb was born in 1886 in Narrows, Georgia, a small, unincorporated rural community of farmers. He was the first of three children born to William Herschel Cobb (1863–1905) and Amanda Chitwood Cobb (1871–1936).[23] Cobb's father was a state senator.[24]
When he was still an infant, his parents moved to the nearby town of
On August 8, 1905, Cobb's mother, Amanda, fatally shot his father, William, with a pistol that William had purchased for her.[16] Court records indicate that William Cobb had suspected Amanda of infidelity[35] and was sneaking past his own bedroom window to catch her in the act. She saw the silhouette of what she presumed to be an intruder and, acting in self-defense, shot and killed her husband.[36] Amanda Cobb was charged with murder and released on a $7,000 recognizance bond.[37] She was acquitted on March 31, 1906.[38] Ty Cobb later attributed his ferocious play to his late father, saying, "I did it for my father. He never got to see me play ... but I knew he was watching me, and I never let him down."
Cobb was initiated into Freemasonry in 1907, earning the 32nd degree in 1912.[39][40]
In 1911, Cobb moved to Detroit's architecturally significant and now historically protected Woodbridge neighborhood, from which he would walk with his dogs to the ballpark prior to games. The Victorian duplex in which Cobb lived still stands.[41]
Professional career
Early years
Three weeks after his mother killed his father, Cobb debuted in
As a rookie, Cobb was subject to severe hazing by his veteran teammates, who were jealous of the young prospect. The players smashed his homemade bats, nailed his cleats in the clubhouse, doused his clothes before tying knots in them, and verbally abused him.[44] Cobb later attributed his hostile temperament to this experience: "These old-timers turned me into a snarling wildcat."[45] Tigers manager Hughie Jennings later acknowledged that Cobb was targeted for abuse by veteran players, some of whom sought to force him off the team. "I let this go for a while because I wanted to satisfy myself that Cobb has as much guts as I thought in the very beginning," Jennings recalled. "Well, he proved it to me, and I told the other players to let him alone. He is going to be a great baseball player and I won't allow him to be driven off this club."[46]
The following year, 1906, Cobb became the Tigers' full-time center fielder and hit .316 in 98 games, setting a record for the highest batting average (minimum 310 plate appearances) for a 19-year-old (later bested by
In 1907, Cobb reached first and then stole second, third and home. He accomplished the feat four times during his career, still an MLB record as of 2022.[48][49] He finished the 1907 season with a league-leading .350 batting average, 212 hits, 49 steals and 119 runs batted in (RBI).[34] At age 20, he was the youngest player to win a batting championship and held this record until 1955, when fellow Detroit Tiger Al Kaline won the batting title while twelve days younger than Cobb had been.[48][50] Reflecting on his career in 1930, two years after retiring, he told Grantland Rice, "The biggest thrill I ever got came in a game against the Athletics in 1907 [on September 30]... The Athletics had us beaten, with Rube Waddell pitching. They were two runs ahead in the 9th inning, when I happened to hit a home run that tied the score. This game went 17 innings to a tie, and a few days later, we clinched our first pennant. You can understand what it meant for a 20-year-old country boy to hit a home run off the great Rube, in a pennant-winning game with two outs in the ninth."[51]
Despite great success on the field, Cobb was no stranger to controversy off it. As described in Smithsonian, "In 1907 during spring training in Augusta, Georgia, a black groundskeeper named Bungy Cummings, whom Cobb had known for years, attempted to shake Cobb's hand or pat him on the shoulder."[16] The "overly familiar greeting infuriated" Cobb, who attacked Cummings. When Cummings' wife tried to defend him, Cobb allegedly choked her. The assault was only stopped when catcher Charles "Boss" Schmidt knocked Cobb out.[52] However, aside from Schmidt's statement to the press, no other corroborating witnesses to the assault on Cummings ever came forward and Cummings himself never made a public comment about it. Author Charles Leerhsen speculates that the assault on Cummings and his wife never occurred and that it was a total fabrication by Schmidty. Cobb had spent the previous year defending himself on several occasions from assaults by Schmidt, with Schmidt often coming out of nowhere to blindside Cobb. On that day, several reporters did see Cummings, who appeared to be "partially under the influence of liquor," approach Cobb and shout "Hello, Carrie!" (the meaning of which is unknown) and go in for a hug. Cobb then pushed him away, which was the last interaction that anyone saw between Cobb and Cummings. Shortly thereafter, hearing a fight, several reporters came running and found Cobb and Schmidt wrestling on the ground. When the fight was broken up and Cobb had walked away, Schmidt remained behind and told the reporters that he saw Cobb assaulting Cummings and his wife and had intervened. Leerhsen speculates that this was just another one of Schmidt's assaults on Cobb and that once discovered, Schmidt made up a story that made him sound like he had assaulted Cobb for a noble purpose.[53] In 1908, Cobb attacked a black laborer in Detroit who complained when Cobb stepped into freshly poured asphalt; Cobb was found guilty of battery, but the sentence was suspended.[16]
In September 1907, Cobb began a relationship with
The following season, the Tigers finished ahead of the Chicago White Sox for the pennant. Cobb again won the batting title with a .324 average, but Detroit suffered another loss in the World Series. In August 1908, Cobb married Charlotte ("Charlie") Marion Lombard, the daughter of prominent Augustan Roswell Lombard. In the offseason, the couple lived on her father's Augusta estate, The Oaks, until they moved into their own house on Williams Street in November 1913.[56]
The Tigers won the AL pennant again in 1909. During that World Series, Cobb's last, he stole home in the second game, igniting a three-run rally, but that was the high point for him, finishing with a lowly .231, as the Tigers lost to Honus Wagner and the powerful Pirates in seven games. Although he performed poorly in the postseason, he won the
In the same season, Charles M. Conlon snapped the famous photograph of a grimacing Cobb sliding into third base amid a cloud of dirt, which visually captured the grit and ferocity of his playing style.[58]
1910: Chalmers Award controversy
Going into the final days of the 1910 season, Cobb had a .004 lead on
1911–1914
Cobb regarded baseball as "something like a war," future Tiger second baseman Charlie Gehringer said. "Every time at bat for him was a crusade."[61] Baseball historian John Thorn said in the book Legends of the Fall, "He is testament to how far you can get simply through will. ... Cobb was pursued by demons."
Cobb was having a tremendous year in 1911, which included a 40-game
I often tried plays that looked recklessly daring, maybe even silly. But I never tried anything foolish when a game was at stake, only when we were far ahead or far behind. I did it to study how the other team reacted, filing away in my mind any observations for future use.
—Ty Cobb in The New York Times[63]
Cobb led the AL that year in numerous other categories, including 248 hits, 147 runs scored, 127 RBI, 83 stolen bases, 47 doubles, 24 triples and a .621 slugging percentage. Cobb hit eight home runs but finished second in that category to Frank Baker, who hit eleven. He was awarded another Chalmers car, this time for being voted the AL MVP by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.
On May 12, 1911, playing against the
Describing his gameplay strategy in 1930, he said, "My system was all offense. I believed in putting up a mental hazard for the other fellow. If we were five or six runs ahead, I'd try some wild play, such as going from first to home on a single. This helped to make the other side hurry the play in a close game later on. I worked out all the angles I could think of, to keep them guessing and hurrying."
On May 15, 1912, Cobb assaulted a heckler, Claude Lucker (often misspelled as Lueker), in the stands in New York's Hilltop Park where the Tigers were playing the Highlanders. Lucker, described by baseball historian Frank Russo as "a Tammany Hall lackey and two-bit punk," often berated Cobb when Detroit visited New York.[65] In this game, the two traded insults with each other through the first couple of innings. Cobb at one point went to the Highlander dugout to look for the Highlanders' owner to try to have Lucker ejected from the game, but his search was in vain.[66] He also asked for the police to intervene, but they refused.[65] The situation climaxed when Lucker allegedly called Cobb a "half-nigger."[67] Cobb, in his discussion of the incident in the Holmes biography,[68] avoided such explicit words but alluded to Lucker's epithet by saying he was "reflecting on my mother's color and morals." He went on to state that he warned Highlander manager Harry Wolverton that if something wasn't done about that man, there would be trouble. No action was taken. At the end of the sixth inning, after being challenged by teammates Sam Crawford and Jim Delahanty to do something about it, Cobb climbed into the stands and attacked Lucker, who it turned out was handicapped (he had lost all of one hand and three fingers on his other hand in an industrial accident). Some onlookers shouted at him to stop because the man had no hands, to which Cobb reportedly retorted, "I don't care if he got no feet!"[69] According to Russo, the crowd cheered Cobb on in the fight.[65] Though extremely rare in the 21st century, attacking fans was not so unusual an activity in the early years of baseball. Other notable baseball stars who assaulted heckling fans include Babe Ruth, Cy Young, Rube Waddell, Kid Gleason, Sherry Magee, and Fred Clarke.[70]
The league
The strike ended when Cobb urged his teammates to return to the field. According to him, this incident led to the formation of a players' union, the "Ballplayers' Fraternity" (formally, the Fraternity of Professional Baseball Players of America), an early version of what is now called the Major League Baseball Players Association, which garnered some concessions from the owners.[74]
During his career, Cobb was involved in numerous other fights, both on and off the field, and several profanity-laced shouting matches. For example, Cobb and umpire Billy Evans arranged to settle their in-game differences through fisticuffs under the grandstand after the game. Members of both teams were spectators, and broke up the scuffle after Cobb had knocked Evans down, pinned him and began choking him. In 1909, Cobb was arrested for assault for an incident that occurred in a Cleveland hotel. Cobb got into an argument with the elevator operator around 2:15 a.m. when the man refused to take him to the floor where some of his teammates were having a card game. The elevator operator stated that he could only take Cobb to the floor where his room was. As the argument escalated, a night watchman approached and he and Cobb eventually got into a physical confrontation. During the fight, Cobb produced a penknife and slashed the watchman across the hand. Cobb later claimed that the watchman, who had the upper hand in the fight, had his finger in Cobb's left eye and that Cobb was worried he was going to have his sight ruined. The fight finally ended when the watchman produced a gun and struck Cobb several times in the head, knocking him out.[75] Cobb would later plead guilty to simple assault and pay a $100 fine. This incident has often been retold with the elevator operator and the watchman both being black. However, recent scholarship has shown that all parties involved were white.[76]
On August 13, 1912, the same day the Tigers were to play the
In 1913, Cobb signed a contract worth $12,000 for the six-month season (equivalent to $369,939 in 2023), making him likely the first baseball player in history to be paid a five-figure salary.[79] This occurred in the same year where Cobb had allegedly grown pessimistic and was quoted as saying: "It seems I am a burden to the Detroit club, as a trespasser of its rules. If that be the case, let Mr. Navin put a price on me and I'll take a chance on being able to negotiate my own release. I don't think I shall ever play ball again. This is positively my last statement in this matter." This attributed statement was first published on an April 19, 1913 edition of the Los Angeles Herald.[80] Cobb did not play that day as the Tigers won 4–0 against the St. Louis Browns.[81]
In June 1914, Cobb pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace after pulling a revolver during an argument at a Detroit butcher shop. He was fined $50.[82]
1915–1921
In 1915, Cobb set the single-season record for stolen bases with 96, which stood until Dodger Maury Wills broke it in 1962.[83] That year, he also won his ninth consecutive batting title, hitting .369.
During 1917 spring training, Cobb showed up late for a
In 1917, Cobb hit in 35 consecutive games, still the only player with two 35-game hitting streaks (including his 40-game streak in 1911).[87] He had six hitting streaks of at least 20 games in his career, second only to Pete Rose's eight.[88]
Also in 1917, Cobb starred in the motion picture Somewhere in Georgia for a sum of $25,000 plus expenses (equivalent to approximately $595,000 today[89]). Based on a story by sports columnist Grantland Rice, the film casts Cobb as "himself," a small-town Georgia bank clerk with a talent for baseball.[90] Broadway critic Ward Morehouse called the movie "absolutely the worst flicker I ever saw, pure hokum."
In October 1918, Cobb enlisted in the
On August 19, 1921, in the second game of a doubleheader against Elmer Myers of the Boston Red Sox, Cobb collected his 3,000th hit. Aged 34 at the time, he is still the youngest ballplayer to reach that milestone, and in the fewest at-bats (8,093).[92][93]
By 1920, Babe Ruth, sold to the renamed New York Yankees from the Boston Red Sox, had established himself as a power hitter, something Cobb was not considered to be. When his Tigers showed up in New York to play the Yankees for the first time that season, writers billed it as a showdown between two stars of competing styles of play. Ruth hit two homers, a triple, and two singles during the series, compared to Cobb's two hits of a double and a single.[94][95][96]
As Ruth's popularity grew, Cobb became increasingly hostile toward him. He saw the Babe not only as a threat to his style of play, but also to his style of life.[97][98][99] Perhaps what angered him the most about Ruth was that despite Babe's total disregard for his physical condition and traditional baseball, he was still an overwhelming success and brought fans to the ballparks in record numbers to see him challenge his own slugging records.[100]
On May 5, 1925, Cobb told a reporter that, for the first time in his career, he was going to try to hit home runs, saying he wanted to show that he could hit home runs but simply chose not to. That day, he went 6 for 6, with two singles, a double and three homers.[101] The 16 total bases set a new AL record, which stood until May 8, 2012, when Josh Hamilton of the Texas Rangers hit four home runs and a double for a total of 18 bases.[102] The next day Cobb had three more hits, two of which were home runs. The single his first time up gave him nine consecutive hits over three games, while his five homers in two games tied the record set by Cap Anson of the old Chicago NL team in 1884.[101] By the end of the series Cobb had gone 12 for 19 with 29 total bases, and afterwards reverted to his old playing style. Even so, when asked in 1930 by Grantland Rice to name the best hitter he'd ever seen, Cobb answered, "You can't beat the Babe. Ruth is one of the few who can take a terrific swing and still meet the ball solidly. His timing is perfect. [No one has] the combined power and eye of Ruth."[51]
Cobb as player/manager
Tigers owner Frank Navin tapped Cobb to take over for Hughie Jennings as manager for the 1921 season, a deal he signed on his 34th birthday for $32,500 (equivalent to approximately $555,168 in today's terms[89]). The signing surprised the baseball world. Although Cobb was a legendary player, he was disliked throughout the baseball community, even by his own teammates.[103]
The closest Cobb came to winning another pennant was in 1924, when the Tigers finished in third place, six games behind the pennant-winning
In 1922, Cobb tied a batting record set by Wee Willie Keeler, with four five-hit games in a season. This has since been matched by Stan Musial, Tony Gwynn and Ichiro Suzuki. On May 10, 1924, Cobb was honored at ceremonies before a game in Washington, D.C., by more than 100 dignitaries and legislators. He received 21 books, one for each year in professional baseball.[104]
At the end of 1925, Cobb was again embroiled in a batting title race, this time with one of his teammates and players, Harry Heilmann. In a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns on October 4, 1925, Heilmann got six hits to lead the Tigers to a sweep of the doubleheader and beat Cobb for the batting crown, .393 to .389. Cobb and Browns player-manager George Sisler each pitched in the final game, Cobb pitching a perfect inning.
Managerial record
Team | Year | Regular season | Postseason | |||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Games | Won | Lost | Win % | Finish | Won | Lost | Win % | Result | ||
DET | 1921 | 153 | 71 | 82 | .464 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | |
DET | 1922 | 154 | 79 | 75 | .513 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | |
DET | 1923 | 154 | 83 | 71 | .539 | 2nd in AL | – | – | – | |
DET | 1924 | 154 | 86 | 68 | .558 | 3rd in AL | – | – | – | |
DET | 1925 | 154 | 81 | 73 | .526 | 4th in AL | – | – | – | |
DET | 1926 | 154 | 79 | 75 | .513 | 6th in AL | – | – | – | |
Total | 923 | 479 | 444 | .519 | 0 | 0 | – |
Move to Philadelphia
Cobb announced his retirement after a 22-year career as a Tiger in November 1926, and headed home to
Leonard accused former pitcher and outfielder Smoky Joe Wood and Cobb of betting on a Tigers–Indians game played in Detroit on September 25, 1919, in which they allegedly orchestrated a Tigers victory to win the bet. Leonard claimed proof existed in letters written to him by Cobb and Wood.[5] Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis held a secret hearing with Cobb, Speaker and Wood.[5] A second secret meeting among the AL directors led to the unpublicized resignations of Cobb and Speaker; however, rumors of the scandal led Judge Landis to hold additional hearings[5] in which Leonard subsequently refused to participate. Cobb and Wood admitted to writing the letters, but claimed that a horse-racing bet was involved and that Leonard's accusations were in retaliation for Cobb's having released him from the Tigers, thereby demoting him to the minor leagues.[5] Speaker denied any wrongdoing.[5]
On January 27, 1927, Judge Landis cleared Cobb and Speaker of any wrongdoing because of Leonard's refusal to appear at the hearings.
Cobb played regularly in 1927 for a young and talented team that finished second to one of the greatest teams of all time, the 110–44 1927 Yankees, returning to Detroit to a tumultuous welcome on May 10 and doubling his first time up to the cheers of Tigers fans. On July 18, Cobb became the first member of the
Cobb returned for the 1928 season but played less frequently due to his age and the blossoming abilities of the young A's, who were again in a pennant race with the Yankees. On September 3, Ty Cobb
He also ended his career with a rather dubious record. When Cobb retired, he led AL outfielders for most errors all-time with 271, which still stands today.
Post-playing career
Cobb retired a wealthy and successful man.
In the winter of 1930, Cobb moved into a Spanish ranch estate on Spencer Lane in the affluent town of
Cobb's children found him to be demanding, yet also capable of kindness and extreme warmth. He expected his sons to be exceptional athletes in general and baseball players in particular. Tyrus Raymond, Jr. flunked out of
In February 1936, when the first
Of major league stars of the 1940s and 1950s, Cobb had positive things to say about Stan Musial, Phil Rizzuto, and Jackie Robinson, but few others.[120] Even so, he was known to help out young players. He was instrumental in helping Joe DiMaggio negotiate his rookie contract with the New York Yankees.
According to sportswriter
Cobb was mentioned in the poem "Line-Up for Yesterday" by Ogden Nash:
C is for Cobb,
Who grew spikes and not corn,
And made all the basemen
Wish they weren't born.
—
Later life
At the age of 62, Cobb married a second time in 1949. His new wife was 40-year-old Frances Fairbairn Cass, a
Cobb knew that another way he could share his wealth was by having biographies written that would both set the record straight on him and teach young players how to play.[
It was also during his final years that Cobb began work on his autobiography, My Life in Baseball: The True Record, with writer Al Stump. Cobb retained editorial control over the book and the published version presented him in a positive light. Stump said that the collaboration was contentious, and after Cobb's death Stump published two more books and a short story giving what he said was the "true story." One of these later books was used as the basis for the 1994 film Cobb (a box office flop starring Tommy Lee Jones as Cobb and directed by Ron Shelton). In 2010, an article by William R. "Ron" Cobb (no relation) in the peer-reviewed The National Pastime (the official publication of the Society for American Baseball Research) accused Stump of extensive forgeries of Cobb-related documents and diaries. The article further accused Stump of numerous false statements about Cobb in his last years, most of which were sensationalistic in nature and intended to cast Cobb in an unflattering light.[16]
Death
In his last days, Cobb spent some time with the old movie comedian Joe E. Brown, talking about the choices he had made in his life. According to Brown, Cobb said he felt that he had made mistakes and that he would do things differently if he could. He had played hard and lived hard all his life, had no friends to show for it at the end, and regretted it. Publicly, however, he claimed to have no regrets: "I've been lucky. I have no right to be regretful of what I did."[128]
He was taken to Emory University Hospital for the last time in June 1961 after falling into a diabetic coma.[129] His first wife Charlie, his son Jimmy, and other family members came to be with him for his final days. He died there on July 17, 1961, at age 74.[45][130]
...the most sensational player of all the players I have seen in all my life...
—Casey Stengel, The New York Times, July 18, 1961[131] regarding Ty Cobb shortly after Cobb's death
Approximately 150 friends and relatives attended a brief service in Cornelia, Georgia, and drove to the Cobb family mausoleum in Royston for the burial. Cobb's family kept the event private, not trusting the media to report accurately on it.[132] Baseball's only representatives at his funeral were three old-time players, Ray Schalk, Mickey Cochrane, and Nap Rucker, and Sid Keener, the director of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but messages of condolence numbered in the hundreds and included notes from Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.[133][134][132] Family in attendance included Cobb's former wife Charlie, his two daughters, his surviving son Jimmy, his two sons-in-law, his daughter-in-law Mary Dunn Cobb and her two children.
At the time of his death, Cobb's estate was reported to be worth at least $11.78 million (equivalent to $120 million today)[89], including $10 million worth of General Motors stock and $1.78 million in The Coca-Cola Company stock.[135] His will left a quarter of his estate to the Cobb Educational Fund, and distributed the rest among his children and grandchildren. Cobb is interred in the Rose Hill Cemetery in Royston, Georgia. As of April 2021, the Ty Cobb Educational Foundation has distributed $19.2 million in college scholarships to needy college bound Georgia students.[136]
Legacy
Ty Cobb was honored alongside the retired numbers of the Detroit Tigers in 2000. |
The greatness of Ty Cobb was something that had to be seen, and to see him was to remember him forever.
The historian Steven Elliott Tripp has explored the public's reaction to Cobb as a pioneer sports celebrity and "a player fans loved to hate."[138] Tripp writes that Cobb was both loved and hated as a representative of a particular kind of masculinity on the field, inviting male spectators to participate in the contest through taunts directed at opposing players. Cobb's own sense of manhood, according to Tripp, was a product of his Southern upbringing that prized individualism, excitement, and family honor.[139] Russo wrote, "There is no denying that Cobb ranks as one of baseball's greatest players, if not the game's fiercest competitor."[140] Many of baseball's greatest players were friends with Cobb. Mathewson and Walter Johnson were some of his closest friends. Others included Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Home Run Baker, and Eddie Collins. Following his retirement, Cobb even befriended one of his greatest rivals, Babe Ruth, whose wife Claire was from Georgia.[62]
Cobb has been judged by some historians and journalists as the best player of the dead-ball era, and is generally seen as one of the greatest players of all time.[141][142]
Some historians, including Wesley Fricks, Dan Holmes, and Charles Leerhsen, have defended Cobb against unfair portrayals of him in popular culture since his death.[143] A noted case is the book written by sportswriter Al Stump in the months after Cobb died in 1961. Stump was later discredited when it became known that he had stolen items belonging to Cobb and also betrayed the access Cobb gave him in his final months.[144] As a result of the movie Cobb, which starred Tommy Lee Jones, there are many myths surrounding Cobb's life, including one that he sharpened his spikes to inflict wounds on opposing players.[143] This accusation was common for many decades before the movie was released.
Writing in The Journal of American Culture, Hunter M. Hampton says that Leerhsen "succeeds in debunking the myth of Cobb that Stump created, but he spawned a new myth by conflating Stump's shortcomings to depict Cobb as an egalitarian."[16]
In 1977, a
Views on race
Stories of Cobb's racial intolerance during his playing days were embellished and falsified by his biographers Al Stump and Charles Alexander.[146] Recent research on his life has clarified a number of stories about Cobb.[146]
Five years after Jackie Robinson broke the
In 1953, black newspapers cited his praise for Brooklyn Dodgers' catcher Roy Campanella, who Cobb said was "among the all-time best catchers" in baseball.[148] Following Campanella's accident that left him paralyzed, the Dodgers staged a tribute game where tens of thousands of spectators silently held lit matches above their heads. Cobb wrote the Dodgers owner to show appreciation "for what you did for this fine man."[149] Cobb also stated that Willie Mays was the "only player I'd pay money to see."[150] In the obituaries that ran in the black press following Cobb's death, he was praised for "[speaking] in favor of racial freedom in baseball."[151]
Rivalry with Sam Crawford
Sam Crawford and Ty Cobb were teammates for parts of thirteen seasons. They played beside each other in right and center field, and Crawford followed Cobb in the batting order year after year. Despite the physical closeness, the two had a complicated relationship.[152]
Initially, they had a student-teacher relationship. Crawford was an established star when Cobb arrived, and Cobb eagerly sought his advice. The student–teacher relationship gradually changed to one of jealous rivals.[153] Cobb was not popular with his teammates, and as Cobb became the biggest star in baseball, Crawford was unhappy with the preferential treatment given to Cobb. Cobb was allowed to show up late for spring training and was given private quarters on the road – perks 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, Cobb would turn red and sometimes walk out of the park with the game still on. When it was reported that Nap Lajoie had won the batting title, Crawford was alleged to have been one of several Tigers who sent a telegram to Lajoie congratulating him on beating Cobb.[154]
In retirement, Cobb wrote a letter to a writer for The Sporting News accusing Crawford of not helping in the outfield and of intentionally fouling off balls when Cobb was stealing a base. Crawford learned about the letter in 1946 and accused Cobb of being a "cheapskate" who never helped his teammates. He said that Cobb had not been a very good fielder, "so he blamed me." Crawford denied intentionally trying to deprive Cobb of stolen bases, insisting that Cobb had "dreamed that up."
When asked about the feud, Cobb attributed it to envy. He felt that Crawford was "a hell of a good player," but he was "second best" on the Tigers and "hated to be an also ran." Cobb biographer Richard Bak noted that the two "only barely tolerated each other" and agreed with Cobb that Crawford's attitude was driven by Cobb's having stolen Crawford's thunder.[155]
Although they may not have spoken to each other, Cobb and Crawford developed an ability to communicate non-verbally with looks and nods on the base paths. They became one of the most successful
Regular season statistics
Cobb has the highest batting average in major league history, .366. In Cobb's time, major league records were kept very well, but not with the absolute accuracy seen later.[157] Thus, for many years, Cobb's lifetime batting average was reported as .367, but rigorous research of source documents late 20th century found that this is wrong, as some games had been reported incorrectly.[158][159]
All sources with standing agree that Cobb's lifetime batting average is .366 (except MLB.com, see below); some show slightly different numbers for at-bats and hits, but all devolve to .366. SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research) (seconded by John Thorn and Pete Palmer, among others), the Baseball Almanac, and ESPN credit Cobb with 4,189 hits in 11,434 at-bats.[160] Retrosheet gives Cobb the same number of hits in five more at-bats (11,439),[161] and Baseball Reference and the Baseball Hall of Fame add one more at-bat (11,440).[162] All of these round to .366.
MLB.com lists Cobb's lifetime average as .367 (4,191 hits in 11,429 at-bats),[163] the number that had been reported and believed true from Cobb's retirement until the late 20th century. (Other pages on the website do give the correct value.)[164] According to former Baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, Major League Baseball continues and will continue to report the incorrect value on the basis of it being grandfathered in ("The passage of 70 years, in our judgment, constitutes a certain statute of limitation as to recognizing any changes.")[157]
According to Retrosheet, Cobb recorded 1 six-hit game, 13 five-hit games, and 82 four-hit games in his MLB career.[165]
Baseball (the sport) does not have official statistics. In C.B.C. Distribution Marketing v. Major League Baseball, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit upholding a 2007 judgement by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri, ruled that baseball statistics, as being mere facts, are in the public domain and are therefore not the property of Major League Baseball Enterprises, Inc. or any other private or public entity.[166][167] However, because Major League Baseball Enterprises, Inc. does have some official legal rights and responsibilities concerning major league baseball – enforcing copyrights on team logos, making the official rules used by the teams, and so forth – and because Major League Baseball does empower the Elias Sports Bureau with "official provider of MLB statistics" status - confusion sometimes arises and thus a few sources can still describe Cobb's major league batting average as being "officially" .367. "Official" in that sense of the word means merely "from the office" of Major League Baseball, the corporation.[168]
Cobb's career totals from Baseball Reference are as follows.[34] Other sources may have slightly different figures. Caught Stealing is not shown comprehensively because the stat was not regularly recorded until 1920.
G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG
|
TB | SH
|
HBP |
3,034 | 11,440 | 2,245 | 4,189 | 724 | 295 | 117 | 1,944 | 897 | 212 | 1,249 | 680 | .366 | .433 | .512 | 5,854 | 292 | 94 |
Cobb's career totals published by Major League Baseball Enterprises, Inc. are shown below:[169]
G | AB | R | H | 2B | 3B | HR | RBI | SB | CS | BB | SO | BA | OBP | SLG
|
TB | SH
|
HBP |
3,035 | 11,429 | 2,246 | 4,191 | 723 | 297 | 117 | 1,938 | 892 | --- | 1,249 | 357 | .367 | .433 | .513 | 5,859 | 295 | 94 |
See also
- Major League Baseball titles leaders
- Major League Baseball Triple Crown
- List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual stolen base leaders
- List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders
- List of Major League Baseball batting champions
- List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career on-base percentage leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career total bases leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders
- List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders
- List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders
- List of Major League Baseball player-managers
- List of Major League Baseball individual streaks
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- ^ SABRE's Ty Cobb totalsBaseball Almanac Cobb totalsESPN Cobb totals
- ^ Retrosheet Cobb totals
- ^ Baseball Reference Cobb totalsHall of Fame Cobb totals
- ^ MLB.com Cobb totals
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Book sources
- Cobb, Ty; Al Stump (1993). My Life in Baseball: The True Record (reprint ed.). Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 0-8032-6359-7.
- Bak, Richard (2005). Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours. Sports Media Group. ISBN 1-58726-257-6.
- Russo, Frank (2014). The Cooperstown Chronicles: Baseball's Colorful Characters, Unusual Lives, and Strange Demises. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-4422-3639-4.
- Leerhsen, Charles (2015). Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty. New York, N.Y.: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 978-1-451645-76-7.
- Tripp, Steven Elliott (2016). Ty Cobb, Baseball, and American Manhood. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-1-44-225191-5.
Further reading
- Alexander, Charles (1984). Ty Cobb. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-8032-6359-7.
- Bak, Richard (1994). Ty Cobb: His Tumultuous Life and Times. Dallas, Texas: Taylor. ISBN 0-87833-848-9.
- Stanton, Tom (2007). Ty and The Babe, Baseball's Fiercest Rivals: A Surprising Friendship and the 1941 Has-Beens Golf Championship. New York: Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 978-0-312-36159-4.
- Cobb, Herschel (2013). Heart of a Tiger: Growing Up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb. Toronto: ECW Press. ISBN 978-1-77-041130-2.
External links
- Career statistics and player information from MLB, or ESPN, or Baseball Reference, or Fangraphs, or Baseball Reference (Minors), or Retrosheet
- Ty Cobb managerial career statistics at Baseball-Reference.com
- Official website
- Ty Cobb at the Baseball Hall of Fame
- Ty Cobb at the SABR Baseball Biography Project
- Ty Cobb at Find a Grave