Anybody who knows anything about baseball—or sports in general—knows the baseball legends. They know Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Willie Mays, even Derek Jeter. But also, they know Ty Cobb. They know the tremendous player he was, but also—and perhaps unfortunately so—they know what kind of person he was off the field. Let's dive into what his life was like—on the diamond, in the clubhouse, and at home with his parents, and wife.
Early Life:
On December 18th, 1886, Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia. His father, William, married Amanda Chitwood when he was 20 and she was just 12, and she had Ty at the tender age of 15. William was a college graduate, and even a schoolteacher. Since Amanda had a kid at such a young age, she couldn't graduate college not even high school. William bought a 100-acre farm in Royston, GA to complement his teaching income. Ty often worked for his father on the farm, and as williams.edu puts it on William's biography : "It was on this farm that he (William) taught Ty the values of hard work and perseverance."
Young Tyrus spent a lot of time working for his dad, but even more time playing baseball. However, the man of the house didn't approve of it at all, for one simple reason: He feared Cobb would become an alcoholic and ladies man, like most big league players were at the time.
Ty eventually found work in the game, as he was a member of the Royston Rompers, the Royston Reds, and even the Augusta Tourists, but each team didn't see anything special in him. He then tried out for the Annistion Steelers, and after spending some time there, promoted himself.
Grantland Rice was born in 1880, and was the "Mike Wilbon of sportswriting" back then. Cobb sent a letter (under an alias of course), to Rice saying that a "young fellow named Cobb seems to be showing an unusual lot of talent." But that wouldn't do. Tyrus sent it under two more aliases, and in 1905, the Augusta Tourists decided to send him to the Detroit Tigers for $500. But just days later, tragedy struck the Cobb family. His father, a man who Ty very-much respected, was shot—by his own mother. Late at night, William snuck in the house, and thinking he was a robber, Amanda shot him. She was charged with murder.
"My father had his head blown off with a shotgun when I was 18 years old—by a member of my own family," Cobb said. "I didn't get over that."
Playing career:
In 41 games as a rookie, Cobb hit .240, and despite statistics that pale in comparison to the rest of his career, the Tigers decided to keep him around for 1906, awarding him $1,500.
It's a fact that rookies often get hazed—in any sport, at any level. It even happens in high school. In the major leagues, it's even more common. Cobb said hazing damaged him: "These old-timers turned me into a snarling wildcat." In 1906, he became the Tigers starting center fielder, and hit .316. He would never again hit lower than that in his career.
In 1907, because of more playoff time, he had a great year, with a .350 average, 212 hits, 49 steals, and 119 RBI. Unlike legends such as Babe Ruth, he wasn't a power-hitter, but as an overall player, he can't be doubted. Not only did he keep it up, he got better in some respects. From 1907 to 1919, he had a combined average of .377, 708 walks, 212 strikeouts, 740 steals, a .441 OBP, over 2,500 hits, and 1,162 RBI. Ironically, he only won MVP one time, when you could argue he deserved it many more times.
If you're a visitor of baseballreference.com, a site that shows everything related to baseball, you'll know that a category is bolded for players who led the league that year. Just look at Cobb's page . He won 11 batting titles, led in OBP seven times, hits eight times, doubles three times, RBI's four times, and steals six times. From 1906 to 1927, he was one of the most dominant and consistent players in the game. He hit a combined .369, had 1,205 walks, as opposed to just 341 strikeouts, and he also had 1,882 RBI, 885 steals, 4,039 hits, a .436 OBP, and nearly 300 triples.
In his career, he had 117 homers, 1,937 RBI, 4,191 hits, 724 doubles, and 295 triples. But don't take my word for it. There is much debate as to what his career stats really were. Several official sources have conflicting opinions. Total Baseball, as well as historian John Thorn, claim he had a .367 average and 4,191 hits in 11,429 at bats. However, Baseball Reference and some other private researchers say he had 4,189 hits in 11,434 at bats, giving him a .366 average. However, one thing can not be debated: whatever his average was, it stood in the .360's, which is a mark of a remarkable hitter.
Off the field:
Everyone loves Ty—the player. They love how he played. He was good at just about everything. He never struck out, was very productive, consistent, hit for average, and was a good fielder. He had what you hear about most over-hyped prospects: Tyrus had the "five tools." But off the field, he wasn't liked. Heck, he wasn't even respected. In 1907, during Spring Training, the 21-year-old had the nerve to complain about the condition of Tigers Field in Augusta, Georgia, where Cobb used to play amateur baseball. Ty fought the groundskeeper, and when the man's wife tried to break it up, Tyrus decided it was standard to choke her.
But over time, that incident proved to be a small footnote in the long line of off-the-field incidents Cobb was involved with. During the 1907 season, he took part in something positive, beginning a relationship with the drink Coca Cola.
"I always find that a drink of Coca-Cola between the games refreshes me to such an extent that I can start the second game feeling as if I had not been exercising at all, in spite of my exertions in the first," Cobb says.
Just a year later, he married Charlotte Marion Lombard.
So, 1907 wasn't a brutal year. Sure, he fought a groundskeeper and choked a woman, but at least he got married and worked with Coca Cola on an endorsement. Right?
Well, if 1907 was good, 1912 nullified it. In the New York bleachers during a May 15th game, a heckler named Claude Euker wasn't fond of Cobb. Euker called him a "half-ni****", and Tyrus wasn't the most happy about that, saying it was "reflecting on my mother's color and morals." An inning later, he went into the stands and beat the man up. It just so happens that Claude had lost one whole hand and two fingers on the other. When spectators told him this, Cobb said "I don't care if he doesn't have any feet".
Cobb once beat up umpire, Billy Evans. He also once slapped a black elevator operator, and stabbed a black night watchman who tried to break it up. "Sure, I fought," said Cobb in a revealing quote. "I had to fight all my life just to survive. They were all against me. Tried every dirty trick to cut me down, but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch." He reminds me of former Cardinals offensive guard Conrad Dobler. Dobler, like Cobb, was a longshot to get to the pros. He clawed and fought to do so, and clawed and fought to keep his job. However, Cobb resorted to much more extreme measures.
During the 20's, the latter part of Cobb's career, baseball's superstar was Yankees outfielder Babe Ruth, but Cobb was not a fan of him, when almost everybody else was. Tyrus didn't like that he was very out-of-shape. It's estimated that Ruth was 6'2", 215, which isn't much in today's baseball world, but was a big deal 85 years ago. Also, the "Georgia Peach," as Cobb was called, didn't like Ruth for being a guy who was a frequent visitor at whorehouses and a guy who didn't eat well.
Post-playing career:
In November 1926, Cobb retired. Of course, his final statistics are subject to much debate. He headed back home to Augusta, GA at the age of 40, but his retirement didn't mean he was steering clear of controversy. Very soon after Cobb retired, former Red Sox and Indians legend Tris Speaker also hung up the spikes, and that was suspicious. It just so happens that the two were involved in a game-fixing scandal. Dutch Leonard, a former teammate of Cobb's, accused Ty and Smoky Joe Wood of betting on a Tigers/Indians game in 1919, in which the two bet on a Tigers win. Ironically, 1919 is the same year in which the infamous Black Sox scandal took place.
In 1927, then commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis decided to clear Cobb, Wood, and Speaker of any punishment, mainly because Leonard refused to show at a meeting, and Speaker and Cobb both returned to baseball, becoming free agents.
Cobb was signed by the A's, and hit .357 with 93 RBI in 1927, and in his last year, 1928, he hit .323 with one homer and 40 RBI. Then, he decided to retire again, this time for good.
In 1936, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame, along with greats like Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. It was the first class of Hall of Famers.
In 1949, at the age of 62, he married for the second time, but divorced again seven years later. In June 1961, he checked into Emory University Hospital, and died a month later. When he died, his house was claimed to be worth over $11M, which is equivalent to about $86M today.
The quotes:
"The greatness of Ty Cobb was something that had to be seen, and to see him was to remember him forever." - George Sisler.
"..the most sensational player of all the players I have seen in all my life..." - Casey Stengel.
"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." - Cobb.
"Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest." - Cobb.
"When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch" - Cobb.
"Cobb is a prick. But he sure can hit. God Almighty, that man can hit." - Babe Ruth.
"What a hell of a league this is. I hit .387, .408, and .395 the last three years and I ain't won nothin' yet!" - Shoeless Joe Jackson (he posted those averages, coming short to Cobb each year).
Wrap up:
Personally, I can understand Cobb a lot more than most people can. Am I here to justify his actions? No. But I will say that he did it for his father. He once said that his dad was the only man he obeyed, and when William said "don't come home a failure," you can bet that stuck with Ty. He wanted to impress his dad, and in order to not come home a failure, he would do anything he could to come home a successful baseball player—a Hall of Famer—and one of the best that ever lived. And trust me, I'm not digging up some hidden philosophy; Ty has said it himself:
"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".
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