Ty Cobb

Tyrus Raymond “Ty” Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed “The Georgia Peach,” was a Hall of Fame baseball player and is regarded by historians and journalists as the best player of the dead-ball era and as one of the greatest players of all time. Cobb also received the most votes of any player on the 1936 inaugural Hall of Fame Ballot.Cobb is widely credited with setting 90 Major League Baseball records during his career. He still holds several records as of 2007, including the highest career batting average (.367) and most career batting titles with 12 (or 11, depending on source). He retained many other records for almost a half century or more, including most career hits until 1985 (4,191 or 4,189, depending on source), most career runs (2,245 or 2,246 depending on source) until 2001, most career games played (3,035) and at bats (11,429 or 11,434 depending on source) until 1974, and the modern record for most career stolen bases (892) until 1977.Cobb’s legacy as an athlete has sometimes been overshadowed by his surly temperament, severe racism, and aggressive playing style, which was described by the Detroit Free Press as “daring to the point of dementia.Early life and baseball career
Ty Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia, in 1886 and was the first of three children to Amanda Chitwood Cobb and William Herschel Cobb.

Ty spent his first years in baseball as a member of the Royston Rompers, the semi-pro Royston Reds, and the Augusta Tourists of the Sally League. However, the Tourists cut Cobb two days into the season.[18] He then went to try out for the Anniston Steelers of the semi-pro Tennessee-Alabama League, with his father’s stern admonition still ringing in his ears: “Don’t come home a failure.”[19][20] After joining the Steelers for a monthly salary of $50,[21] Cobb promoted himself by sending several postcards written under different aliases to Grantland Rice, the sports editor of the Atlanta Journal. Eventually, Rice wrote a small note in the Journal that a “young fellow named Cobb seems to be showing an unusual lot of talent.”[22][unreliable source?][23] After about three months, Ty returned to the Tourists. He finished the season hitting .237 in 35 games.[24]

August 1905 was an eventful month for Ty. The Tourists’ management sold Cobb to the American League’s Detroit Tigers for US$500 and $750.[25][26][27] Additionally, on August 8, 1905, Ty’s father was shot to death by Ty’s mother. William Cobb suspected his wife of infidelity, and was sneaking past his own bedroom window to catch her in the act; she only saw the silhouette of what she presumed to be an intruder, and, acting in self-defense, shot and killed her husband.[28][unreliable source?] Mrs. Cobb was charged with murder and then released on a $10,000 recognizance bond.[29] She was acquitted on March 31, 1906.[30] Cobb later attributed his ferocious play to the death of his 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”.[31]
Major League career

The early years
Three weeks after his mother killed his father, Cobb played center field for the Detroit Tigers. On August 30, 1905, in his first major league at-bat, Cobb doubled off the New York Highlanders’s Jack Chesbro. That season, Cobb managed to bat only .240 in 41 games. Nevertheless, he showed enough promise as a rookie for the Tigers to give him a lucrative $1,500 contract for 1906.
Cobb signs a $5000 contract for 1908 after a bitter holdout.Although rookie hazing was customary, Cobb could not endure it in good humor, and he soon became alienated from his teammates. He later attributed his hostile temperament to this experience: “These old-timers turned me into a snarling wildcat.”[17]

The following year (1906) he became the Tigers’ full-time center fielder and hit .316 in 98 games. He would never hit below that mark again. Cobb, firmly entrenched in center field, led the Tigers to three consecutive American League Pennants from 1907-1909. Detroit would lose each World Series, however, with Cobb’s post-season numbers being much below his career standard.

In one notable 1907 game, Cobb reached first, stole second, stole third, and then stole home on consecutive attempts (He did this twice more in his career).[32][unreliable source?] He finished that season with a league high .350 batting average, 212 hits, 49 steals and 119 Runs batted in (RBI).[27] At age 20, Cobb became the youngest player to win a batting championship and held this record until 1955 when fellow Detroit Tiger Al Kaline won the batting title when he was one day younger than Cobb.[33][unreliable source?] Despite great success on the field, Cobb was no stranger to controversy off it. At Spring Training in 1907, he fought a black groundskeeper over the condition of the Tigers’ field in Augusta, Georgia. Ty also ended up choking the man’s wife when she intervened.[8]

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.
Ty Cobb,
1907 Coca-Cola newspaper ad [34]
In September 1907, Cobb began a relationship with The Coca-Cola Company that would last the remainder of his life. By the time he died, he owned over 20,000 shares of stock and three bottling plants: one in Santa Maria, California; one in Twin Falls, Idaho; and one in Bend, Oregon. He was also a celebrity spokesman for the product.[34]

The following season, the Tigers defeated the Chicago White Sox for the pennant. Cobb again won the batting title with a .324 batting average. Despite another loss in the Series, Cobb had something to celebrate. In August 1908, he married Charlotte “Charlie” Marion Lombard, the daughter of prominent Augustan Roswell Lombard.[35] In the offseason, Cobb and his wife lived in his father-in-law’s Augusta estate, The Oaks. In November of 1913, the couple moved into their own house on Williams Street.[36]

The Tigers won the American League pennant again in 1909. During the Series, Cobb stole home in the second game, igniting a three-run rally, but that was the high point for Cobb. He ended batting a lowly .231 in his last World Series, as the Tigers lost in seven games. Although he performed poorly in the post-season, Cobb won the Triple Crown by hitting .377 with 107 RBI and nine home runs – all inside-the-park. Cobb thus became the only player of the modern era to lead his league in home runs in a season without hitting a ball over the fence.[37]
Conlon’s famous picture of Cobb stealing third during the 1909 season.It was also in 1909 that Charles M. Conlon snapped his famous photograph of a grimacing Ty Cobb sliding into third base amid a cloud of dirt, which visually captured the grit and ferocity of Cobb’s playing style.[38]
1910: Chalmers Award controversy
Main article: 1910 Chalmers Award
Going into the final days of the 1910 season, Cobb had a 4/10s of a percent lead on Nap Lajoie for the American League batting title. The prize for the winner of the title was a Chalmers Automobile. Cobb sat out the final games to preserve his average. Nap Lajoie hit safely eight times in his teams’ doubleheader. However, six of those hits were bunt singles, and later came under scrutiny. Regardless, Cobb was credited with a higher batting average.

As a result of the incident, Ban Johnson was forced to arbitrate the situation. He declared Cobb the rightful owner of the title. However, the Chalmers company elected to award a car to both of the players.
1911 season and onward

Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson in ClevelandCobb regarded baseball as “something like a war,” Charlie Gehringer said. “Every time at bat for him was a crusade.”[39] The baseball historian John Thorn has said, “He is testament to how far you can get simply through will… Cobb was pursued by demons.”

Cobb was having a typically fine year in 1911, which included a 40-game hitting streak. Still, ”Shoeless” Joe Jackson had a .009 point lead on him in batting average. What happened next is discussed in Cobb’s autobiography. Near the end of the season, Cobb’s Tigers had a long series against Jackson and the Cleveland Naps. Fellow Southerners, Cobb and Jackson were personally friendly both on and off the field. Cobb used that friendship for his advantage. Whenever Jackson said anything to him, he ignored him. When Jackson persisted, Cobb snapped angrily at Jackson, making him wonder what he could have done to enrage Cobb. As soon as the series was over, Cobb unexpectedly greeted Jackson and wished him well. Cobb felt that it was these mind games that caused Jackson to “fall off” to a final average of .408, while Cobb himself finished with a .420 average.[7]

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,
The New York Times[40]
Cobb led the AL in numerous categories besides batting average, including 248 hits, 147 runs scored, 127 RBI, 83 stolen bases, 47 doubles, 24 triples, and a .621 slugging average. The only major offensive category in which Cobb did not finish first was home runs, where Frank Baker surpassed him 11-8. He was awarded another Chalmers, this time for being voted the AL MVP by the Baseball Writers Association of America.

The game that may best illustrate Cobb’s unique combination of skills and attributes occurred on May 12, 1911. Playing against the New York Yankees, Cobb scored a run from first base on a single to right field, then scored another run from second base on a wild pitch. In the 7th inning, he tied the game with a 2-run double. The Yankee catcher began vociferously arguing the call with the umpire, going on at such length that the other Yankee infielders gathered nearby to watch. Realizing that no one on the Yankees had called time, Cobb strolled unobserved to third base, and then casually walked towards home plate as if to get a better view of the argument. He then suddenly slid into home plate for the game’s winning run.[7] It was performances like this that led Branch Rickey to say later that “[Cobb] had brains in his feet.”[41]

On May 15, 1912, Cobb assaulted Claude Lueker, a heckler, in the stands in New York. Lueker and Cobb traded insults with each other throughout the first three innings, and the situation climaxed when Lueker called Cobb a “half-nigger”. Cobb, in his discussion of the incident (My Life in Baseball: The True Record, Ty Cobb and Al Stump, Doubleday, 1961, pp.131-135), avoided such explicit words, but alluded to it by saying the man was “reflecting on my mother’s color and morals”. Cobb also states in the book that he warned Highlanders manager Harry Wolverton that if something wasn’t done about the man, there would be trouble. No action was taken. Finally, at the end of the sixth inning, and after being challenged by teammates Sam Crawford and Jim Delahanty to do something about it, Cobb climbed into the stands and attacked the handicapped Lueker, who due to an industrial accident had lost all of one hand and three fingers on his other hand. When onlookers shouted at Cobb to stop because the man had no hands, Cobb reportedly replied, “I don’t care if he has no feet!”[42] The league suspended him, and his teammates, though not fond of Cobb, went on strike to protest the suspension, and to the lack of protection of players from abusive fans, prior to the May 18 game in Philadelphia.[43] For that one game, Detroit fielded a replacement team made up of college and sandlot ballplayers, plus two Detroit coaches, and lost, 24-2. Some of major league baseball’s all-time negative records were established in this game, notably the 26 hits allowed by Allan Travers, who pitched the sport’s most unlikely complete game.[44] The strike ended when Cobb urged his teammates to return to the field. According to Cobb, 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, and garnered some concessions from the owners.[45]{[vc}}[46] During Cobb’s career, he was involved in numerous 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 with a fistfight, to be conducted 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. Cobb once slapped a black elevator operator for being “uppity.” When a black night watchman intervened, Cobb pulled out a knife and stabbed him (The matter was later settled out of court).[17]

“Sure, I fought,” said an unrepentant 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.”
1915–1921

Babe Ruth (left) and Ty CobbIn 1915, Cobb set the single-season record for stolen bases, with 96. This record stood until Maury Wills broke it in 1962.[47] Cobb’s streak of five batting titles (believed at the time to be nine straight[48]) ended the following year when he finished second with .371 to Tris Speaker’s .386.[27][49]

In 1917, Cobb hit in 35 consecutive games; he remains the only player with two 35-game hitting streaks to his credit (Cobb had a 40-game hitting streak in 1911).[50] Over his career, Cobb had six hitting streaks of at least 20 games, second only to Pete Rose’s seven.[51]

Also in 1917, Cobb starred in the motion picture Somewhere in Georgia for a sum of $25,000 plus expenses.[52] Based on a story by sports columnist Grantland Rice, the film casts Cobb as “himself”, a small-town Georgian bank clerk with a talent for baseball.[53] Broadway critic Ward Morehouse called the movie “absolutely the worst flicker I ever saw, pure hokum.”[52]

In October 1918, Cobb enlisted in the Chemical Corps branch of the United States Army and was sent to the Allied Expeditionary Forces headquarters in Chaumont, France.[54] He served approximately 67 days overseas before receiving an honorable discharge and returning to the United States.[54] Cobb served as a captain underneath the command of major Branch Rickey, the president of the St. Louis Cardinals. Other baseball players serving in this unit included captain Christy Mathewson and lieutenant George Sisler.[54] All of these men were assigned to the Gas and Flame Division where they trained soldiers in preparation for chemical attacks by exposing them to gas chambers in a controlled environment.[54]

By 1920, Babe Ruth had established himself as a power hitter, something Cobb was not considered. When Cobb and the 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 and a triple during the series, compared to Cobb’s one single.

As Ruth’s popularity grew, Cobb became increasingly hostile toward him. Cobb saw Ruth not only as a threat to his style of play, but also to his style of life. While Cobb preached ascetic self-denial, Ruth gorged on hot dogs, beer, and women.[55][56][57] Perhaps what angered him the most about Ruth was that despite Ruth’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 set his own records.

After enduring several years of seeing his fame and notoriety usurped by Ruth, Cobb decided that he was going to show that swinging for the fences was no challenge for a top hitter. On May 5, 1925, Cobb began a two-game hitting spree better than any even Ruth had unleashed. He was sitting in the dugout talking to a reporter and told him that, for the first time in his career, he was going to swing for the fences. That day, Cobb went 6 for 6, with two singles, a double, and three home runs.[58] His 16 total bases set a new AL record. The next day he had three more hits, two of which were home runs. His single his first time up gave him 9 consecutive hits over three games. His five homers in two games tied the record set by Cap Anson of the old Chicago NL team in 1884.[58] Cobb wanted to show that he could hit home runs when he wanted, but simply chose not to do so. At the end of the series, 38-year-old Cobb had gone 12 for 19 with 29 total bases, and then went happily back to bunting and hitting-and-running. For his part, Ruth’s attitude was that “I could have had a lifetime .600 average, but I would have had to hit them singles. The people were paying to see me hit home runs.”[59]

On August 19, 1921, in the second game of a double header against Elmer Myers of the Boston Red Sox, Cobb collected his 3,000th hit. Aged 34 at the time, Cobb is the youngest ballplayer to reach the milestone, and in the fewest at-bats (8,093).[60][61]
Cobb as player/manager
Frank Navin, the Detroit Tigers owner, signed Cobb to take over for Hughie Jennings as manager for the 1921 season. Cobb signed the deal on his 34th birthday for $32,500. To say the least, the signing caught the baseball world off-guard. Universally disliked (even by the members of his own team) but a legendary player, Cobb’s management style left a lot to be desired. He expected as much from his players as he gave, and most of the men did not meet his standard.[11][62]

The closest Cobb came to winning the pennant race was in 1924, when the Tigers finished in third place, six games behind the pennant-winning Washington Senators. The Tigers had finished second in 1922, but were 16 games behind the Yankees.

Cobb blamed his lackluster managerial record (479 wins-444 losses) on Navin, who was arguably an even more frugal man than Cobb. Navin passed up a number of quality players that Cobb wanted to add to the team. In fact, Navin had saved money by hiring Cobb to manage the team.

Also 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.

At the end of 1925 Cobb was once 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 manager George Sisler each pitched in the final game. Cobb pitched a perfect inning.
Move to Philadelphia

Ty Cobb baseball card, American Tobacco Company, 1909-11Cobb finally called it quits from a 22-year career as a Tiger in November 1926. He announced his retirement and headed home to Augusta, Georgia.[7] Shortly thereafter, Tris Speaker also retired as player-manager of the Cleveland team. The retirement of two great players at the same time sparked some interest, and it turned out that the two were coerced into retirement because of allegations of game-fixing brought about by Dutch Leonard, a former pitcher of Cobb’s.[7]

Leonard accused former pitcher and outfielder Smokey Joe Wood and Cobb of betting on a Tiger-Cleveland game played in Detroit on September 25, 1919, in which they allegedly orchestrated a Detroit victory to win the bet. Leonard claimed proof existed in letters written to him by Cobb and Wood.[7] Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis held a secret hearing with Cobb, Speaker, and Wood.[7] A second secret meeting amongst the AL directors led to Cobb and Speaker resigning with no publicity; however, rumors of the scandal led Judge Landis to hold additional hearings.[7] Leonard subsequently refused to appear at the hearings. Cobb and Wood admitted to writing the letters, but they claimed it was a horse racing bet, and that Leonard’s accusations were in retaliation for Cobb’s having released Leonard from the Tigers to the minor leagues.[7] Speaker denied any wrongdoing.[7]

On January 27, 1927, Judge Landis cleared Cobb and Speaker of any wrongdoing because of Leonard’s refusal to appear at the hearings.[7] Landis allowed both Cobb and Speaker to return to their original teams, and both became free agents.[7] Speaker signed with the Washington Senators for 1927; Cobb signed with the Philadelphia Athletics. Speaker then joined Cobb in Philadelphia for the 1928 season. Cobb said he came back only to seek vindication, and so that he could say he left baseball on his own terms.

Cobb played regularly in 1927 for a young and talented team that finished second to one of the greatest teams of all time, the 1927 Yankees, which won 110 games. He returned to Detroit to a tumultuous welcome on May 11 1927. Cobb doubled in his first at bat, to the cheers of Tiger fans. On July 18, 1927, Cobb became the first player to enter the 4000 hit club when he doubled off former teammate Sam Gibson of the Detroit Tigers at Navin Field.[7]

1927 was also the final season of Washington Senators pitcher Walter Johnson’s career.[63] With their careers largely overlapping, Ty Cobb faced Johnson more times than any other batter-pitcher matchup in baseball history. Cobb also got the first hit allowed in Johnson’s career. After Johnson hit Detroit’s Ossie Vitt with a pitch in August of 1915, seriously injuring him, Cobb realized that Johnson was fearful of hitting opponents. He used this knowledge to his advantage, by standing closer to the plate.[64]

Cobb returned for the 1928 season. He 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, 1928, Ty Cobb pinch hit in the 9th inning of the first game of a double-header against the Senators and doubled off Bump Hadley for his last career hit. Against the Yankees on September 11, 1928, Cobb had his last at bat popping out against pitcher Hank Johnson, grounding out to shortstop Mark Koenig as a 9th-inning pinch hitter.[7] He then announced his retirement, effective at the end of the season.[7] Cobb ended his career with 23 consecutive seasons batting .300 or better (the only season under .300 being his rookie season), a major league record not likely to be broken.[27]