Cobb, Ty (1886–1961),
baseball player.Born in small‐town Georgia to ambitious, domineering parents. Tyrus Raymond Cobb played professionally for Augusta in 1904 before joining the Detroit Tigers in 1905. He retired twenty‐four years later holding forty‐three league records, including a .367 lifetime batting average, 892 stolen bases, and 2,234 runs scored. Cobb, a great bunter with a tricky split grip, perfected the slap‐and‐run style of the pre–Babe
Ruth era. He won twelve batting titles, hit over .400 three times, and once led the league in every offensive category except home runs. Incomparably famous and wealthy for an athlete of the time, Ty Cobb led the voting for charter membership in the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York.
A fiercely aggressive competitor, Cobb dominated games through sheer force of will. He slid with his spikes up, ran over fielders, snarled at pitchers, and fought with his fists at the slightest provocation. One of the first Southerners in the majors, a bitter racist and sectionalist, he was hypersensitive to hazing and bristled when northern blacks failed to show deference. Most of all, he could not bear to fail. At‐bats were “a crusade,” baseball “a kind of war” that only the red‐blooded could win. Ty Cobb personified the
social Darwinism of the age.
A loner, unpopular with teammates and opponents alike, Cobb abhorred the power‐hitting and good humor that Ruth brought to baseball in the 1920s. As a player‐manager after 1921, he played well but handled people poorly, finally retiring in 1928 at age forty‐one, when he hit .323. He spent his final years an isolated alcoholic. Few mourned his passing.
Bibliography
Ty Cobb with and Al Stumpf , My Life in Baseball, 1961.
Charles C. Alexander , Ty Cobb, 1984.
Ronald Story
