Books

Ty Cobb
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It's Good to Be the King...Sometimes
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Hogan
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Average customer rating:

Relentless and Revealing
Could not put this book down! Incredible book on one of the greatest!
Man is the Bastard
Good Book About a Great Ballplayer and a Terrible Man
Safe at the Plate

Cobb: A Biography
Al Stump
Manufacturer: Algonquin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

My Life in Baseball: The True Record
Cobb
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life
Ted Williams: The Biography of an American Hero
Eight Men Out: The Black Sox and the 1919 World Series

ASIN: 1565121449

Amazon.com

Not long before his death, Ty Cobb, as complex and haunted a human being as ever stepped onto a diamond, tapped a young writer named Al Stump to collaborate with him on his autobiography. The result, My Life in Baseball: The True Record, never came close to reaching first base; with Cobb (holder of the game's highest lifetime batting average and lowest lifetime reputation) calling the signals, it was an antiseptic whitewash, as false as its titular claim would have you believe otherwise. Hidden between the lines was the living hell that Cobb--reclusive, bitter, ravaged with cancer, in great pain, and shunned by the baseball community--put Stump through to make sure his demon-filled story was properly sanitized.

Some 30 years later, Stump brilliantly wrought his revenge with the best tool a writer can wield: absolute honesty. In Cobb, he rectifies his earlier cover-up and paints an unforgettable portrait of an unforgettable character: The Georgia Peach--pits and all. Not only does Stump painstakingly assemble the disparate pieces of Cobb's tangled personality and storied career, he also recounts in scrupulous detail the literal wild ride that comprised his months in the company of the dying baseball legend. It is, from its opening inscription ("To get along with me," Cobb told Stump, "don't increase my tension"), a tour de force, as good a sports biography as exists, and an altogether riveting telling of a riveting life. --Jeff Silverman

Book Description

A New York Times Notable Book; Spitball Award for Best Baseball Book of 1994; Basis for a major Hollywood motion picture. Now in paperback, the biography that baseball fans all across the country have been talking about. Al Stump redefined America's perception of one of its most famous sports heroes with this gripping look at a man who walked the line between greatness and psychosis. Based on Stump's interviews with Ty Cobb while ghostwriting the Hall-of-Famer's 1961 autobiography, this award-winning new account of Cobb's life and times reveals both the darkness and the brilliance of the "Georgia Peach." "The most powerful baseball biography I have read."--Roger Kahn, author of THE BOYS OF SUMMER

Customer Reviews:

Relentless and Revealing.......2007-04-14

This is a searing biography of baseball legend Ty Cobb (1887-1961). As the author shows Cobb was a superbly talented and intelligent ballplayer, and he still has the highest lifetime batting average (.367). Cobb was also intensely competitive, and so mean and fast-tempered that even roughneck players feared and detested him. The author examines Cobb's upbringing in Georgia (including his father's being shot dead by his mother) and his long career (1905-1928) in baseball. Readers learn of Cobb's many batting and stolen base titles, his unproven involvement in a 1919 fix, and his years as player-manager for the Detroit Tigers. Cobb was careful with his dollars and blessed with investment savvy that made him rich - players calling him "penny pincher" had an instant fight on their hands. The book also takes a brief look at his life after his playing days ended.

As many know, a dying Cobb hired the author to write his autobiography - and that first book said what Cobb wanted. This second and more honest effort appeared three decades later, and is far from pretty. We see Cobb as a volatile racist lout, unpopular as a player, and shunned in his later years by both his family and by those struglling ex-players that the financially generous Cobb helped. This second biography is relentless, revealing, and not for those with a weak stomach.

Could not put this book down! Incredible book on one of the greatest!.......2006-04-03

"Cobb" by Al Stump: This is THE book that made me truly appreciate the game of baseball and Ty Cobb. I read all 400 plus pages in three days of reading and it was very difficult to put down at the end of the night. Do not confuse this book by Al Stump with the one he co-authored with Ty Cobb titled "Ty Cobb My Life in Baseball." That book was more of a PR campaign for Ty Cobb to help improve his image in the public eye. "Cobb" however is 100% pure, raw, and insane Ty Cobb. It is within this book that you will learn why so many people say that Ty Cobb still is the best that ever was in baseball. You will also learn why so many players and fans thought he was possessed with the "furies"; in fact many questioned his sanity. Ty Cobb hit .367 over 24 seasons, won over a dozen batting titles and was the first ball player to ever be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. I was surprised to learn that Ty Cobb had founded a hospital system, an educational foundation and helped down-and-out ballplayers. Truly one of the best baseball books I have ever read. Robert Pedersen www.fatherachildsright.org

Man is the Bastard.......2005-12-24

An amazing portrait of the greatest baseball player who ever lived. The movie with Tommy Lee Jones was good, but this is far more raw and riveting.

Good Book About a Great Ballplayer and a Terrible Man.......2004-12-23

Al Stump, who spent nearly a year with Ty Cobb near the end of Cobb's life and wrote My Life in Baseball: The True Record with him, is the natural choice as his biographer. He does a fine job here. While the earlier book is simply a narration of incidents whose narration is inevitably distorted in Cobb's favor, this book is an earnest attempt to present a fair picture of its subject.

Stump bends over backwards to be fair to the eminently dislikeable Cobb; indeed, that is the book's primary fault. For example, on several occasions, the book mentions Cobb's excellence as a defensive center fielder, yet statistics posted early in the book give his lifetime fielding percentage as .961, with 274 errors in 3,033 games. Cobb clearly won games with his bat and legs, but he lost them with his glove and arm. Stump also mentions the oft-narrated incident in 1925 in which the thirty-eight-year old Cobb allegedly told two sportswriters before a game that he would abandon his hands-apart hitting style and attempt to hit home runs. He went six-for-six in the game, with three home runs and a double. The next day he hit two home runs and a single. The natural question to ask is why, if Cobb could get nine hits, including five home runs, in nine at-bats while trying to hit home runs, he didn't stick with it, since his career average was approximately three hits in eight at bats, none of them home runs. Is the story apocryphal? Did Cobb simply know that the starting pitchers for the next two games were pitchers against which he had had unusual success in the past? Stump never even asks the question.

There are other flaws. Stump spends the first 400 pages of the book on the first forty-two years of Cobb's life, covering the period from his birth to the end of his major league career, but only twenty on the remaining thirty-three. Of course, Cobb would be of little interest had he not been a great baseball player, but, given that Cobb was clearly seriously mentally ill, it would have been a good idea, I think, to spend more time on, for example, the causes of the break-ups of his two marriages. Stump, moreover, calls Cobb psychotic in several places in the book. It would also, I think, have been a good idea for him to consult with one or more mental health professionals for a more precise diagnosis.

These, though, are minor reservations about a book that held my interest from the first page to the last. All serious baseball fans will want to read this book, and even many of those who are not very interested in baseball will find it interesting.

Safe at the Plate.......2004-11-27

The author became a friend and confidant of Tyrus Cobb, towards the end of Ty's life, when the ballplayer, struggled with a variety of illnesses including cancer, but never wanted sorrow or pity from anyone.
The story of Cobb's life is presented in a straightforward style
interesting glimpses of Cobb's "take no prisoners" style are peppered throughout the book.
Praise is heaped upon Cobb's astronomical skill for hitting, running the bases, stealing bases and genuine baseball acumen.
Knowing that Cobb, played in a bygone era of baseball, with Model T's and horse drawn carriages only adds to the allure.
Some of the good deeds that Ty did for others are presented as well as tales of cruelty and rage.
Ty Cobb comes across as Ebenezer Scrooge, without being visited by the spirits, as he was forgotten by the baseball community at large at the time of his death.
Cobb amassed a vast fortune through shrewd investments, to show that he was a combination of brawns and smarts.
This raging fire of a baseball player keeps you glued to the pages and you will find yourself frequently rereading your favorite parts. Clark Kent went into a phone booth to become Superman. Ty Cobb went onto the ballfield to become one.

Average customer rating:

Deftly researched and highly readable
TY COBB BY CHARLES C. ALEXANDER (1984)
The true historical record of Cobb
A fascinating biograph about baseball's legend
Excellent

Ty Cobb (Sport in American Life)
Charles C. Alexander
Manufacturer: Southern Methodist University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

John McGraw
Cobb: A Biography
My Life in Baseball: The True Record
Babe: The Legend Comes to Life
Luckiest Man: The Life and Death of Lou Gehrig

ASIN: 0870745093

Book Description

Probably the most volatile, fear-inspiring presence in baseball history, Ty Cobb was one of the most brilliant players in the game during his twenty-four-year career in the major leagues. Drawing on primary sources and personal interviews, Alexander brings Ty Cobb and his era vividly to life, showing the profound changes that took place in the sport of baseball during the tumultuous first half of the twentieth century.

"Impressive. A fascinating analysis of Cobb's personality."-The New York Times

"Alexander has performed that magical feat of creating Ty Cobb, warts and all. A wonderful, wonderful book."-Newsday

"Ty Cobb is a sociology of a time as well as a biography of the greatest and nastiest player of them all."-Stephen Jay Gould, The New York Review of Books

"Impeccably researched . . . reads like a novel. A fine book."-Lawrence Ritter, author of The Glory of Their Times

Originally published by Oxford University Press in 1984.

Customer Reviews:

Deftly researched and highly readable.......2006-10-04

Now featuring a new afterword by author Charles C. Alexander (Professor Emeritus Of History at Ohio University), Ty Cobb is the classic biography of one of baseball's most brilliant, volatile, and intimidating presences. An inset section of black-and-white photographic plates illustrate this chronicle of not only Ty Cobb's robust life, but also the startling transformations taking place during twentieth-century baseball. A fascinating, deftly researched and highly readable "must-have" for fans of baseball legends.

TY COBB BY CHARLES C. ALEXANDER (1984).......2004-02-24

TY COBB BY CHARLES C. ALEXANDER (1984)

Audio book review

Charles C. Alexander's Ty Cobb is an illuminating review of the legendary early Twentieth Century baseball superstar. This audio book, read by Walter Zimmerman, is written more like historical biography than a baseball book
Alexander dispels many long-held Cobb myths. Cobb was mean and nasty, but not nearly the ogre of legend. In fact, Cobb was a devout Christian (Baptist), very well spoken, a man who cared about his public image, and engaged himself in many acts of on and off-field kindness. Caricatured as a savage racist by revisionist history, Cobb actually was kindly in his relations with the many black people he grew up with in Georgia, some of whom worked for his family. He had no patience for blacks he considered uppity. He was not Branch Rickey, but he was not the Grand Dragon of the K.K.K., either. Miserly? Sometimes, but without fanfare he took care of players who had hit the skids. A spikes-sharpened demon? You bet, but Ty also shook hands with his combatants after the dust settled, and performed various acts of dovish peacemaking for the benefit of hostile fans.
Alexander is not a psychiatrist, but it is obvious that the fact that Cobb's mother killed his father in what may not have been an accident, during an incident that occurred because Mr. Cobb suspected Mrs. Cobb of having an affair, shaped Ty's combative nature. What has been lost over the years is that Cobb became friendly with Babe Ruth (common legend holding that he always hated him). Cobb was a shrewd millionaire investor who never needed to work after baseball, therefore separating himself from regular contact with people while living in huge mansions that were too big for him, after his wife left. Most telling is the relationship Cobb had with his two male children. He raised them strictly, and because of baseball travel left much of the child rearing to his wife. When he retired, they were grown up and on their own, and Cobb had genuine regrets for "missing" their childhood's. He wished he had been a doctor, so he could have been home for his kids, and when one of his sons went into medicine, Cobb lamented that if he, too, were a doctor they would have something in common. With all that baggage in tow, Cobb had to endure the premature deaths of both of the boys from untimely illnesses, living the last 20-odd bitter years of his life blaming himself.
Cobb may have been hard to live with, but this book empathetically explains some of the demons that drove the man into becoming a brilliant stock manipulator, a taskmaster father, an unfeeling husband, a reviled teammate, a hated opponent, and in the opinion of those who saw him, perhaps the greatest baseball player who ever lived!

The true historical record of Cobb.......2000-07-05

Alexander approaches baseball history as a historian; not a mere storyteller. This book reflects that approach. Alexander reports the feats and faults of Cobb, but doesn't try to pass judgement. Cobb's career speaks for itself (men are still chasing some of his records). However, in our age of political correctness Cobb's misbehavior speaks louder.

Alexander details a complete Cobb. For all his faults Cobb was mannered and gracious in public (most of the time), a perfect host (if he liked you) and a generous philanthropist. This is the side most other Cobb bio's whitewash.

This book proves useful as a resource about Cobb. It details the facts about his life season by season. The only way to improve the book would be to add more detail and color to some of Cobb's exploits-- but then the book would have to be about 500 pages.

I consider this to be the primere biography of Ty Cobb. However, those looking mostly for anidotes, stories and that harsh personality brought to life might want to check out Al Stumps' "Cobb". I suggest reading both to develop the full image of the Greatest innovator baseball has ever seen.

A fascinating biograph about baseball's legend.......2000-02-28

Ty cobb was the most ideal hitter in baseball before "the Babe" opened its new era.

The author described well enough for me to understand 1900-1910's players, ballparks, other circumstances around baseball.

I sincerely recommend this book to all the baseball fans.

Excellent.......1999-03-07

Perfect companion to Al Stump's bio of Cobb. Alexander is more factual; Stump gives the reader a more thorough understanding of Cobb and his peculiarly ferocious personality. (The Alexander and Stump biographies portray a man who is one part Bedford Forest, one part Patton, one part Perot and one part Michael Jordan). For instance, Alexander devotes little more than one paragraph to Cobb's nervous breakdown in August, 1906. On the other hand, Stump details the inhumane hazing Cobb received from his yankee teammates in 1906 due to southern upbringing which led to Cobb's breakdown and fed his massive paranoia. Stump does a much better job on detailing Cobb's rivalry with Babe Ruth. Alexander briefly mentions the rivalry; Stump details the intense hatred Cobb felt for Ruth. For example, as player-manager of the Tigers, Cobb would often scream at the thick-lipped Ruth from the dugout, "You Nigga', Nigga' etc., etc.." However, where Stump takes many of Cobb's stories and yarns at face value, Alexander sifts through the clouds and tells the reader what is definitely true and leaves out what might be lies. Ty Cobb is the most interesting baseball player of all time though not the most important (Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Roberto Clemente and, because of his role in free agency, Catfish Hunter were more important than Cobb). To get a real good feel of Ty Cobb, you need to read two books. Mr. Alexander's book is one of the two.

Average customer rating:

Great book
Does he tell the truth?
One big story, with a million entertaining substories.
A LOOK AT A LEGEND
a must read for a true baseball fan

My Life in Baseball: The True Record
Ty Cobb , and Al Stump
Manufacturer: Bison Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Similar Items:

Cobb: A Biography
Ty Cobb (Sport in American Life)
Cobb
Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours
John McGraw

ASIN: 0803263597

Amazon.com

One of sports literature's great whitewashes and cover-ups, Ty Cobb's autobiography is anything but the "true record" of its titular claim. Cobb was as haunted and complex a man as has ever sharpened a pair of spikes, and, in his 70s, when he sat down to tell his story, he simply didn't want the whole of his truth revealed; he preferred to perpetuate his legend. What results, then, is a flawed fairy tale filled with colorful anecdotes and reminiscences that duck the demons that fueled Cobb's inspired play like a pitcher trying to hide from a line drive smashed in the direction of his eyeballs.

Interestingly, the story behind the book is far more raucous and compelling than the book itself. Cobb, as violent and demanding at the end of his life as he was in his playing heyday, virtually kidnapped Stump (one of the most honored sports writers of the late '50s and early '60s), subjecting almost every word and observation to Cobb's approval. Stump finally exacted his literary pound of flesh years later when he slid spikes high into Cobb's ghost with the publication of his marvelously rich--and real--accounting of Cobb's life in Cobb: A Biography. Stump not only nicked the fuzz off the Georgia Peach in that second effort, he recounted the harrowing circumstances behind the first. Together, the two books provide a fascinating prism into a man's life and legacy, the first volume bending the light to diffuse the truth, the second straightening it out to preserve it. --Jeff Silverman

Customer Reviews:

Great book.......2006-02-14

This book is great Ty Cobb teaches you all of his secrets and relationships between other players in his time he even picks his all time team that he would go against anyone today and he said he would beat anyone with his all time team I think he probably would

This book is a must for a Cobb fan and a must if you are a baseball fan

Does he tell the truth?.......2004-05-03

I think that this book was very well-written. Cobb seems like a smart man who was ahead of his time when it came to baseball. He comes across as a very bitter guy though... of course Ty was in his 70s at the time and oldtimer athletes always seem that way. Complaining about how the game has changed to be horrible and such. Its always cool to get an insider look at pro sports and athletes tho , and while i feel he didn't always tell the whole truth, I think it was a good book overall. Especially if you are a baseball history dork like me. i give it 4 out of 5.

One big story, with a million entertaining substories........2003-08-20

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was the first book about Cobb that I had ever read; before that, he was just a name and statistics to me.

The overarcing story of this book is Ty Cobb's career in baseball, with a little bit about his life before and a few flashes into his life after. Now, it would be easy to sum up a career in baseball with several numbers, a few game highlights, etc. But that is not what you'll find in this book. What you'll find is a ton of short, 5-10 paragraph interludes about almost every big name in baseball from the 1905-1928 period... and even big names elsewhere. Ty Cobb was fortunate enough to have interacted with everyone from actors to presidents to business executives, and he has humorous angles on each of them. I actually laughed out loud several times while reading this book at the way he portrayed various people.

In a lot of ways, reading this book is almost like listening to your grandfather tell stories of his adventures and his friends in his youth. Except it's not your grandfather, it's Ty Cobb, telling stories of the Golden Age of Baseball, and his friends were legends like Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Connie Mack, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, Nap Lajoie, and others who may also simply be names in the Hall of Fame to you. Cobb's stories bring life to long-dead names, color to old black-and-white photos. Most of us have only heard legends of those early parks, players, pennants, pitches, pundits. Cobb was there. And through reading his story, it almost feels like you were there, too.

While I've read other reviews that say this book hides the Dark Side of Ty Cobb, I don't think that is entirely true. He definitely talks about some ways he treated people, such as Shoeless Joe Jackson, that makes you realize that at his core he was a man who would stop at nothing to win.

It doesn't matter if you like Ty Cobb or hate Ty Cobb. If you want to hear some great baseball stories, read this book.

A LOOK AT A LEGEND.......2003-07-20

TY COBB TELLS OF HIS LIFE AND CAREER IN THIS INTERESTING STORY. I FOUND HIS SIDE OF THE STORY TO BE VERY REFRESHING. HE CERTAINLY IS NO ANGEL. HIS FAMILY LIFE IS MENTIONED, MAYBE 5 TIMES IN THE WHOLE BOOK. HE WAS A TRUE BRAINY PLAYER AND TOTALLY FEARLESS. HIS TROUBLED BOYHOOD WAS A REAL NIGHTMARE (HIS MOTHER ACCIDENTLY SHOT HIS FATHER TO DEATH). HE IS TOTALLY WRAPPED UP IS HIS OWN LITTLE WORLD NEVER ALLOWING ANYONE TO GET CLOSE TO HIM. I FOUND HIM TO BE FULL OF HIMSELF AND IN SELF DENIAL CONCERNING HIS ANGER AND SELF CENTEREDNESS. AS A HUMAN BEING HE IS VERY FLAWED, HATED BY TEAMATES AND JUST ABOUT EVERYONE ELSE. A TRUE LEGEND AS A PLAYER AND A VERY INTERESTING AND TROUBLED PERSON. RECOMMENDED.

a must read for a true baseball fan.......2003-02-21

Cobb is the 1st man into the hall of fame
you need to read this
No one ever loved playing baseball more than the Peach
love him or hate him
this is a must read for any TRUE baseball fan

My Virginia City: A Columnist's Memories

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My Virginia City: A Columnist's Memories
Ty Cobb , and Eric Dondero Rittberg
Manufacturer: Historic Fourth Ward School Foundation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

The Ty Cobb Scrapbook: An Illustrated Chronology of Significant Dates in the 24-Year Career of the Fabled Georgia Peach

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Ty Cobb's Scrapbook

The Ty Cobb Scrapbook: An Illustrated Chronology of Significant Dates in the 24-Year Career of the Fabled Georgia Peach
Marc Okkonen
Manufacturer: Sterling
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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My Life in Baseball: The True Record
Ty Cobb (Sport in American Life)
The Glory of Their Times : The Story of Baseball Told By the Men Who Played It
Cobb: A Biography

ASIN: 0806928476

Book Description

Relive the thrill of 24 years in the career of the fabled "Georgia Peach"--one of the greatest, most colorful, and simply larger-than-life baseball players who ever lived. Arranged in a visually exciting scrapbook format, packed with pictures and memorabilia that illustrate every significant date and more than 800 games, it takes you from April 26, 1904, when the 17-year-old Tyrus Raymond Cobb stepped up to the plate for the first time professionally, till his final turn on the field in 1928. The focus is on his playing, rather than on his oft-discussed personality and private life, with commentary culled from contemporary accounts that reveal how Cobb's swift throwing arm and fine batting skills contributed to every game. A generous sampling of photographs, cartoons, and ads from the period--many not seen since their original publication--provides a rare and enlightening vision of this ever-intriguing hero of baseball.

Customer Reviews:

Ty Cobb's Scrapbook.......2002-12-26

It was a refreshing look from a contemporary view of this fasinating era of baseball. Crammed full of interesting pictures. The Author certainly portrays Cobb as a baseball player extroadinaire. This book adornes my coffee table and is great for sneaking in a quick look from the "Deadball area."

Ty Cobb: A Biography (Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters)

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Ty Cobb: A Biography (Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters)
Dan Holmes
Manufacturer: Greenwood Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Hank Aaron: A Biography (Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters)
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Willie Mays: A Biography (Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters)
Joe Jackson: A Biography (Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters)

ASIN: 0313328692

Book Description

When the National Baseball Hall of Fame inducted its first class of players in 1936, Ty Cobb received more votes than any other player--even more than did fellow inductee Babe Ruth. Cobb, known as the "Georgia Peach," was universally recognized as the best player from the "dead ball" era. He also had the reputation of being its most ferocious player. His fierce determination to succeed helped Cobb equal or surpass more offensive records than any other player, and his career average of .367 is still the highest of all time. Cobb's unyielding and often ferocious work ethic, though, made him many enemies, and his occasional episodes of violence marked an otherwise impeccable career. Baseball author Dan Holmes offers a fresh and fair-handed look at the life of baseball's first true superstar. It has been said that hitting a baseball is the hardest thing to do in professional sports. "Baseball's All-Time Greatest Hitters" presents biographies on Greenwood's selection for the 12 best hitters in Major League history, written by some of today's best baseball authors. These books present straightforward stories in accessible language for the high school researcher and the general reader alike. Each volume includes a timeline, bibliography, and index. In addition, each volume includes a "Making of a Legend" chapter that analyses the evolution of the player's fame and (in some cases) infamy.

Average customer rating:

Ty Cobb--A Complex Personality
The Best Book on Ty Cobb Ever.
A slice of unforgettable sports history

Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours
Richard Bak
Manufacturer: Sports Media Group
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Tris Speaker: The Rough-and-Tumble Life of a Baseball Legend
The Big Bam: The Life and Times of Babe Ruth
Burying the Black Sox: How Baseball's Cover-Up of the 1919 World Series Fix Almost Succeeded
Red Legs and Black Sox: Edd Roush and the Untold Story of the 1919 World Series
The Sizzler: George Sisler, Baseball's Forgotten Great

ASIN: 1587262576

Book Description

Although it has been more than 75 years since he last laced up his spikes, Ty Cobb remains arguably the greatest player in the long history of baseball. Certainly the Detroit Tigers outfielder remains the most controversial. He hit .367 over 24 seasons (1905-1928), won a dozen batting titles, and was the first man elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. But it was his blowtorch personality that set the "Georgia Peach" apart from all others.

Customer Reviews:

Ty Cobb--A Complex Personality.......2005-12-06

As author Richard Bak points out Ty Cobb was a complex personality. The traumatic death of his father when Tyrus was 19 years old, having been shot by his Ty's mother who maintained she thought he was a burgler entering a window of the house at night would be enough to traumatize anyone, let alone a 19 year old boy. This, in addition to the hazing from teammates, may well have scarred his personality to an extent that he saw the devil in whoever he met. Cobb was determined to succeed when he found himself in such circumstances. It is undoubtedly true that he was a racist. However, most major league players were from the south during this time period and held equally racist attitudes, hall of famers such as Speaker, Hornsby, and Anson included. Author Richard Bak makes a convincing case regarding Al Stump's not knowing Ty Cobb as well as he claimed to know him when writing Cobb's life story, "My Life in Baseball: The True Record". That Cobb was not well liked by many players is undoubtedly true, but he had his sentimental side as well. His two wives divorced him and his children didn't feel close to him and even feared his temper rages. One anecdote: Neal Conway, the head groundskeeper in Detroit, idolized Ty Cobb and saw to it that every one of his needs were met. At the end of the season Conway was invited to join Cobb downtown to accept a gift of Cobb's appreciation. The admirer was given a box the size of which suggested a wrist watch. Cobb had to leave immediately for Georgia. Neal quickly opened the gift and found a tube of Colgate toothpaste. I feel the author presented both sides of Ty Cobb, but I found a glaring error that really is inexcusable. On page 107 the author states "Speaker (Tris) was good enough to join Ty in the Hall of Fame's inaugural class of inductees." Cobb was a charter member of the Hall of Fame along with Ruth, Wagner, Mathewson, and Johnson. These five were elected in 1936. Speaker was elected in 1937. I have to knock off a star for this error.

The Best Book on Ty Cobb Ever........2005-08-16

Richard Bak is one of the best sportwriters working today, and his other books on early 20th-century baseball show his comprehensive knowledge and remarkable insight into the era and its players. (He's even done an illustrated history of Casey Stengel--now, that's deep history.) This book has some wonderful images, and the writing is up to Mr. Bak's standards, which is to say, excellent. Cobb's story is an amazing one, and Mr. Bak tells it well. This book was hard to put down once I started reading it.

It's been rumored that he's been working on a long-awaited book on the Dead Ball era, and I for one can't wait.

A slice of unforgettable sports history .......2005-06-08

Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours is a coffee table biography of one of baseball's greatest players, who hit .367 over 24 seasons (1905-1928), won a dozen batting titles, and was the first man elected to baseball's Hall of Fame. Ty Cobb was well known for his intense and changeable personality, rivalries, and petty jealousies; but author Richard Bak reveals a side of Ty Cobb less discussed... a man who came to the aid of down-and-out ballplayers, founded a hospital system and educational foundation which remain successful after a half-century, and who came to terms with his own tarnished legend. Published to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Ty Cobb's baseball debut, and featuring over 150 rarely seen black-and-white photographs, Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours is a slice of unforgettable sports history and a "must-have" for fans of great baseball figures throughout history.

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Ty Cobb (Baseball Legends)
Norman L. Macht
Manufacturer: Chelsea House Pub (T)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Christy Mathewson (Baseball Legends)
Honus Wagner (Baseball Legends)
Babe Ruth (Baseball Legends)
Cy Young (Baseball Legions)
Satchel Paige (Baseball Legends)

ASIN: 0791012069

One For the Book 1949 Complete All-Time Baseball Records Major League

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One For the Book 1949 Complete All-Time Baseball Records Major League
illustrated including drawing Ty Cobb Leonard Gettelson
Manufacturer: Sporting News Charles C. Spink
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000JCXT5W

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Ty Cobb
Richard Bak
Manufacturer: High-Top Sports Productions
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette

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ASIN: 1567030378

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