Jump to content
Required Reading for any Longhorn ×

Ty Cobb: Not As Big An Asshole As We Thought?

MaybeACoordinator

By MaybeACoordinator
in Baseball

 Share

Recommended Posts

MaybeACoordinator

MaybeACoordinator 8350

Posted
Posted
Quote

Did you hear the one about him fighting a black groundskeeper over the condition of the Tigers' Spring Training field and then choking the man's wife when she intervened?

Or the one about him jumping into the stands to beat up a fan who had no arms?

Perhaps you've heard that he was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Or that he pistol-whipped African-American men simply because they had the gall to share a sidewalk with him. Or that he once killed a guy with a baseball bat and then used that very bat to hit a home run the next day.

Certainly you know he sharpened his spikes to wound opposing players.

This is the monster we point to as a means to convey how wild baseball's olden days really were and how intellectually inconsistent it is to deny anybody entry into the Hall of Fame because of the character clause.

Rougned Odor? He punched Jose Bautista square in the jaw, but he's got nothing on the Cobb we think we know.

This is the Cobb who author Charles Leerhsen thought he knew when he decided to write a biography about him.

It was a slam-dunk subject. There had not been a major Cobb book in a couple of decades, so Leerhsen, a former Sports Illustrated editor, figured he'd add some new and nuanced research to the work of previous writers, finding previously uncovered examples of Cobb being an awful person, and he'd have a hit on his hands.

Turns out, Leerhsen does have a hit on his hands. But not the one he intended. The truth he's helped uncover in his book, "Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty," is changing old assumptions and painting a picture of Cobb that -- get this -- actually makes him appear to be a human being.

Quote

More at the link

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
cochamps

cochamps 1879

Posted
Posted
2 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

I'll believe the Stump stuff.

But I've read multiple books by Charles Alexander, including the Cobb one.  Every chapter has about 100 footnotes.  I have trouble believing he skimped on his research.

Don’t trust Stump, myself.  There is significant evidence that he exaggerated claims about no one showing up to Cobb’s funeral.  I don’t  think the guy was an angel, but I do think Stump had an agenda.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29198

Posted
Posted
17 minutes ago, Beau Vine said:

11 seasons in the top 10 in homers in the AL, led the league one year...

really dude?

he played for 24 seasons and had 117 total.  i understand the game was different back then, but he had over 9 twice (12 both times).  his career overlapped with babe ruth for a pretty good chunk and the babe had 6x as many career homers.

with the amount of speed he had (and triples he hit) i bet a lot were inside-the-park as well, with those huge ballparks with essentially no back wall.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
henrygandorf

henrygandorf 29198

Posted
Posted

at no point did i say he didn't hit the ball hard.  i said power hitter.  that means homers, and everyone knows it.

for shits and giggs, i looked it up, and he had 46 inside-the-parkers, which means he had 71 over-the-fence-homers.

if i made the same joke about rod carew (90 hr), you probably would've said nothing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
formermav43

formermav43 4606

Posted
Posted (edited)
31 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

It’s almost like writing about how he wasn’t as mean as they say could lead to more book sales, as it would be a different perspective than the other biographies already available. 

It's more like writing about how a man is secretly a monster led to more book sales.

There have been books and articles debunking the caricature of Cobb for years. Almost all of that legendary material traces back to Al Stump. He was a fraud.

Edited by formermav43
Link to comment
Share on other sites
Blanton

Blanton 170

Posted
Posted

Has anyone seen the movie Cobb starring Tommy Lee Jones? Stumbled on it via Amazon Video the other day and Christ it was awful.

The Stump journalist had to make up so much sensationalist bullshit that couldn't be refuted on account of Ty Cobb being dead. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Schulz2.0

Schulz2.0 29021

Posted
Posted
On 7/24/2018 at 12:10 PM, Blanton said:

Has anyone seen the movie Cobb starring Tommy Lee Jones? Stumbled on it via Amazon Video the other day and Christ it was awful.

The Stump journalist had to make up so much sensationalist bullshit that couldn't be refuted on account of Ty Cobb being dead. 

I always thought it was funny as shit when I was a kid.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Guest

Guest

Posted
Posted
4 minutes ago, Blanton said:

There is something charming about a shitfaced, racist white guy running around doing whatever the fuck he wants because he’s Ty Cobb. 

Unless he's Jerry Jones...

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
 Share
Go to topic listing


Football ... Basketball ... Baseball ... Other Sports ... Futbol ... 🤫995🤫 ... Gambling ... Movies & TV ... Music ... Hobbies ... Lulz ... Food & Travel ... Daily Texan ... Business and Markets ... Cloak Room ... Help ... For Sale ... Board Discussion ... Subscribe!... Donate!... Advertise... COOKIE MONSTER!

×
×
  • Create New...