CancerTreatmentBooks.com
Information About Cancer and Cancer Treatment

Ty Cobb




Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb (December 18, 1886 - July 17, 1961), also known as
"The Georgia Peach", was an American baseball player considered to be the
greatest player of the "Deadball Era" (1900-1920), and perhaps of all time.
He was the first player elected to the United States Baseball Hall of Fame,
in 1936.

Born in Narrows, Georgia, Cobb had a strong well-respected father as a role
model, but his mother shot his father dead one night as his father was
entering the house by a window. Some thought the killing an accident, with
Mr. Cobb mistaken for a deadly intruder. Others whispered that Mrs. Cobb had
taken a lover, and killed her husband to avoid being caught with him. Either
way, the killing was traumatic for young Ty Cobb (18 years old at the time).
Some of the fanatical intensity he brought to baseball may have been linked
to that killing. Cobb later made his home in Augusta, Georgia and his first
venture in to baseball was with the Augusta Tourists.

Cobb was disliked widely by the press and opponents, and today is remembered
for his violent behavior off the field and for his racist attitudes. Even
those who disliked him personally acknowledged his skill as a player, however.

Cobb won 13 American League batting titles, a record that has not been
closely approached. His batting average topped the .400 mark three times. In
1911, Cobb had one of the most productive seasons for a batter, when he hit
for a .420 average and led the league in numerous categories.

In 1910, Cobb and Napoleon Lajoie were neck-and-neck for the American League
batting title, with Cobb pulling ahead by a slight margin going into the
last day of the season. The prize was a Chalmers Automobile. Cobb sat out
the Detroit game to preserve his average. Lajoie, whose Cleveland team was
playing the St. Louis Browns, notched seven hits in a doubleheader to pass
Cobb. Six of those hits were bunt singles which fell in front of the third
baseman. It turned out that the Browns' manager had ordered the third
baseman to play back, so as to allow Lajoie to win the batting title instead
of Cobb. American League president Ban Johnson declared Cobb the official
batting average winner after some wrangling. The Chalmers people, however,
decided to award an automobile to both Cobb and Lajoie. The next year, the
Chalmers Award was given to the player "most valuable" to his team, and the
modern Most Valuable Player Award was born, with Cobb winning the American
League version unanimously.

In May, 1912, Cobb assaulted a heckler in the stands in New York. The league
suspended Cobb for the assault, and his Detroit teammates, though not fond
of Cobb, went on strike to protest the suspension prior to the May 18th game
in Philadelphia. For that one game, Detroit fielded a replacement team made
up of college and sandlot ballplayers, plus two Detroit coaches, and lost,
24-2. The strike ended when Cobb urged his teammates to return to the field.

In 1960 sportswriter Al Stump spent an extended period with the aging Cobb,
in an effort to produce a authorised biography. Despite Cobb's
unpleasantness to Stump the book (ISBN: 1565121449) painted Ty in a
sympathetic light. Thirty years later, however, Stump extensively revised
the book, including his own experience with Cobb and capturing the man who
was so disliked by so many of his contemparies.

Ty Cobb died in 1961, in Atlanta, Georgia and was intered in the Royston,
Georgia town cemetery.

Regular season stats
 G   AB    R    H    2B 3B  HR  RBI  SB CS  BB   SO  BA  OBP  SLG  TB   SH HBP
 303511434 2246 4189 724295 117 1937 892178 1249 357 .366.433 .512 5854 29594

Cancer - List of Famous Cancer Patients - Medical Topics - Medical_Terms - Medicine - Alternative Therapies -