E Morris and E Bannon

Falkenburg and Stanley

Social Studies/Language

2 March 2004

Ty Cobb

Ty Cobb survived many obstacles during his lifetime, many of which contributed to his negative attitude. This attitude led him to be remembered as the meanest baseball player in history. The rumors were horrible and not the least bit true. They gave him a very bad reputation over the years. Despite these rumors and all the negative words said about and to him, he worked hard and became one of the best baseball players in history.

Tyrus Raymond Cobb, Ty Cobb for short, was an outstanding baseball player. He was born in Narrows, Georgia on December 18, 1886. By 1890-1892, Ty and his family decided to move to Royston. Ty took a liking to baseball at an early age. Amanda, Ty’s mother, accepted Ty’s wish to be a professional baseball player and wished him good luck while his father, on the other hand, did not accept this fact nor did he like it at all. Ty became so frustrated from his dad not letting him pursue his dream of being a professional baseball player that he ran away from home when he became seventeen years old during the spring of 1904. As he left his home, his father, William Cobb, told Ty, "Do not come home a failure!" Ty did nothing of the sort. He worked hard to accomplish these dreams, and he finally achieved them during the following year.

His father, William Herschel Cobb, married Amanda Chitwood during the year 1883. Her father, Caleb Chitwood didn’t approve of their marriage. He was reluctant at first, but then later had no choice but to let her marry. At the time, William was twenty and Amanda was only twelve. William was a highly respected figure no matter where he went. He was a college graduate, state senator, county school superintendent, principal, and editor of the town newspaper. Three years after their marriage, Ty was born. After Ty, they had two other children, Florence Leslie during 1892 and John Paul in 1888 (Kossuth, 1).

On the night of August 8, 1905, William Cobb was going to see if the rumors of his wife cheating on him were true. He told her he was going out of town for a couple of days. He crawled up the house with a pistol at hand and climbed to the bedroom balcony and tried to open the window. Amanda heard these sounds and grabbed a gun. She fired the gun at the window, and it was dead silent. She shot it again for safety precautions and then looked outside at her attacker and found it to be her husband, William. Later that year, she was put on trial for the murder of her husband. She unjustly received an all-male jury, which concluded the case to be "voluntary manslaughter." She was proven not guilty and freed. After that point, Amanda never re-married as confirmation that she would never cheat on her husband. After Ty received this horrible news of his father’s death, he worked harder and harder in baseball. "I did it for my father, who was an exalted man. They killed him when he was still young. They blew his head off the same week I became a major-leaguer. He never got to see me play. Not one game, not an inning. But I knew he was watching me…and I never let him down. Never" (Ty Cobb ,Stump 27).

Around August of 1905, the Detroit Tigers bought Ty’s contract for $700. During 1908, he started playing as center fielder for their team. He soon earned the nickname "Georgia Peach" because he came from Georgia, a famous state for peaches. As a member of the Tigers, Ty was part of an American League pennant-winning teams from 1907 to 1909. He was also one of the first players in baseball history to practice using warm-up drills before going up to bat. He would then bat with his left and throw with his right.

During 1908, Ty married Charlie Marion Lombard. Their marriage lasted around thirty-nine years until they divorced. Between the years of 1910 and 1921, Charlie and Ty had three sons and two daughters. The oldest of the sons disliked baseball very much and failed a lot of colleges. In 1947, Ty’s wife, Charlie filed a divorce between them in Nevada. Two years later Ty remarried Frances Fairburn Cass, but it only lasted until 1956; which is seven years.

Later in 1921-1926, Cobb became manager of the Detroit Tigers. Being the center fielder and manager of the Detroit Tigers was not enough for Ty. Later in 1927-1928 he played with the Philadelphia Athletics. Soon after that he retired. In his overall baseball history, he had a batting average of .367, had 4,191 major-league hits stole 892 bases and won 12 batting championships ("Ty Cobb Biography" 1). After his 24-year career involving baseball, he was the first of five players in history to be elected to the "Baseball Hall of Fame" in 1936. Shortly after his victory, his mother died.

Ty Cobb’s teammates would spread rumors about him because of his mom’s "man slaughtering" act. Because of such cruelty portrayed towards him by his teammates and fans, Ty’s attitude changed, or at least the image of him changed. His image, by other people, was that he was cruel in every way, a murderer, racist, uncivilized, and mean towards everyone. While these rumors were formed, only one of them actually described him as he actually was...Mean. What drove him to be a mean person was that everyone, players and other people, would spread rumors or treat him inspite of what his mother had done. "The loss of his father may have been a driving force for his wanting to prove himself so aggressively." After these rumors were spread and his father was dead, would it not be fair to say that he was not cruel, but he was just misunderstood?

When 1959 came around, Ty was not doing well physically. He was diagnosed with diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, Bright’s disease (degenerative kidney disorder), an and enlarged prostate. He then died in Emory University Hospital on July 17, 1961. Only four of his baseball teammates went to his funeral, along with two hundred other people. Now, in dedication to Ty Cobb in 1998, his museum was opened so all people in modern times can enjoy his wonderful baseball skills.

In conclusion, Ty Cobb was one of the best baseball players of all time. He tried really hard to achieve his goal and went for it despite all efforts to bring him down. Ty was determined to meet his dream. He wanted to show everyone in the world that he was a great athlete even though people discouraged him, rumors were spread, and his dad was dead. If that does not show the most effort anyone could give than I don’t know what is.