Ty Coob

On December 18, 1886 Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born into the famliy of W. H.
Cobb and his fifteen year old wife Amanda Chitwood. Ty grew up in the
southern town of Royston, Georgia. Ty’s father W. H. Cobb was a schoolteacher
and a college graduate at a time when there were few. W. H. raised Ty on a 100
acre farm where he taught Ty the values of hard work and preservance. Ty’s
mother Amanda Chitwood was only twelve when she married W.H.. She had Ty
at the age of fifteen and lived to see her son get elected into the Baseball Hall of
Fame.(http.//wso.williams.edu/~jkossutn/cobb/dad.htm) Ty grew up as any
normal southern boy did in the late 19th century. Ty was different in that he was
highly compeitive and easliy tempered. In one example, while in fifth grade he
beat up a fat boy for mispelling a word in a spelling contestand costing his team
the game. He was driven to win at everything .(Ty Cobb 13-15)
Ty first started out playing for the Royston Reds his hometown team and then
made the jump to the Sally League which was a semi-pro league. Ty’s father was
against this afraid that Ty would become a drunk like most of the ballplayers of
that era. In one conversion Ty asked for his father’s blessing in going into
baseball and his response was “And I want tell you one thing--don’t come home
a failure.”(hhtp.//wso.williams.edu/~jkossutn/cobb/minors.htm)
Cobb got called up by the Detriot Tigers in 1905 the same year as his father’s
death. Cobb played like baseball like a runaway fright train. Cobb’s baserunning
ablites were surpassed by none. He would stop at nothing to win, he was the first
to run into a catcher at home and did hook slides which caused great outrage. In
one game Cobb did a hook slide and caused a the third basemen a cut on his
arm. Connie Mack the Philadelphia manger at the time called him “the dirtest
player ever.” After that game Cobb recieved many death threats from
Philadelphia fans because of the incident. In reaction to his baserunning Cobb
said, “Baseball is not unlike war.”
(http.//wso.williams.edu/~jkossutn/cobb/running.htm)
Ty was very hard to get along with and had frequenty fights with his teamates
and fans. After becoming a major for detriot, he was hated by his players for
pushing them to far. He was a known racist and had many incidents of slapping
or hitting blacks. He once bet up a heckler in the stands, then realzing afterwards
that he was handicapped. He used violence to defend his honor, his famliy and
anyhing that was important to him. One of the men Cobb despised most was
Babe Ruth. He loathed Ruth becasue he was a threat to Cobb and how the game
was played. Changing the game into a home run derby and away from the
intricate art of hitting and baserunning. At one pint in a game against the
Yankees a freefall had broken out and the benches cleared. Cobb and Ruth raced
towards each other but were intercepted by an umpire.