OT: A New View on Ty Cobb. A Great Article/Book
I don't post topics very often, but was surfing somewhere near the edge of the internet and came across a very intriguing baseball history article about Ty Cobb. The article was derived from a speech given at Hillsdale College by author/professor/journalist Charles Leerhsen.
His book, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, is one of the first (only?) original sourced reports I've read about Cobb. The speech is an excellent primer for the book, or a great short read for those that don't have the time/interest.
In addition to unraveling some of Cobb's infamous traits, the book is an interesting study of journalism, particularly the laziness of sports journalist. That at least, was a topic I figured most of the board would appreciate for all the (just) lamenting we do.
Link?
I'm seeing a pattern here . . . .
According to the article, the answer is almost assuredly. Al Stump appeared to be even a few degrees less credible than Mitch Albom. Hopefully he'll be one of the people Albom meets in heaven, and they can discuss fantasy sports. Not, you know, the fantasy league stuff. Rather, their fantasies about sports portrayed as truth for profit. To wit:
It didn’t matter that all of Stump’s sources were anonymous, all his quotes unidentified, and that Stump himself had been banned from several newspapers and magazines for making things up.
Thanks to the OP for posting this - the article is great, and sheds light both on Cobb's legacy and on the long history of shoddy sports journalism.
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I always admired Cobb's records and production even though he was a "dirty" player. I wonder how casual sports fans will view Tom Brady 30 to 50 years from now. Will he be considered a dirty player because of all the lazy and negative journalism throughout his career? I sure hope not because that would be a terrible mischaracterization of him as a player and person.
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but why should I believe him over the other 10 - 15 stories and articles I read about Ty Cobb? He's been dead for over 50 years, and this is the first time I've read anything about Ty Cobb being a misuderstood, great guy.
Because almost all of the other stories and articles were based on work by one biographer, who wrote two Cobb books and is now generally known to have faked a number of details about Cobb's life and purposely misportrayed him as revenge for having been difficult to work with on Cobb's autobiography.
That was a very interesting read indeed and - like others, I am sure - very much counter to many of the things that I believed were the case regarding Ty Cobb.
I've actually read My Life in Baseball: The True Record and I find that incredible, upon reflection, that it was a few days with Cobb and a lot of apparent fiction. That is some lazy research and reporting indeed.
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Great read. People are complicated, there's good and bad. Apparently not as much bad in Ty Cobb as portrayed over the years. Here's all I know. I don't care what league you play in, who the pitchers are, what the ball was made out of - a .366 lifetime batting average is insane.
It was especially nice to see the accusations that Cobb was a racist challenged. It's too easy to assume that Cobb, as a Georgian in the first half of the 20th century, was racist and look for confirming evidence.
The Hillsdale author did a great job of underscoring that there is a lot of contrary evidence to that assumption. Very interesting to see that Cobb's family had a history of supporting abolition and objecting to the Confederate cause. It was also interesting to see Cobb had some very (for the era) progressive quotes attributed to him.
People are complicated and imperfect, and Cobb was no exception. For all of that, it seems that he does not deserve to be villified by the likes of Al Stump and Ken Burns.
Great article, read it when I got my Imprimis last week! Awesome to see a great publication on the board.
April 26th, 2016 at 10:14 AM ^
I've got a book by Fred Lieb--Baseball As I Have Known It--who was a sportwriter from the 19-aughts on up, and Lieb slams Cobb as a racist psycho too. He quotes an assortment of ex-teammates, all on the record, who all state either hatred for the man or at least their view that he was tough to get close to, wasn't widely liked, and didn't care to be. Just because Stump made shit up it doesn't automatically follow that Cobb was some kind of sweetie with a heart of gold.
April 26th, 2016 at 10:30 AM ^
If you read the linked article, the author (Charles Leerhsen) is straightforward about Cobb's temperament while arguing that other aspects of the portrayal of him are incorrect:
Cobb was, like the rest of us, a highly imperfect human being. He was too quick to take offense and too intolerant of those who didn’t strive for excellence with the over-the-top zeal that he did. He did not suffer fools gladly, and he thought too many others fools. He was the first baseball celebrity, and he did not always handle well the responsibilities that came with that. And yes, he once went into the stands and repeatedly punched a man who had been heckling him for more than a year, and who turned out to have less than the full complement of fingers—hence the story of him attacking a handicapped fan. This is a mark against him. But was he a racist and an embarrassment to the game? Far from it.
What is noteworthy here is that Leerhsen did not begin as a Cobb fanboy. He fully accepted the conventional Cobb-was-a-horrible-person narrative before conducting his research of primary sources, which caused him to reconsider.
April 26th, 2016 at 10:28 AM ^
For those not much into the reading of words
April 26th, 2016 at 11:08 AM ^
April 26th, 2016 at 11:24 AM ^
Followed by maniacal Ray Liotta laughter. Good stuff.
April 26th, 2016 at 11:32 AM ^
based on Charles Leerhsen's speech and decided to search youtube. Found these two clips of interest, the first is of Ty Cobb on the TV game show "I've Got a Secret". 12 minutes long, referenced by Leerhsen in the linked article, and very enjoyable for the fact (among other things) that not only did Cobb NOT spike the contestants, but that he got what I would describe as sustained thunderous applause by the studio audience. Recorded back in 1955, no doubt most of the audience (and the public back in those days) had a much different opinion of Cobb than the one most people now have as a result of the lies written in spite by Stump.
Enjoy, it's well worth your time, whether or not you're a baseball fan:
The 2nd clip is a 4 1/4 -minute piece by Leerhsen himself about Cobb.
April 26th, 2016 at 12:02 PM ^
That game show clip is fascinating. It's funny to see the cultural changes (a carton of cigarettes as a gift!). Also interesting that none of the contestants seemed to recognize Cobb before he was named. They probably would have only known him from the radio or maybe the newspaper. We've definitely become a more visual culture since that time.
I like Cobb's embarassed facial reactions when the host lists all his records, too.
April 26th, 2016 at 12:54 PM ^
It's interesting that at 11:45 one of the panelists comments "spiked a lot of second basemen too" at the end of Cobb's list of accolades, to which the host replies yeah, he was a mean one. So Cobb had acquired a reputation as a dirty player long before the fictitious autobiography and other books about his alleged life. Was Cobb a devil or angel? I'd say, like many other things in our culture, the truth is somewhere in between. In between doesn't sell stories, so our "news" reporters will continue to laude or demonize people depending on their own agenda.
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April 27th, 2016 at 12:24 AM ^
appears to be so close-minded that reading it wouldn't have done any good anyway.
Remember, when you point your finger at someone, you have three pointing back at you.
at once.
sure, it looks like some bizzare tiger-claw guesture, but hell if I'm having any fingers point back at me!
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of Leerhsen's Cobb book. Used the MGoBlog Amazon link, too.
I just wanted to give a quick "thank you!" to the OP for posting this thread---it served as a reminder to me that I had intended to order this book several months ago, when I saw it and leafed thru it while Christmas shopping last December. I didn't buy it then only because I was trying to stick to my Christmas budget, then forgot all about it later. Thanks!
Thanks for posting. I definitely intend to read the book. I used to read a lot of baseball great bios and auto-bios when I was a kid, and I probably read the Stump book. So, it's really good to hear a refreshing, unbiased account from someone else who did better research. I imagine the press liked the idea of portraying him as a bad-guy to sell more papers and likely embellished their narrative with a lot of 1/2 truths or flatout lies. We've certainly seen that today, so it's very believable. At the same time, I don't believe at all he was Mr. Nice Guy either. I'm sure he did piss off a lot of people, partly due to his uncompromising standards and thin skin. Maybe this book will help at least correct the past mis-truths.
Being an avid Tigers fan (and a very amature Tigers history enthusiast) I am thankful to have found there is contrary evidence to the 'character' of one of my favorite All Time Tigers. History is INFECTED with those that have wrongly accused and had thier lives ruined (or at the very least greatly damaged)! History is also riddles with those that were/are guilty and somehow Houdinied their way out of some serious consequences! Hopefully in time these facts will make headway to change a 'popular' opinion of one of the GOAT baseball players?
Go Blue! Go Tigers!
that cited some of Cobb's contemporaries and he was described as a tough cookie who was easily irritated but they also had some praise for him. That seems to be close to what this author is arguing.
I always kinda liked Ty Cobb because he seemed like the quintessential anti-hero. It's also always been my belief that with people who are known as 'difficult', people are willing to believe everything bad no matter how outlandish..whereas people reputed to be 'good guys' will often get away with a lot of bad stuff. Look at what happened in the shadow of Paterno's carefully crafted good guy image.