December 18 Happy Birthday to Former Tigers or Detroit Wolverines

Joe Randa

Willie Blair

Les Burke

Sam Barnes

Ty Cobb is probably the most written about Tiger.  There is not a whole lot I can tell you about him in a paragraph that you have not already heard.  However, my own thought is the truth about Cobb is somewhere below all the nastiness we have heard about him.  The biggest anti Cobb feelings have come from Al Stump who wrote the book “My Life in Baseball” about Ty.  When Ty died Stump then wrote “Cobb: A Biography” which sold really well due to some of the inside scoops he had from writing his earlier bio.  Stump was then selling off all kinds of Cobb’s diaries and so on that he had used as “research”.  The problem is that most of what Stump sold were actually forgeries created by Stump.  Other writers have since built on the stories from Stump and even renowned biographer Charles Alexander was found to have fabricated some of the Cobb stories he had.  Since then many have come out to refute claims by both of these writers.  For instance, one famous tale from Stump is that the only player to attend Cobb’s funeral was Mickey Cochrane because Cobb helped Mickey when he was down and out.  The problem is that Mickey’s daughter has shown pictures of the Cochrane house complete with library from Grosse Pointe that she grew up in at the same time, according to Stump, that Mickey was down and out.  So anything attributed to Stump should be highly suspect at the least if not thrown out entirely.  Stump made up artifacts of Cobb’s and sold anything he could to make money off of Cobb.   So I have no doubt he was willing to make up stories about Cobb to sell a book.  Another great myth about Cobb was that he hated Babe Ruth and never got along with him.  Yet another well documented book by Tom Stanton show that while there was a time in their careers they clearly did not get along, by the end the two were very good friends.  My thought is Cobb was a product of his times.  He was probably very racist by our times.  However, so were my grandparents.  If you are not aware, I am married to a Korean woman.   I purposely did not ever tell my Grandmother about my wife whom I was dating at the time as I was afraid of how she would react knowing that she was a racist.  This does not really matter except to make that point that while we may be products of our family trees, this does not mean we have to share their beliefs.  My other grandparents would have had no problem with my wife what so ever.  Cobb was of the era before my Grandparents.  This was shortly after the Civil War.  Needless to say, there was a bit of racism going around the US at that time and certainly in the south.  How can we expect Cobb not to have been influenced by those times?  Was Cobb difficult to get along with?  Sure.  I also think most people who are so type “A” that they have to win at everything at all cost are difficult to get along with.  So my thought of Cobb is that he was a difficult, demanding, know it all, “my way or the highway”, type “A” personality who was brought up in another era when racism was certainly tolerated if not accepted by most of the US.  Would I want him babysitting my kids?  Not a chance in hell.  Was he much different than the rest of the players of his time?  Yes, he was one of the best ball players on the field and smart and that certainly must have pissed off a few of his competitors. 

Below is a 1907 Dietsche postcard of Cobb from my collection.

Clay Perry