When I posted my essay about Ty Cobb and his career the other day, I also posted it on Facebook, as I usually do. A number of readers mentioned the biography of Cobb by Charles Leerhsen, Ty Cobb, a Terrible Beauty, which came out a few years ago and caused quite a stir (click on the link to see the book on Amazon).

If you love baseball history – as I know all of you do – do yourself a favor and read Ty Cobb; A Terrible Beauty. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the author doesn’t “sugarcoat” Cobb. What he does is present a much-needed fresh look, with warts-and-all on full display.

In the book, Cobb’s many shortcomings, as well as his considerable attributes, are presented within the historical context in which he lived. Using contemporary sources, the Cobb who emerges from Charles Leerhsen’s pen is certainly a flawed human being, like the rest of us; and, as we know, some of Cobb’s flaws were egregious. The author attempts to paint a much more

historically accurate and complete portrait of the man who is certainly one of the most complex and controversial characters to ever wear a major league uniform.  In my estimation, he succeeds on this count. Like all of us, Cobb deserves to be judged from within the historical context in which he lived; not through the prism of perfect “20-20 hindsight” from our perspective in twenty-first-century America.

Much of the conventional wisdom about Cobb is gleaned from recent biographies by Charles Alexander and Al Stump. We now know that much of the information was wrong. Charles Leerhsen is not timid in pointing out these inaccuracies. It reminds me of Eliot Asinov’s highly popular but historically shallow book, Eight Men Out, about the Black Sox scandal, and how it cemented erroneous stories into the public consciousness, some simply made up. It took the highly-researched book by Gene Carney, Burying the Black Sox, to counter many of these myths. Charles Leerhsen’s book serves much the same purpose.

I’m not trying to convince anyone one-way-or-another about Cobb. I only suggest you read the book, form your own opinions, and not blindly accept the conventional wisdom, which, as we know, is often simplistic and wrong. Those of us who love baseball history and take it seriously deserve a more complete, nuanced portrait of Ty Cobb, not just the media caricatures.

No incident etched Cobb’s reputation as a “dirty player” more than his slide into Frank “Home Run” Baker on August 24, 1909, in a game between the Tigers and Athletics at Detroit’s Bennet Park (See the Classic Charles Conlon photo below). Here are a few quotes from Charles Leehrsen about the incident:

“Cobb had walked and stole second. As Sam Crawford took ball four, Cobb took off for third. As he slid in, he twisted away from Baker, and scraped the infielder’s exposed right forearm with his right spike. Baker had been standing a foot or so off the bag, toward left field, keeping the running lane open, but then leaned back awkwardly into Cobb and wound up tagging him out ahead of the base, on the shoe or ankle. As he did, Baker simultaneously incurred the Deadball Era’s most controversial wound.”

“It was decidedly small and superficial, as controversial wounds go. Though the call had gone their way, Baker and Mack complained to the umpire about Cobb’s method of sliding, the former stomping around to relieve – or perhaps dramatize – the pain. No one was ejected or even admonished. The A’s trainer trotted out and treated Baker’s cut and the game resumed a few minutes later with him seemingly fine. The Detroit Free Press account the next day didn’t even mention the little brouhaha between Cobb and Baker at third.”

“No one was madder – or fake-madder – than Connie Mack, who the next day made a long, fiery speech to the papers about Cobb and how it was his ‘second nature to act mean on the ball field. I would not have him on my team for anything,’ said the man who would one day pay Cobb a sweet sum to play for him. Philadelphia fans threatened to kill Cobb for what he had done to Frank Baker, even though he hadn’t done very much. In the end, their anger helped the story spill out of the sports pages and into the general conversation.”

Here’s how Frank Baker reacted to the incident the next time the Tigers were in Philadelphia:

“After he stole third in the first inning, Baker shook his hand to show that he had no lingering resentment, and Shibe Park shook with cheers. Baker told reporters that his injury had been exaggerated and that he never really had a problem with Cobb.”

Many of Cobb’s contemporaries didn’t accept the view of Cobb as a dirty player. Here’s what Hall-of-Famer Eddie Collins, quoted in Leehrsen’s book, who was on the receiving end of many of Cobb’s hard slides into second, had to say about him:

“I want to correct the erroneous impression that Cobb deliberately went out of his way to spike opposing players. It just wasn’t so. His spikes left their marks on countless players, but that was because he was such an aggressive victory-hungry player. If anyone blocked his way a collision was inevitable. He was an elusive slider who frequently slid away from a tag rather than adopt football tactics.”

That Cobb was a hard-nosed, aggressive player who played every game to win, pushing the envelope of acceptability ever higher and incurring the wrath of many who played against him, no one doubts. But he was also admired by an equal number of his contemporaries. Again, quoting Charles Leerhsen:

“Christy Mathewson was probably as popular as Cobb at the time, but no one was simultaneously as popular and as unpopular as young Ty Cobb. In every American city except Detroit he was at once the dreaded enemy and the biggest draw. He created internal conflict – should I boo his fellow or appreciate him?”

Controversial? Most definitely. A highly flawed human being? No question. But I suggest you read the book and form your own opinions about the “Terrible Beauty,” Tyrus Raymond Cobb. There’s a lot more to this remarkable ballplayer that you may not be aware of. I read the book and I’m glad I did.

Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: “Ty Cobb, A Terrible Beauty,” by Charles Leerhsen; and public domain.

Information: Quotes taken from the same source