Ty Cobb
Biography
A 1942 survey of former major league managers pointed the finger toward Ty Cobb as the greatest baseball player of all time. Many great players have surfaced on the diamond, but none out-hit, outplayed, or out-hustled the man they called “The Georgia Peach.” According to the Elias Sports Bureau, during 24 seasons, most with the Detroit Tigers and a couple with the Philadelphia Athletics, Cobb compiled a .367 batting average, the highest in the history of the game. He is the leader in runs scored with 2,245, and was the all-time hit leader until the mid-1980s when Pete Rose eclipsed him. In 1936, Ty Cobb became the first inductee of baseball’s Hall of Fame, earning 222 out of a possible 226 votes.
The eldest of three children, he grew up in Royston, Georgia, under the watchful eyes of his father, who was a schoolteacher, principal, newspaper publisher, state senator, and county school commissioner who urged Ty to study. When Ty went off to play professional baseball, his father sternly warned him, “Don’t come home a failure.” It is unlikely that anyone can beat his lifetime batting average. In his 24 seasons of playing baseball he topped the .300 barrier 23 times. Cobb’s first great season came in 1907, and the Tigers rode success all the way to the World Series. That season, the centerfield’s batting average was .350. Other league bests include 212 hits, 119 RBIs, and 49 stolen bases. Cobb did not stop there. He won nine consecutive batting titles starting in 1907. Cobb might be remembered best for his intimidating and harsh playing style. He was never afraid to go to extremes to win a game. He could take pain, as well as hand it out. “I recall when Cobb played a series with each leg a mass of raw flesh,” Grantland Rice wrote. “He had a temperature of 103 and the doctors ordered him to bed for several days, but he got three hits, stole three bases, and won the game. Afterward he collapsed at the bench.” Cobb looked for every possible way to win. He used his great speed and precision hitting as the best weapons available in the dead-ball, strong-pitching era. Cobb studied pitchers and took advantage of their weaknesses. Against Walter Johnson, the great Washington right-hander who was afraid of hitting batters with fastballs, Cobb crowded the plate. Johnson worked him outside, fell behind in the count, and finally threw slow pitches over the plate. Cobb clobbered ball after ball.
His best years were 1911, when he led the league in every major offensive category but homers and batted a career high .420, and in 1915 when he stole 96 bases.
Ty paid the price for success. He would practice sliding until his legs were raw. He would place blankets along the base and practice bunting a ball on the basket. During the winter he hunted through daylight hours in weighted boots so that his legs would be strong for the upcoming campaign. He overlooked no opportunity to gain an edge over his opponents, most of whom admired his drive to succeed.
Cobb appreciated the value of a dollar and engaged in annual haggles with Detroit executives before signing his contract. Cobb’s earnings were invested wisely, mostly in General Motors and Coca-Cola stock, which made him very wealthy and probably baseball’s first millionaire.
Career Highlights
- Manager, Detroit Tigers (1921-26).
- Insisted that he was not a super athlete, rather that he had a great desire to win.
- Was quoted as saying “I’ve got to be first all the time — in everything.”
- Best hitter of his era, if not of all time.
- Has a career batting average of .367.
- Won 12 batting titles, including 9 in a row from 1907 thru 1915.
- Third all time in stolen bases with 892.
- Second in runs scored with 2,245.
- Second in career hits with 4,191.
- Led the American League in slugging eight times.
- Scored 100 runs 11 times in his career.
- Drove in over 100 runs seven times in his career.
- Led the American League in runs five times.
- Led the American League in hits eight times.
- Played for 24 years; 22 years with Detroit, two with Philadelphia.
- Youngest AL player to reach 1,000 hit level (24-years old).
- Batted under .320 only once in his career.
- Batted over .400 three times.
- One of the first five players elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 where he received 98.23 percent of the votes (222 out of 226)
Quotes
“Rarely should a base runner risk a steal when the game is in balance. It’s to be used when you can afford to fail.”
“Most of all I was saddling that team with a psychological burden so that they would be muttering, Cobb is crazy. He’ll run anytime and in any situation. It would help give them the jitters and they’d concentrate so much on me they were not paying any attention to the business at hand. My failures rarely were complete failures. They were more like future investments.”
“A ball bat is a wondrous weapon.”
“Baseball was one-hundred percent of my life.”
“Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher.”
“I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me… but I beat them and left them in the ditch.”
“I have observed that baseball is not unlike a war, and when you come right down to it, we batters are the heavy artillery.”
“I may have been fierce, but never low or underhand.”
“I never could stand losing. Second place didn’t interest me. I had a fire in my belly.”
“I regret to this day that I never went to college. I feel I should have been a doctor.”
“Speed is a great asset; but it’s greater when it’s combined with quickness – and there’s a big difference.”
“The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full of speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his own fault.”
“The crowd makes the ballgame.”
“The great American game should be an unrelenting war of nerves.”
“To get along with me, don’t increase my tension.”
“When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch.”
“When I came to Detroit, I was just a mild-mannered Sunday school boy.”
“Watch out you big baboon. I’m going down on the first pitch.” “I’m taking third on the next pitch.”
“Out of my way, ice wagon. I’m coming home.”
“Someone will hit .400 again. Somebody will get smart and swing naturally.”
“On August 2, 1907, I encountered the most threatening sight I ever saw in the ball field. He was only a rookie, and we licked our lips as we warmed up for the first game of a doubleheader in Washington. Evidently, manager Pongo Joe Cantillon of the Nats had picked a rube out of the cornfields of the deepest bushes to pitch against us….He was a tall, shambling galoot of about twenty with arms so long they hung far out of his sleeves and with a side arm delivery that looked unimpressive at first glance….One of the tigers imitated a cow mooing and we hollered at Cantillon: ‘Get the pitchfork ready, Joe-your hayseed’s on his way back to the barn.’ …The first time I faced him I watched him take that easy windup-and then something went past me that made me flinch. The thing just hissed with danger. We couldn’t touch him…every one of us knew we’d met the most powerful arm ever turned loose in a ball park.”
Cobb, on the only time he ever deliberately tried to slash a man: “[Boston Red Sox pitcher Hub Leonard] would aim bullets at your head, left handed to boot… I dragged a bunt… which the first baseman was forced to field. Leonard sprinted for first to take the throw and saw that I was after him. He wouldn’t have been safe that day if he’d scrambled into the top bleachers. I ignored the bag-since I was already out-and dove feet first right through the coaching box. He managed to duck, but…the escape was close enough medicine for him. He never threw another beanball at me.”
Cobb described baseball as: “Not unlike a war. If we cannot only beat them but run wild on them in addition, treat them like a bunch of bush leaguers, it is liable to put them up in the air for a week.”
“Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded man. It’s no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It’s a struggle for supremacy, survival of the fittest.”
Licensing
As the exclusive licensing agent for Ty Cobb, CMG Worldwide is dedicated to maintaining and developing a positive brand image for our client. CMG is a leader and pioneer in its field, with over four decades of experience arranging licensing agreements for hundreds of personalities and brands in various industries, including sports, entertainment, music, and more. We actively seek out commercial opportunities that are consistent with our brand positioning goals, and we are committed to pursuing strategies that meet the goals of our clients, as well as our licensing partners.
Please contact us today if you are interested in licensing opportunities with Ty Cobb. For a full list of CMG Clients, please visit our website here.