When I read the headline, I thought to myself, "yeah right. More revisionist history."
Then I read the interview, and Cobb's latest biographer has strong, concrete evidence to go against everything we've ever heard about Ty Cobb in regards to race relations.
I'm not accepting it as fact just yet, but I feel good about this.
And I plan on telling my son about it tomorrow.
When he has asked me about Ty Cobb in the past, I always said he was a great player but not a good person, and I told him why. I remember telling him this when we walked past a Ty Cobb monument on a wall somewhere along one of the streets on the way to Ford Field as we walked there from our parking spot to a Lions game two years ago.
Now, I'll tell him that he might not have been a terrible person after all, and there are new, conflicting reports.
The tidbit about Cobb throwing out the first pitch for a Negro League game is not something Cobb would have ever considered doing, if his previous biographies were accurate. But he apparently did it. What does that say about him? And the fact that the Negro League would ask him to throw out the first pitch for a game says something about what they knew about the man, I would think.
Also, the apparent history that his great grandfather was a preacher who spoke out against slavery in Georgia in the 1800s, and his grandfather refused to fight for the Confederacy, and his father once broke up a lynch mob are amazing revelations - amazing.
In terms of concrete evidence, the Cobb quote from the 1952 article in The Sporting News is very strong evidence in Cobb's favor in my opinion. That was a time when racists weren't afraid to let you know they were racist. But Cobb, whom we always heard was a racist, gives an opinion that is 180 degrees in the opposite on the matter of the integration of baseball.
Can you imagine in this is true? We have heard for years that Cobb was very, very unpopular among players, partly because he was a dirty player. What if he was also unpopular due to his progressive opinions on race relations? What if this guy actually stood up for civil rights like his father, grandfather and great grandfather but has been misrepresented for decades? If true, he must be rolling over in his grave, or at least upside down like Bob Knight has requested so that his critics can kiss his you-know-what.
**
I have to wait for further research into this new book before accepting it as fact.
And I don't know if it's the caffeine speaking, but I feel good about this. I physically feel like something has been lifted from my shoulders.
Can we be Cobb fans with a clear conscience now? I've not allowed myself to be a Cobb fan for obvious reasons.
But this might change everything. I'm hopeful. Guarded, but hopeful.
I am wondering if this will become a hot topic for debate on sports radio talk shows in the state of Michigan, during this normally dull time of year for sports. Very interesting. I would think this would be a national topic heading into the All-Star Game, with Bob Costas, Olbermann, George Will commenting and writing about it.
Link to the interview:
http://blog.detroitathletic.com/2015/06/30/author-ty-cobb-was-progressive-on-the-issue-of-race/
(By the way, i was at this web site because they have some killer shirts. I have purchased three shirts from that site and have meant to link that site in the W.I.L. category in the past)
The fact that that site produced this compelling interview strengthens my liking of this web site
BY BRUCE MARKUSEN
– JUNE 30, 2015POSTED IN: BRUCE MARKUSEN, DETROIT TIGERS
Charles Leerhsen’s book is available nowfrom Simon & Schuster.
Of all the new baseball books that have been published this spring, perhaps none has created the stir of the bestselling Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, authored by Charles Leerhsen. In this comprehensive biography, which just might go down as the definitive source on Ty Cobb, Leerhsen debunks many of the Cobb myths while presenting a more complicated portrait of the Hall of Famer than we’ve seen in the past.
Much of the Cobb mythology stems from Al Stump’s book, Cobb: A Biography, which was published in 1996 and portrayed the Hall of Famer as a racist and an ill-tempered thug. Historians have since charged Stump with fabricating many of his assertions about Cobb. Leerhsen’s book succeeds in obliterating the perception of Cobb as extraordinarily violent and uncontrollable, as it details Cobb’s life from childhood until his final days in July of 1961.
Formerly an editor for Sports Illustrated and a contributor to Rolling Stone and the New York Times, Leerhsen recently took some time to answer my questions about his new book and his efforts to recreate the real Cobb.
Markusen: In 1936, Cobb received more votes for the Hall of Fame than Babe Ruth, a fact that surprises many visitors to Cooperstown. Did the sportswriters of the day truly believe that Cobb was the best player in baseball history, not Ruth? Were there other factors that resulted in Cobb receiving such a groundswell of support from the writers?
Leerhsen: I can’t read the minds of the writers [of that time period] so can’t say what they were thinking. But the writers of ’36 knew something that’s largely forgotten today—that Cobb was not just the best hitter in terms of average but the most exciting player the game had ever known. Someone once said that Ruth hitting a home run was not as exciting as Cobb getting a walk—because once Cobb got to first the fun was just beginning. He wanted to be a disruptive force—“a mental hazard,” as he often said, to the opposition. And he was. I mean, here was a guy who once stole second, third and home on three consecutive pitches; a guy who once turned a tap back to the pitcher into an inside-the-park home run. He was thrilling to watch and for many years the biggest draw in baseball.
Markusen: There’s always been a bit of a mystery as to why Cobb arrived so late for his 1939 induction in Cooperstown. Were you able to clarify the reasons behind Cobb’s tardiness in coming to the induction ceremony?
Leerhsen: I don’t think he was trying to avoid having his picture taken with Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, as has often been said. Cobb was late for things all of his life and I think this was just another instance of that. Once he arrived he ran through town with his daughter, trying to get to the Hall as quickly as possible, so it doesn’t seem like he was dragging his heels or trying to be late.
Markusen: Your book shatters many of the myths surrounding Cobb. In your opinion, what is the most important issue surrounding Cobb that we’ve simply gotten wrong all these years?
Leerhsen: The idea that he was a racist. All of the Cobb-was-a-terrible-human-being myths started after his death in 1961, and none of them is based on fact. In the 1980s author Charles Alexander wrote a biography of Cobb in which he mistakenly identified as black several white men whom Cobb famously fought with. Besides that, people assume that because Cobb was born in 1886 in Georgia, he must be racist. What I found and reported for the first time was that Cobb, on his father’s side, descended from a long line of abolitionists. His great-grandfather was a preacher who got run out of town for preaching against slavery. His grandfather refused to fight in the Confederate army because of the slavery issue. His father was a state senator who stood up for the rights of his black constituents and once broke up a lynch mob in Cobb’s hometown. Cobb himself said nothing about race on the record until 1952, when he told The Sporting Newsthat “the Negro should be accepted into baseball wholeheartedly and not grudgingly; the Negro has the right to play professional baseball and who’s to say he has not?” In the meantime, Cobb had attended Negro League games, and sat with the players in the dugout. Indeed in 1930 he threw out the first ball at a Negro League game. It was shocking for me to discover that Cobb was actually progressive on race.
Markusen: Your book does good work in debunking much of the Al Stump mythology that was created in the mid-1990s. What do you think Stump’s motivation was in apparently exaggerating, or completely making up, so many of the Cobb stories?
Leerhsen: His motivation was money. Stump’s sensationalizing and exaggerating and outright lying made his version of Cobb more [lucrative to publishers]. Let’s not forget that Stump also forged and sold Cobb’s autograph and created fake Cobb memorabilia, which he peddled to collectors. He was completely unscrupulous.
Markusen: Let’s discuss Cobb’s relationship with his teammates. Who, if anyone, among the Tigers was he particularly close to?
Leerhsen: His better friends on the team included [second baseman] Germany Schaefer, pitcher Bill Donovan, manager Hughie Jennings, and [first baseman] Lu Blue.
Markusen: Let’s talk about Cobb and his family. What was his relationship like with his wives and children?
Leerhsen: It’s hard to say with certainty what went on in his home. One of his daughters said he was excessively stern, to the point of being scary. One of his sons said he was strict but loving, giving out a lot of hugs. He was estranged from Ty, Jr., for a while but they reestablished their relationship before the younger Cobb died of brain cancer in his 40s. Cobb was divorced from both his wives but his first wife Charlie came back into his life and she and his children were around his bed when he died.
Markusen: I’m curious about Cobb’s relationship with the famed comedian, Joe E. Brown. Were the two actually friends?
Leerhsen: I don’t think they were as close as Brown contended.
Markusen: After his playing days, Cobb became known for his investments with the Coca-Cola Company. How good of a businessman was Cobb?
Leerhsen: He was smart and disciplined with his stock investments. He actually owned more General Motors stock than Coke stock when he died, but both made him rich. He was worth about $7 million in 1961 [at the time of his death].
Cobb: A Terrible Beauty is available from Simon & Schuster. As part of his summer book signing tour, Charles Leerhsen will be appearing at the Baseball Hall of Fame on August 19 to host a presentation and book signing. For more information on that event, call 607-547-0362.
Comments
3 comments
Then I read the interview, and Cobb's latest biographer has strong, concrete evidence to go against everything we've ever heard about Ty Cobb in regards to race relations.
I'm not accepting it as fact just yet, but I feel good about this.
And I plan on telling my son about it tomorrow.
When he has asked me about Ty Cobb in the past, I always said he was a great player but not a good person, and I told him why. I remember telling him this when we walked past a Ty Cobb monument on a wall somewhere along one of the streets on the way to Ford Field as we walked there from our parking spot to a Lions game two years ago.
Now, I'll tell him that he might not have been a terrible person after all, and there are new, conflicting reports.
The tidbit about Cobb throwing out the first pitch for a Negro League game is not something Cobb would have ever considered doing, if his previous biographies were accurate. But he apparently did it. What does that say about him? And the fact that the Negro League would ask him to throw out the first pitch for a game says something about what they knew about the man, I would think.
Also, the apparent history that his great grandfather was a preacher who spoke out against slavery in Georgia in the 1800s, and his grandfather refused to fight for the Confederacy, and his father once broke up a lynch mob are amazing revelations - amazing.
In terms of concrete evidence, the Cobb quote from the 1952 article in The Sporting News is very strong evidence in Cobb's favor in my opinion. That was a time when racists weren't afraid to let you know they were racist. But Cobb, whom we always heard was a racist, gives an opinion that is 180 degrees in the opposite on the matter of the integration of baseball.
Can you imagine in this is true? We have heard for years that Cobb was very, very unpopular among players, partly because he was a dirty player. What if he was also unpopular due to his progressive opinions on race relations? What if this guy actually stood up for civil rights like his father, grandfather and great grandfather but has been misrepresented for decades? If true, he must be rolling over in his grave, or at least upside down like Bob Knight has requested so that his critics can kiss his you-know-what.
**
I have to wait for further research into this new book before accepting it as fact.
And I don't know if it's the caffeine speaking, but I feel good about this. I physically feel like something has been lifted from my shoulders.
Can we be Cobb fans with a clear conscience now? I've not allowed myself to be a Cobb fan for obvious reasons.
But this might change everything. I'm hopeful. Guarded, but hopeful.
I am wondering if this will become a hot topic for debate on sports radio talk shows in the state of Michigan, during this normally dull time of year for sports. Very interesting. I would think this would be a national topic heading into the All-Star Game, with Bob Costas, Olbermann, George Will commenting and writing about it.
Link to the interview:
http://blog.detroitathletic.com/2015/06/30/author-ty-cobb-was-progressive-on-the-issue-of-race/
(By the way, i was at this web site because they have some killer shirts. I have purchased three shirts from that site and have meant to link that site in the W.I.L. category in the past)
The fact that that site produced this compelling interview strengthens my liking of this web site
BY BRUCE MARKUSEN
– JUNE 30, 2015POSTED IN: BRUCE MARKUSEN, DETROIT TIGERS
Charles Leerhsen’s book is available nowfrom Simon & Schuster.
Of all the new baseball books that have been published this spring, perhaps none has created the stir of the bestselling Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, authored by Charles Leerhsen. In this comprehensive biography, which just might go down as the definitive source on Ty Cobb, Leerhsen debunks many of the Cobb myths while presenting a more complicated portrait of the Hall of Famer than we’ve seen in the past.
Much of the Cobb mythology stems from Al Stump’s book, Cobb: A Biography, which was published in 1996 and portrayed the Hall of Famer as a racist and an ill-tempered thug. Historians have since charged Stump with fabricating many of his assertions about Cobb. Leerhsen’s book succeeds in obliterating the perception of Cobb as extraordinarily violent and uncontrollable, as it details Cobb’s life from childhood until his final days in July of 1961.
Formerly an editor for Sports Illustrated and a contributor to Rolling Stone and the New York Times, Leerhsen recently took some time to answer my questions about his new book and his efforts to recreate the real Cobb.
Markusen: In 1936, Cobb received more votes for the Hall of Fame than Babe Ruth, a fact that surprises many visitors to Cooperstown. Did the sportswriters of the day truly believe that Cobb was the best player in baseball history, not Ruth? Were there other factors that resulted in Cobb receiving such a groundswell of support from the writers?
Leerhsen: I can’t read the minds of the writers [of that time period] so can’t say what they were thinking. But the writers of ’36 knew something that’s largely forgotten today—that Cobb was not just the best hitter in terms of average but the most exciting player the game had ever known. Someone once said that Ruth hitting a home run was not as exciting as Cobb getting a walk—because once Cobb got to first the fun was just beginning. He wanted to be a disruptive force—“a mental hazard,” as he often said, to the opposition. And he was. I mean, here was a guy who once stole second, third and home on three consecutive pitches; a guy who once turned a tap back to the pitcher into an inside-the-park home run. He was thrilling to watch and for many years the biggest draw in baseball.
Markusen: There’s always been a bit of a mystery as to why Cobb arrived so late for his 1939 induction in Cooperstown. Were you able to clarify the reasons behind Cobb’s tardiness in coming to the induction ceremony?
Leerhsen: I don’t think he was trying to avoid having his picture taken with Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis, as has often been said. Cobb was late for things all of his life and I think this was just another instance of that. Once he arrived he ran through town with his daughter, trying to get to the Hall as quickly as possible, so it doesn’t seem like he was dragging his heels or trying to be late.
Markusen: Your book shatters many of the myths surrounding Cobb. In your opinion, what is the most important issue surrounding Cobb that we’ve simply gotten wrong all these years?
Leerhsen: The idea that he was a racist. All of the Cobb-was-a-terrible-human-being myths started after his death in 1961, and none of them is based on fact. In the 1980s author Charles Alexander wrote a biography of Cobb in which he mistakenly identified as black several white men whom Cobb famously fought with. Besides that, people assume that because Cobb was born in 1886 in Georgia, he must be racist. What I found and reported for the first time was that Cobb, on his father’s side, descended from a long line of abolitionists. His great-grandfather was a preacher who got run out of town for preaching against slavery. His grandfather refused to fight in the Confederate army because of the slavery issue. His father was a state senator who stood up for the rights of his black constituents and once broke up a lynch mob in Cobb’s hometown. Cobb himself said nothing about race on the record until 1952, when he told The Sporting Newsthat “the Negro should be accepted into baseball wholeheartedly and not grudgingly; the Negro has the right to play professional baseball and who’s to say he has not?” In the meantime, Cobb had attended Negro League games, and sat with the players in the dugout. Indeed in 1930 he threw out the first ball at a Negro League game. It was shocking for me to discover that Cobb was actually progressive on race.
Markusen: Your book does good work in debunking much of the Al Stump mythology that was created in the mid-1990s. What do you think Stump’s motivation was in apparently exaggerating, or completely making up, so many of the Cobb stories?
Leerhsen: His motivation was money. Stump’s sensationalizing and exaggerating and outright lying made his version of Cobb more [lucrative to publishers]. Let’s not forget that Stump also forged and sold Cobb’s autograph and created fake Cobb memorabilia, which he peddled to collectors. He was completely unscrupulous.
Markusen: Let’s discuss Cobb’s relationship with his teammates. Who, if anyone, among the Tigers was he particularly close to?
Leerhsen: His better friends on the team included [second baseman] Germany Schaefer, pitcher Bill Donovan, manager Hughie Jennings, and [first baseman] Lu Blue.
Markusen: Let’s talk about Cobb and his family. What was his relationship like with his wives and children?
Leerhsen: It’s hard to say with certainty what went on in his home. One of his daughters said he was excessively stern, to the point of being scary. One of his sons said he was strict but loving, giving out a lot of hugs. He was estranged from Ty, Jr., for a while but they reestablished their relationship before the younger Cobb died of brain cancer in his 40s. Cobb was divorced from both his wives but his first wife Charlie came back into his life and she and his children were around his bed when he died.
Markusen: I’m curious about Cobb’s relationship with the famed comedian, Joe E. Brown. Were the two actually friends?
Leerhsen: I don’t think they were as close as Brown contended.
Markusen: After his playing days, Cobb became known for his investments with the Coca-Cola Company. How good of a businessman was Cobb?
Leerhsen: He was smart and disciplined with his stock investments. He actually owned more General Motors stock than Coke stock when he died, but both made him rich. He was worth about $7 million in 1961 [at the time of his death].
Cobb: A Terrible Beauty is available from Simon & Schuster. As part of his summer book signing tour, Charles Leerhsen will be appearing at the Baseball Hall of Fame on August 19 to host a presentation and book signing. For more information on that event, call 607-547-0362.
Comments
3 comments
