Ty Cobb, Hall of Famer, Betrayed by Writers for 50 Years. Player's Legacy Ruined!
50 YEARS of SUBVERSION, COBB STILL ENDURES! Writers Betrayed Hall of Famer, Ruined his Legacy.
By WESLEY FRICKS
The TY COBB Historian
Tampa, Fla., July 17, 2011 – It was 50 years ago today that Ty Cobb made his final out. And for the last five decades, everyone imaginable has tried to portray him as all things except who he indeed was - the greatest baseball player of all-time.
Lest we forget, he was voted on as the first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame & Museum, even ahead of Babe Ruth!
It all began in 1959, two years after Ty had returned to his native state of Georgia to live out his days as a country squire, as he called it. That is when he contacted Doubleday to help assist him in finding a suitable writer that could help him put in life story in ink. His efforts were to “set the record straight.”
Al Stump was a writer who graduated from the University of Washington and who was viewed as a risky guy willing to take a chance at some new venture. Stump worked as a sportswriter for the Vancouver Columbian and the Portland Oregonian and was famous for having many “ghostly apparition hanging over his keyboard.” Yes, Stump loved to drink and drink a lot!
Stump and Cobb began work on the book titled, “My Life In Baseball – The True Record” which is now, believed by many, to be the best written record of the famed Georgia Peach and his life as the master of the baseball diamond.
However, Stump had other plans!
Stump portrayed Cobb as a drunkard, cheater, racist, prejudiced monster, and a gun-wielding idiot with a temper that shot off at the motion of a wind’s change and at a moment's notice. An image I think reflected Stump's own persona.
He was setting his sights on a fortune that he thought he could make by double crossing Cobb after his death. Double crossing came easy for the beguiling Stump, but the grand payday he sought never materialized with the first book.
Stump made up lies about Cobb and filched all that he could from a man who was dying of cancer and dying to tell his story before it was too late.
Stump couldn’t wait for Cobb to die remarking that if Cobb died before the book was finished he would write what he wanted. “I’m not going to die before the book is finished,” remarked Cobb. “I’ll write slow,” promised Stump!
It was Stump's destiny to deceive Cobb and he made no small efforts to purge all of Cobb’s belongings from his two prolific estates in Lake Tahoe, Nevada and Atherton, California.
Stump took all of Cobb’s letterheads, stationary and other personal effects and stored them where he could sell them off later for a handsome price.
To make matters more outrageous, he began to forge hundreds, if not thousands of letters, notes and other handwritings and signed Cobb’s name on them and sold them to anyone who would believe that they were authentic.
He went as far as to use Cobb’s traditional green ink for most of his handwriting forgeries.
The most recent discoveries were diaries from 1942 and 1946 that Stump allegedly said belonged to Cobb. There are three known 1946 diaries out there that the possessors believe they had the original because of the “green ink.”
However, a closer examination of all three diaries clearly shows that the exact same handwriting was reproduced on each of the three diaries. Stump was a proficient forger and sold all of these diaries illegally.
Stump’s lies were rooted so deeply in both of his books; the second one was released a year or more before his death in 1994, that it would take excessive space to detail it all. However, one thing is certain, the fuse is being consumed quickly for Stump. The tide is slowly turning on the thiefmaster and his secret, which he thought would never be revealed.
But Stump wasn’t the only deceiver of Cobb’s. Ohio University history professor, Charles Alexander, followed Stump’s first book in 1985 with a few falsities of his own. In his book, “Ty Cobb,” Alexander chose to fabricate stories of Cobb’s run in with blacks to make Cobb look like a racist.
Alexander once told this writer that he was at a disadvantage because of the lack of technology at the time, but I am not buying into such an ineffectual and vain pardon from someone of his caliber.
There is enough circumstantial evidence to lead one to believe that these writers had the same information available to them as we have now. It may not have been quiet as easy to access before, but they still had it.
It is obvious to see by some of the information that Alexander did present in his book that he knew most of what we know, but chose to interpret things to his own choosing.
Such as when Cobb’s father had been accidentally shot and killed by his Mrs. Cobb. Alexander stated that Mrs. Cobb had gotten a “shotgun” from the corner of the room and fired it at someone trying to “raise the window” from the “porch roof” of their home.
To put matters in perspective, Mrs. Cobb was acquitted of murder in the Franklin County Superior Court on March 31, 1906, as she rightfully should have been. Mrs. Cobb herself gave a statement to the coroner’s jury stating that she mistook her husband for an intruder and shot him through the window with her pistol while he was standing in the yard.
“I retired about 10 o’clock,” said Mrs. Cobb to a coroner’s jury shortly after the accident, “and woke up sometime during the night. I heard a kind of rustling noise at the lower window of my room,” she continued. “I got up and got my pistol.”
There was no porch roof, there was no shotgun and there was never a lover as claimed by Alexander in his book. He had Mrs. Cobb’s statement prior to writing his book and he chose to select the information he wished to publish that seemed most suitable for him in trying to establish a sensational circumstance. This gave the author optimal control to lead his story in an unfavorable direction for the Cobb family.
He was also determined to make Cobb out to be a manic, “a creature without normal motivation,” as he stated it.
Stump and Alexander had followers to their displaced lunatic and extremely impractical phenomena.
Richard Bak, of Detroit, shadowed Stump and Alexander stating that Cobb was a “Mean S.O.B.” and Bak tried earnestly to settle his personal fight with the north and south through his book on Ty Cobb.
The lesson to his readers on race relations in Georgia, or the south in general, were more of his fantasy than it was facts.
On page 19 of his 2005 revised version of his former edition, “Ty Cobb: His Tumultuous Life And Times,” Bak stated that “Ty and his father both read the ‘Journal’ religiously during its race-baiting heyday.”
Bak continued that their racial attitudes were shaped by, or “reinforced” by the paper's “sensational views and inflammatory rhetoric.” Contrary to Bak’s belief that Professor W.H. Cobb supported a servile attitude toward blacks he more so, advocated a broader education for blacks in the state of Georgia.
In a speech he gave at a Georgia Agriculture Society Convention in Thomasville in August 1901, Mr. Cobb addressed the subject social equalities and the future Georgia would face with its race relations.
“History teaches us that three systems of controlling the people of a Government have been tried, slavery, serfdom and education; that the first two have been dismal failures,” said the elaborated Cobb. “That the educational system of governing a people by training up the children in the way they should go and teaching them to control themselves is the greatest political discovery of the ages.”
He continued that the “slate and pencil were more efficient implement of true weal than the hangman’s knot and the policeman’s club.”
He also gave his prophecies for the state’s future racial solutions stating that the “day would come in Georgia when it would be absolutely necessary to preserve the equilibrium of social forces.”
Professor Cobb was very close to an outspoken and prominent Whig party member who was one of the last remaining voters in Georgia that elected Abraham Lincoln as our 16th president.
Professor Cobb was editor of the paper owned by this fellow citizen who installed the first black census taker in the county.
Professor Cobb fought for the rights to give equal education to the black population in Georgia and took on abolitionists views toward blacks.
This was an oversight on all former Cobb authors or was it? Didn’t they have access to the same information? Why did they choose to omit such pertinent information about the subject of their eventual credibility? Why did they not chose not to publish these positive points and details about Cobb’s life?
I believe they never foresaw the advancement of technology and they never suspected that someone would come along and discover their secrets. Their secrets being that they published all these lies for their own gain at the expense of the greatest player in baseball history.
The secrets of how they had information and they chose to employ “select information authorship,” a method used in publishing a portion of the story and leaving out key information that would have balanced the scale of their story. This works until someone discovers the use of this strategy.
However, because of these findings and additional discoveries to come, Al Stump, Charles Alexander and Richard Bak will soon be placed in the same category as liars, cheats and forgers, destine to be set aside as an implausible Cobb resource and a new wave of stories and facts will surface to permanently stand solid for Ty Cobb’s reputation. This will lend a much needed hand in giving his legacy final justice and restoration to its original state.
It has been 50 years to the day that Ty Cobb made his final out.
The day was a somber occurrence in Royston and the rest of northeast Georgia as baseball’s most prominent performer made his way home from the private service held for him in Cornelia, Ga. The session traveled 27 miles to Royston to a mausoleum he had built for his family to rest in eternally.
Stump said that he took Ty to the Cobb mausoleum on a snowy Christmas Eve in 1960. He also claims that Cobb got extremely furious because he could not find the family mausoleum that he had built. To begin with, no accounts exist that prove it snowed on Christmas Eve that year.
And there is no area of the graveyard where the Cobb Mausoleum is not visible. It is huge and sits on a hill near the highest point in the graveyard. I use to live four blocks away from there and I could see Cobb’s mausoleum from my upstairs bedroom window.
Stump was also the first to point out that Cobb only had three players to attend his funeral. There was a good reason for this. You see, the Cobb family made public requests that the service be held private and ask members of Major League Baseball not to attend. Articles detailing the request were run in select media outlets.
The family did not want Cobb’s funeral to be a fiasco like Babe Ruth’s funeral turned out to be. Most will remember that hundreds of thousands lined up outside St Patrick’s Cathedral in New York as the chaos unraveled.
There were three of Cobb’s real close friends that were allowed to attend as honorary pallbearers, Cochran, Schalk and Nap Rucker. Also in attendance was Sid Keener, the then director of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Unknown to most, many of Cobb’s contemporaries had already died by 1961. Ruth died in 1948, Speaker in 1958, Connie Mack in 1956, Hugh Jennings in 1928, Walter Johnson in 1946 and Honus Wagner in 1955. Cobb had simply outlived most of his leaguemates.
The famous Georgian has endured so much more since his death than he ever had during his lifetime. Maybe someday, somewhere, people will want to believe the facts over the lies and deceit, an injuctice he has been granted by these gold-digging writers.
All the lies written about Cobb have now been woven into baseball history and taken as the truth, believed to be supreme over actual and official written documents.
But the unveiling of Al Stump's deception, a misdeed he has lived and died with, will continue to surface and haunt the writer's legacy. The FBI investigation into these forged documents will remain active as new allegations arise.
There are museums in several states that are removing the Stump-forged pieces from displays and historians are sharing and trading information, and acknowledging that Stump was a firsthand fraud.
He lied about Mrs. Cobb shooting her husband with a shotgun. A story Stump concocted because of his beloved idol, Ernest Hemingway, had used a shotgun to kill himself two weeks before Cobb’s death and during the time when Stump was finishing up the book. It is noteworthy to say that Stump was the first writer to claim the shotgun story.
Fifty years of believing Al Stump’s version has made it difficult for those who believe that the truth will prevail, but I do see the turning of the page and the reversal of the tide. I am confident that the ending to the Stump era is eminent and Ty Cobb will once again remain supreme in the annals of baseball history.
I believe in justice and I believe that people generally want to know the truth and eventually more people will research this subject thoroughly, and more extensively, and determine that the facts will stand to model on their own merit and supersede the decaying, paltry and cunning larceny .
I believe that Stump will pay for his horrendous crime of ruining Cobb’s reputation more than 50 years ago and soon will be tried in public opinion as new allegations are bound to be unearthed.
But nevertheless, Ty Cobb's memory will continue to endure even after the Al Stump era vanishes now that he has been exposed for his lies, pilfering and forgeries.
Hopefully, now we can close the Al Stump period and move on to more reliable sources and get the facts out to the public for the historical intentions of preserving baseball's long and revered past.
Long lived the Prince of Baseball !
NEW TY COBB BOOK BEING RELEASED IN APRIL!
INSIDE BASEBALL With TY COBB
A Book Every Major League Player Should Own!
7603 Gulf Ct.
Temple Terrace, FL 33637
http://www.insidebaseball.org/wfricks@tampabay.rr.comPRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE. . .
CONTACT: Wesley Fricks
813.988.8269 / 813.957.1842
COBB HELPS RESTORE OWN LEGACY WITH NEW BOOK!
IT’S HERE!!!
Tampa, Fl. March 26, 2007 - The TY COBB Historian today announces the release of a one of a kind, never before look into the great mind, the mastery of thoughts from the player considered by most to be greatest baseball player of all-time. Cobb was the first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY, in 1936.
Cobb tells the truth about his early days in Royston, Georgia, his entry into the professional leagues, and his early baseball experiences as told to the Atlanta Journal & Constitution in 1913, while at the pinnacle of his extraordinary career.
Cobb answers some of the most prolific miscalculations of his professional career. He talks of why his feuds with players and umpires were misunderstood, he explains spiking in baseball, he explains his reputation as being a “crazy” base runner and finally, he tells of how he kept himself in shape physically.
Most of these stories have never been told by Cobb, firsthand, lending credibility to the restoration of his own legacy.
This book was called “My First Biography” by Ty Cobb himself. The book was edited and published by TY COBB’S foremost authority, one who has earned the title as TY COBB Historian. A Chapter is dedicated to the establishment of the TY COBB Museum in his hometown of Royston, Georgia.
The book features pinch-hitters for the famed “Georgia Peach,” such as Hugh Jennings and Charles Comiskey, both being closely associated with this great player.
“He is a player whom everybody likes to see on the field, for he always does his best. The bleachers are crowded with fans that come to see him play, expecting something startling, something unusual, and Cobb seldom disappoints them,” Hugh Jennings, Detroit Tigers’ manager - 1912.
“The greatest player of all-time?,” questioned the former Chicago White Sox owner, Charles Comiskey, “I pick the Detroit man because he is, in my judgment, the most expert man of his profession and he is able to respond better than any other player to any demand made on him. I pick him because he plays ball with his whole anatomy—his head, his arms, his hands, his legs, and his feet—and because he plays ball all the time for all that is in him.”
INSIDE BASEBALL and Cobb takes you through the truth of his childhood days, his parental opposition to baseball, his breaking into the minor league in Augusta,Ga., his entry into the Major Leagues and his experiences with the big league greats, and his opinion on the advantages and fundamentals of playing all the different positions on the team. Cobb talks of what made him so successful in baseball, he talks of how to stay in condition, sleeping and eating, he tells how he treated umpires, he talked of how to bat under most conditions and he tells how to throw and run the bases properly. His chapter on “what constitutes a star ball player” truly epitomizes the psychology of the times.
The book is available now in perfect bound paperback from www.insidebaseball.org.
Wesley Fricks is an avid baseball researcher who has set out to restore Ty Cobb’s reputation to its original state. He serves on the TY COBB Museum Advisory Board and he volunteers as the Museum's off-site historian.
INSIDE BASEBALL With TY COBB – A Book Every Major League Player Should Own!; Wesley Fricks, Editor; Aardvark Global Publishing [9587 So. Grandview Dr.Salt Lake City, UT 84092 USA], toll-free 1-800-614-3578.
Published date April 2007; $20.00; 238 pages; ISBN 978-1-4276-1738-5. Perfect bound paperback. The book size is 5.5 X 8.5 with images rather than pictures because some have not been printed in over 90 years.
For more ordering information, please contact:
http://www.aardvardglobalpublishing.com/ or at
http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/ , or at the book’s official Website at
http://www.insidebaseball.org/ .
TY COBB WAS NOT A RACISTS!
TY COBB's INFLUENCE ON BLACKS.
As I have recognized a need to present facts about Ty's relationships with blacks, I have enclosed some material that advocates TY COBB’s support for blacks and other minorities.
This is to provide facts supporting the reality that the negative publicity came after TY COBB died in 1961. I also enclosed several articles, but interestingly, one that I found where his son, Jim Cobb, made the exact same assessment in 1977.
My friends, if you were to research the facts, you’ll find that Mr. Cobb was different than he is portrayed in the eye of the modern public. He was rich with popularity and writers could always count on his name to generate interest in their newspaper. Mr. Cobb was a charitable natured man who actually was soft for the minority, whether the minority was someone who had different colored skin, or handicapped, or someone who was less fortunate, or even someone who was small in size. He would always tell the little fellow who was standing in the back and could not get close to come to the front. He wanted to make sure they got a chance, too.
In the late 1920’s, TY COBB leased a hunting preserve with over 12,000 acres in MaGruder, Georgia, and built a house on it for a black man, named Uncle Bob Robinson, and his family to live there. In place of the rent, they would make sure no intruders trespassed on the property. Anytime Cobb and his friends were hunting on the land, this fellow, by his own choice, would always hunt along beside COBB.
At times, he would entertain the guest with his story telling.After a long day of hunting, they would gather around a campfire and talk baseball, or whatever came to mind. On this particular day, COBB had bagged twelve birds and had not missed a one (Mr. Cobb was a crack shot). Mr. Robinson told the story to Tris Speaker and the others, “Yeah, Mr. COBB had a bad day today.” What do you mean, Cobb bagged twelve birds and didn’t miss,” said Speaker. “Yeah, but he near ‘bout missed one,” recounted Mr. Robinson.
Present day authors have distorted COBB’s reputation to a point of the ridiculous. For example, in the book “COBB” that the movie “COBB” was based on tried to show that COBB hosted orgies and drinking parties. I have the contract agreement on the land and it clearly states that there was to be “absolutely NO alcohol on the premises.”
This was at Major League Baseball’s Brunswick, Georgia retreat. It was called “Dover Hall Club” and TY COBB was 1/16 part owner of the 2,500 acre hunting and fishing camp. The MLB magnates owned it from the early 1910s until the late 1930s. COBB was the only player of the sixteen investors who bought into the $1,000 stock-leasing plan.
Mr. Cobb was in financial straits in the spring of 1906, but by the end of 1907 he had worked and saved his money.
He began investing it in real estate in Georgia. In 1908, he bought 15 acres in Toccoa, Georgia and built and remodeled some of the nicest little homes, in a predominately black neighborhood. He named the subdivision “Booker T. Washington Heights,” and financed these homes to these residents for a minimal amount. He owned the property until 1940 and he turned it over to his son, Herschel Cobb, to assist him with starting him a Coca-Cola franchise in Idaho.
One transaction sold a lot (#22) to J. H. Johnson for only $42.50 in 1909. It was a relatively good price even for that era. There were 109 lots in Booker T. Washington Heights. I hear a great deal about COBB’s racism in the present, especially on the Internet, but no one ever does or has actually have provided factual or even specifics about their racial allegations. If COBB had been a racist, some newspaperman would have made remarks about the specifics in some way. I have over 40,000 newspaper articles, and NOT one article makes any correlation to TY COBB being a racist.
All the evidence demonstrate COBB’s support for the advancement of colored people, and yet, there is NO evidence that give any indication that Mr. COBB made any movement toward oppressing the black population.Contrary, when Jackie Robinson entered into the Major Leagues, it began a slow process of allowing blacks to began entering into every league in the country. When the Dallas club of the Texas League was considering allowing blacks to enter, COBB was there to bat for them.
Ty Cobb, Fiery Diamond Star, Favors Negroes In Baseball
Independent Journal - January 29th, 1952
MENLO PARK (AP)
Tyrus Raymond Cobb, fiery old time star of the diamond, stepped up to the plate today to clout a verbal home run in favor of Negroes in baseball.Himself a native of the Deep South, Cobb voiced approval of the recent decision of the Dallas club to use Negro players if they came up to Texas league caliber.
The old Georgia Peach of Detroit Tigers fame was a fighter from the word go during his brilliant playing career. He neither asked for nor gave quarter in 24 tumultuous years in the American League. Time has mellowed the one time firebrand and he views the sport in the pleasant role of a country squire.
He spoke emphatically on the subject of Negroes in baseball, however."Certainly it is O.K. for them to play," he said, "I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man, in my book that goes not only for baseball but in all walks of life.”
"I like them, (Negro race) personally. When I was little I had a colored mammy. I played with colored children."
Referring again to last week's developments in the Texas league, Cobb declared, "It was bound to come." He meant the breaking down of Baseball's racial barriers in the old south.Cobb expressed the belief Negroes eventually would be playing in every league in the country. He concluded with: "Why not, as long as they deport themselves like gentlemen?"
TY COBB did have an altercation with at least four African-Americans during his lifetime, but I have all the documents from these incidents, and in every case, the problem can be traced back to an action, not related to racism, that was committed by COBB himself, the black person, or a third party, that cause the issue to escalate into an altercation. I am not going to discourse tediously on who was at fault in either of the incidents because I only want to exhibit that there was a reason that the incidents happened that had nothing to do with color. And I must mention that COBB’s incidents with whites far exceed the number of occurrences with the blacks.
TY COBB was not a racist, he did not sharpen his spikes to slash other players just to steal a base, he did not kill a man in Detroit as alleged by recent nickel writers, and he did not live the life of a bigot. Contrary to those myths, TY COBB exerted a kindness toward blacks.
One of his fondest memories of his youth was being taught how to swim by a black laborer named, Uncle Ezra. Ezra would get young TY to cling to his neck and wade out into the middle of the river or stream. At this point, TY would be released and forced to swim back to the riverbank.
Blacks lived in COBB’s house behind his home on Williams Street there in Augusta. COBB employed blacks the whole time he lived on the “Hill”. Emaline Cosey lived with and worked for TY COBB in 1920.
Jimmy Lanier grew up in Augusta with one of TY COBB’s sons. Jimmy has told a story many times about him and Herschel going to the Rialto Theatre in downtown Augusta to see one of them shoot’em up movies. “We came out of the theatre and Mr. Cobb, like a father, was waiting on the other side of the road,” claimed Lanier.
“As we were getting into the car, Mr. Cobb overheard the owner of a nearby restaurant explaining to a man dressed in shabby clothes how to get to the Linwood Hospital – a veterans hospital. Mr. Cobb interrupts and says, ‘Son, I’ll take you there.’ “The man stood on the running board of Mr. Cobb’s La Salle coupe, and they were talking back and forth, and this man was a veteran of World War I.
When they pulled up to the gate at the Linwood Hospital, I saw Mr. Cobb hand this man a $20 bill. Herschel was looking off at somewhere else, but I saw what Mr. Cobb done. It was incidents like this that never made it to the press,” concluded Lanier.
Friends, I believe that one of Mr. Cobb’s problems was that he never looked for credit for anything that he done. He could never boast of his philanthropic nature that would put celebrities like Babe Ruth or Joe DiMaggio riding on the crest of publicity.
And two, he never refuted accusation against him publicly. If someone alleged that he had spiked another player intentionally, he gave an explanation only to the person or people that it mattered to most, like owner of the Tigers or President of the American League, but very seldom to the press.
If he would have stood up and said to people, “You are wrong” or “That is not true,” maybe these present day authors would have had less room to reinvent his reputation to their own liking.
TY COBB was a close associate to the 2nd Commissioner of baseball, Albert B. “Happy” Chandler, who was head of the baseball realm when Jackie Robinson entered into Major League baseball. COBB was a big supporter of Chandler. In a press interview on August 30tth, 1950, COBB shared his support for Chandler, “So far, Chandler has lived up to everything that I thought he could do as a commissioner. To me, every one of his decisions have been fair.”
The article goes on explaining COBB’s support for “Happy.” Three years later, he was elected to serve as member of the Board of Trustees of the COBB Educational Foundation. The Foundation contributed $2,800.00 in scholarships the first year. Fifty years later the annual grants have reached well over a $500,000 dollars.
As of July 2003, the Foundation has provided scholarships to 6,876 students, equaling 9,743,000 dollars.Thanks to his charitable nature, Ty Cobb has made it possible for thousands of students of Georgia to achieve a higher mark in education. There is no limit to what this Foundation can provide to future students who truly want an education. One thing is certain; it is bound to generate a winning team of students in this great state of Georgia. And as I mention frequently, I could go on forever talking about great things that Mr. COBB did to enrich the lives of other people. He did this without any expectations from the recipient or others who witnessed his philanthropic deeds.
In an interview in the mid 1950s, Mr. COBB made this statement, “You’ve ask me about this Cobb Educational Fund, and now I’m going to have to answer it. I do not wish to be eulogized for what I have done. I’m proud of it, yes. This Educational Fund has given me the greatest possible happiness and pleasure, and maybe when I’m gone we’ll have some real great men developed out of the Cobb Educational Foundation.” The TY COBB Healthcare Systems, Inc provide jobs to thousands of healthcare professionals in northeast Georgia, and I know personally, and young black fellow that I went to school with who works for the healthcare system and has made a huge impact on the community. He got his start at the COBB Memorial Hospital and now is a providing much leadership in the direction of the city.
TY COBB’s father was a Georgia State Senator from the 31st District who voted against a bill introduced and approved by the Senate that allowed taxes deriving only from black properties to finance the black schools. This was in 1900. He stated in the Atlanta Constitution that the “Negroes had done, and were doing a good deal for the up building of the state, and I am in favor of allowing them money for education.”
He believed that the race should be protected from class legislation.TY COBB set more records in baseball than any other player. He was the first player inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1936. He was the most celebrated athlete in baseball’s history.
In 1950, COBB dedicated the new hospital in Royston, Georgia to provide medical attention to the region. In Dr. J. B. Gilbert, COBB found one of the finest African-American doctors to serve the black population, and this was before desegregation. Dr. Gilbert also serviced white patients and later became Chief of Staff at the COBB Memorial Hospital. Dr. Gilbert’s daughter remembers TY COBB visiting the home when she was just a young lady. COBB signed baseballs for all three of Dr. Gilbert’s grandchildren.
In 1953, COBB established the TY COBB Educational Foundation to give scholarships to needy students in Georgia. Hundreds and hundreds of young black students have become a beneficiary of this educational fund.
Alexander George Washington Rivers was a black employee of COBB for 18 years and named his first-born Ty Cobb Rivers, “Even if it would have been a gal, Ah would have named her the same,” Rivers relayed to his friends in an interview with The Detroit News. Rivers served as COBB’s batboy, chauffer, general handyman, and was an avid supporter of the famed “Georgia Peach.” After 22 seasons with Detroit, COBB joined the Philadelphia Athletics to finish out his twenty-four year career. Rivers followed COBB, “I wasn’t exactly against the Tigers, but I still had to be for Mr. Ty.”
TY COBB’s racial reputation came only after he had died in 1961. Racial reform should not be fought at the expense of a man who helped make Baseball a great sport for colored people to enjoy, too.COBB loved Augusta! He did not just live there for a while – it was his home. He raised all of his children there. He lived at 2425 William Street in the Summerville district.
He held common and preferred stock in the Augusta Chronicle. He sold Hawkeye trucks there in the Augusta area. He was president and principle owner of the TY COBB Tire Co. on Broad Street. He owned the TY COBB Beverage Co. who had their office at 313 in the Leonard Building.
He was one of three principle owners in the City Bank of Thomson. He hunted and fished in all parts of the Augusta area and even down the Savannah River. He was on the Board of Directors of the First National Bank in Lavonia, Georgia for all his professional life. He coached and umpired some at the Richmond County YMCA and in the Nehi League. He entered his girls into beauty pageants, horse shows and musical recitals. He helped the city authorities host outside guest.
When a large group of Philadelphia businessmen came to Augusta, COBB participated in a first-of-its-kind aeroplane golf tournament for the visiting spectators. COBB owned a great deal of property in the city.
One piece of land was 444.72 acres south of Spirit Creek and the Augusta Orphan Asylum. Mr. COBB owned the properties on the east side of Tuttle, between Fenwick and Jenkins Streets; corner of Broad and Seventh (McIntosh); ten acres, five miles out on old Milledgeville Rd.; two lots on the corner of Druid Park and Gwinnett Street; southwest corner of Twiggs and Boyd’s Alley containing five lots; four lots close to the corner of Phillip Street and Walton Way; and the COBB’s property list goes on and on. Looking over the Richmond County Court documents, it appears to me that in some cases COBB loaned money to help prevent foreclosure on some of the properties.
He lived adjacent to a dentist that started the South Atlantic League back up after it shutdown during the depression. Eugene Wilder worked as secretary to the Mayor of Augusta for many years, and was an admirer of COBB’s. When COBB entered the United States Army in 1918, he left Dr. Wilder instructions and money he had set aside for his famous prize dog, “Cobb’s Hall,” in case he failed to return from the war.
COBB served as a Captain in the Chemical Warfare Division over in France at the close of the war. COBB also became part owner of the Augusta Tourist in 1922. The team name was later changed to Augusta Tygers to honor COBB. He developed many young athletes into strong competitors. He managed the Detroit Tigers from 1921-1926, and during that time, a Detroit batter won the batting title 4 out of 6 years. He was a great teacher, and loved to devote his time to helping others advance.
TY COBB was always concerned about the advancement of the city of Augusta. He was always striving to promote and stimulate the city’s economy. He donated his vehicle to the fire station to be auctioned off. He owned numerous businesses in Augusta and drew people of every nature to the city. He once hosted the sole owner of the Diamond Tire Company who came down from up north. There were a couple of Presidents of the United States that COBB became acquainted with on the streets of Augusta.
In closing, I just want to say that all these little things add up to give us plenty of reason to say that COBB deserves being memorialized with a stadium. Especially from his home city, a place that he helped to make a wonderful place to live and work. If the people of Augusta do not want COBB’s name on the Olmstead Stadium, that's up to them – I don’t live there.
But I can’t sit an allow people to say such negative remarks such as “COBB was a racist” without at least trying to educate the public on the absolute truth. I would hope that if there is this much of an issue in naming the stadium, period, then it might be apprehended that there is a greater force that is calling us to name the facility “COBB MEMORIAL STADIUM,” or something that would commemorate the great Georgia athlete. “GEORGIA PEACH STADIUM” may be a happy medium that would satisfy both sides of the debate.
At any rate, my position is only to educate and pass on the information that is sometimes forgotten or unknown. I hope that I have provided you with enough information that it may give you a different perspective on who TY COBB really was. I have enclosed different passages and material that you can read and see more aspects of TY COBB and his legacy.
This is only a speck in the sand of the material that I possess on this great athlete. I would be happy to assist you or your colleagues in any capacity should that be your desire. I hope that you will be enlightened and receptive to this information, and I hope that it will assist everyone in the reconstruction of his or her opinion of TY COBB.
I want to leave you with words straight from TY COBB’s own personality, “I like them, personally. When I was little I had a colored Mammy. I played with colored children.”
Sincerely,
Wesley Fricks
TY COBB Historian
Ty Cobb’s Final Inning!
A light rain, a somber crowd, and 200 little leaguers lined up on both sides of the highway to marked the end of a long and memorable journey for baseball’s great, Ty Cobb. After a private service at McGahee Funeral home in Cornelia, the funeral procession traveled 28 miles to Royston, Ga., the hometown of the famed Georgia Peach.
Cobb rose to international fame way up north in Detroit, but his southern upbringing cultivated his personality and gave him his unique character. His name and reputation paved the way for his success as a great hitter and base runner in the national pastime.
Cobb spent 24 years in the big leagues and amassed more records than any other player. His .367 will always be an inspiration for a young ball player to emulate as will his 12 American League batting titles. He played in 3,033 games, stole 892 bases, drove in 1,961 runs, scored 2,245, himself, and won a dozen batting titles including the Triple Crown in 1909. He was the very first player inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936.
By December of 1959, Cobb was diagnosed with cancer of the prostate gland. Cobb continued to live out his days in an apartment in Cornelia while his plans to build his retirement home which to “live out his days” atop of Chenocetah mountain.
For his last 16 months, Cobb remained under the care of his close friend, Dr. Hugh Wood, Dean of the Emory University Medical School. Dr. Wood was under agreement from Cobb not to reveal his ailments until his death.
On Monday, July 17th, 1961 Ty Cobb died in his sleep. “He died peacefully and without pain,” said Dr. Wood. “He had diabetes and chronic heart disease. While his general condition had deteriorated during the past two weeks, the end came rather suddenly.”
On Wednesday, a private service was held at McGahee Funeral Home in Cornelia, Ga. By the time the funeral procession arrived in Royston, a light rain had began to fall. When Mr. Cobb had reached his final destination, 200 little leaguers were lined along both sides of the road in form of an honor guard.
The game had been called and Ty Cobb had played his final inning of life.
May God bless his memory!
~Wesley Fricks
Ty Cobb Left Religious Message 45 Years Ago!
"Don’t Wait Until Some Great Crisis Comes Before Deciding On Christ.”
Of all the batting tips and fielding recommendations given out by the great Georgia Peach, Ty Cobb, none compares to this advice which his life depended on at the time of his death 45 years ago today.
Ty told Reverend J. R. Richardson, of the Westminster Presbyterian Church, that he wanted to “put his complete trust in Christ to save him.” Reverend Richardson and Reverend E. A. Miller, who both administered the Gospel to Ty Cobb in his last days, believed that Cobb died in a Christian faith. “It is my firm conviction that Mr. Cobb died in a Christian faith and died in the Lord,” said Rev. Richardson.
Cobb, however, lived a fascinating life in baseball and as a country boy growing up in rural north Georgia. He loved to hunt, fish, jog, and converse with friends and associates over the great game of baseball of which he excelled. “And in his field of endeavorment, Mr. Cobb won just about all that could be one,” suggested Rev. Miller. “He will continue to bless humanity through the hospital that he has endowed and the educational foundation that he has set up.”
More so, Cobb found peace in the end. “I believe in Jesus, I pray and I pray often. I believe in prayer,” said Mr. Cobb. And in one of the last visits to Mr. Cobb’s room, Rev. Miller asked, “Mr. Cobb, do you want me to pray with you?” Mr. Cobb closed his eyes and waited for the prayer. He was heavily sedated and had only a short time to live, but until the end he was conscience of the faith that had given him eternal life.
More excerpts from Reverend E. A. Miller:
“Mr. Cobb has gone the way which he will not return, but he will still live in the Hall of Fame, and in the memories of millions here in America.”
“His influence will continue to bring out the best in youth.”
“He was never satisfied with being second best.”
“Does Jesus care, speaking to you who are living? Does Jesus care when I’ve said goodbye to the dearest on earth to me? And a sad heartache until it nearly breaks. Is it up to him, does he care? The course of that song answers the question. Oh yes, he cares, I know he cares. His heart is touched with my grief. The days grow weary and the long nights dreary, I know my savior cares.”
“I did not come this afternoon to preach Mr. Cobb’s funeral, he preached his own funeral, I preach mine and you preach yours.”
“I probably knew Mr. Cobb as no other living minister knew him.”
~Wesley Fricks
Cobb Weeps As The Babe Goes Home!
Some say he revived the game of baseball that surely needed resurrection in the early 1920's. The Black Sox scandal had just crashed the game beyond repair.
Ruth swung his bat with a vengence and broke Roger Conner's lifetime homerun record of 158 while smashing out 59 homers in 1921. Prior to 1920, the most homeruns in a season was 24. Gavvy Cravath, outfielder of the National League Phillies who led the Majors per season in round trippers.
Ruth pushed the homerun category into a new dimension as Cobb continued to press for the hit-and-run, the steal, the squeeze play, and pressed for endurance records set by both Honus Wagner and Wee Willie Keeler.
Ruth continued to build a dynasty and secured his place in the National Baseball Hall of Fame - not yet created, physically.
His record of 60 homeruns set in 1927 helped to solidify his plaque in the Hall and helped to build one of the most unforgettable Yankee teams in franchise history. The 27 Yankees are still comparable to even modern teams winning an astounding 110 games, second only to the 1998 team. On both ocasions, the 26 time world champs blanked their opponents in the falls classic.
Ruth and Cobb both carried their clubs to victory on the heels of defeat. With the swing of the bat from Ruth or the pitcher taking his eyes off Cobb at third for too long could spell defeat.
The two were harsh rivalries in the early twenties when Ruth began to truly blossom and Cobb was trying to scratch out a path to the world series for his pitcher-strictened Tigers. Ruth contributed to Cobb's demise on April 14th, 1922 when Ruth took the mound and hit three homers and sent Cobb down swinging. Cobb bounced back and had an unbelieveable .422 season as the Yankees won the American League pennant, but lost to the Giants in five games.
Cobb was wanted by every Major League club, even in retirement, and Ruth could not live out his dream as a big league manager. In the end, they both had their followers and both knew the value of their legacy.
This always has created a perpetual debate among fans and historians of the game - "Who was the greater of the two players?" While I believe that Cobb lent more value to his team by his accomplishments, I will never depreciate Ruth's contribution to his team.
After both greats retired, a golf match was staged by the PGA president. The match was to benefit the USO and other charities, while giving Cobb and Ruth a chance to settle the debate once and for all. Cobb won the first match and Ruth returned the favor on the 19th hole in round two. After a significant delay, the final match was set for Detroit. Cobb won the match with ease and settled the "who's the best?" debate.
That's true!
A golf match will never settle a baseball debate, so the argument goes on.
Ruth, remained friends with Cobb until he passed away in the summer of 1948. As he could be found at times, Cobb was emotional by the death of the great slugger and he wepted.
The sultan of swat had gone home for the last time to Yankee Stadium.
~Wesley Fricks
