Ty Cobb

Details the life of the legendary, record-holding baseball player, who retired in 1928 and became the first inductee into the Hall of Fame, but who has also been categorized as a belligerent, aggressive player and a racist who hated women and children.

Portrays the life and personality of Ty Cobb and describes the development of his career as a baseball player

A biography of the National Baseball Hall of Famer Ty Cobb who is recognized as one of the greatest hitters in baseball history, discusses his offensive records, personality, and work ethic.

Ty Cobb's life is a fascinating study of extremes. His professional highs are astonishing: During his career, he set 123 records. His lifetime batting average of .367 has never been surpassed, and he hit over .300 for 23 straight seasons. But there was a

The grandson of the legendary baseball player reveals another side of “a fascinating, severely flawed sports icon” (Booklist). Ty Cobb’s grandson Herschel saw a side of him that very few others did. While baseball fans were familiar with Cobb’s infamously cold, competitive nature—and his relationship with his own children was deeply difficult—Cobb, in his later years, embraced the opportunity to form a loving bond with his grandchildren during their summertime visits. In this moving memoir, Herschel Cobb reveals how his grandfather, after the devastating loss of two sons, shared his gentler side with Herschel and his siblings. Herschel’s own parents, a cruel, abusive father and an adulterous, alcoholic mother, filled his childhood with turmoil. But “Granddaddy” offered the stability, love, and guidance that Herschel desperately needed. “Elegantly written and genuinely moving,” this story of their relationship presents a unique perspective on this larger-than-life man (Publishers Weekly). “An unforgettable story . . . that will alter how you feel about baseball’s most demonized star.” —Tom Stanton, author of Ty and the Babe

"An authoritative, reliable and compelling biography of perhaps the most significant and controversial player in baseball history, Ty Cobb, drawing in part on newly discovered letters and documents"--

Distantly related to a Confederate general, Ty Cobb was a strapping Augusta youth who became a star for the Detroit Tigers. Long revered as a great hitter and an incredibly fast baserunner, Cobb often has been remembered as a hated athlete, a bitter man who died nearly 50 years ago. No biographer has explored the complex personality as deeply and meticulously as Don Rhodes in his new comprehensive biography. Rhodes reveals the man as Cobb was in Augusta: in the off season and as a retiree. For the first time, a biographer includes interviews with Cobb's two daughters (whom Rhodes met before they died), his granddaughter, and close friends, who offer insight and photos of Cobb's private life never seen before. Many of Cobb's emotional troubles started early in life, and no doubt were compounded during his early seasons with the Tigers, when his mother went on trial for murdering his father. The ugly side of this phenomenal athlete is not defended or explained away, but readers learn to better understand a man who seemed so miserable, when he had so much. Don Rhodes is an editor at Morris Communications in Augusta. He has written “Ramblin' Rhodes,” a music column, for more than 37 years, and his byline appears in many magazines and newspapers. He lives in North Augusta, South Carolina.

As the first baseball player to achieve real celebrity status, Ty Cobb embodies the strength and determination of classic masculinity. His grit and stubbornness, however, form a legacy that has been both lauded and condemned by America’s own changing views of ideal masculine behavior. With attention to Cobb’s formation, personal tragedies, and struggles with his peers, Steven Elliott Tripp examines this baseball icon as a product of the American South and as an emblem of a masculinity now out of fashion.