Book Description

The Life and Times of Ty Cobb is a fascinating and authoritative biography written by an actor who has portrayed Cobb on stages across the United States and Canada. Cobb was one of the most controversial players in baseball history. Many baseball experts call Ty one of the greatest players who ever lived. His lifetime batting average of .367 is still the highest of all time. When he retired in 1928, after twenty-two years with the Detroit Tigers and two with the Philadelphia Athletics, he held more than ninety records. Numbers don't tell half of Cobb's tale. The Georgia Peach was by far the most thrilling player of the era: "Ty Cobb could cause more excitement with a base on balls than Babe Ruth could with a grand slam," one columnist wrote. When the Hall of Fame began in 1936, Cobb was the first player voted in. Babe Ruth finished second. Cobb was a complex, misunderstood man and one of the game's most controversial characters. He got in fights, on and off the field, and was often accused of being overly aggressive. His supporters acknowledged that he was a fierce and fiery competitor. Because his philosophy was to "create a mental hazard for the other man," despite his enemies, he was also widely admired. He was a friend of presidents from William H. Taft to Dwight D. Eisenhower. He was baseball's first millionaire and one of the first to endorse corporate products and make a Hollywood movie. After his death in 1961, something strange happened. His reputation morphed into that of a virulent racist who sharpened his spikes, a monster who attacked infielders and catchers. Books and films were full of myths, lies and uncorroborated stories. How did this happen? Who is the real Ty Cobb? Setting the record straight, actor and author Norm Coleman became the debunker of the myths and lies told about Ty. Coleman researched the life of the shy son of a professor and state senator from Georgia, who was progressive on race for his time and later became America's first true American sports celebrity. In the process, he tells of a life overflowing with stories of the men he knew: Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams and many others. Coleman calls Cobb, "The Picasso of his time. Like Frank Sinatra, he did it his way." He writes of the man we thought we knew but really didn't.