It's difficult to tell which is longer -- the list of records Ty Cobb left shattered when he retired from baseball, or the stories of his nastiness.
"In legend I am a sadistic, slashing, swashbuckling despot who waged war in the guise of sport." Cobb, who wrote that just before his death in 1961, was possibly the only one not to believe the legend. For everyone else, this was a case of perception and reality meeting.
The Georgia Peach was a southern Protestant who hated northerners, Catholics, blacks and apparently anybody else who was different from him. And, in turn, opponents (and some teammates) despised him. They disliked his aggressive behavior, his attitude, his maniacal will to succeed.
Cobb was a 6-foot-1, 175-pounder who threw right (average arm) and batted left. He kept his hands about three inches apart so he could place hits better. When he retired in 1928, he had set some 90 records. Seven decades later, he still holds many. Nobody has yet bettered his .367 lifetime average, his 12 batting titles, his hitting at least .320 for 23 consecutive seasons, or his 2,245 runs scored.
Read Full Article »