Judging Cobb

I just saw an open league posting that perpetuates (via reference to the film Field of Dreams) the idea that Ty Cobb was a vile human being who was universally and justifiably despised by his contemporaries. For those of you who hold that opinion of Cobb, I suggest you suspend your judgement long enough to read the recent Cobb biography, A Terrible Beauty, by Charles Leerhsen. If you're too broke to buy it or too busy to read it, here is a link to a lecture Leerhsen gave at Hillsdale College which succinctly presents his argument that the Cobb -The- Vile- Violent- Racist that most of us have come to accept as gospel is, in fact, a concoction; a fiction that began shortly after his death.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjbPzoboilM

I recommended precisely the same book earlier this year,on these same boards, and for precisely the same reasons. Al Stump, Cobb's principal early biographer, fabricated much of his material and essentially libeled Cobb for his own personal agenda. It was an amatuerish hit job by a now disgraced "writer." Leerhsen researched Cobb thoroughly and obliterated Stump's credibility, while presenting a much more balanced view of Cobb.

His book should be must reading for all serious fans of the game.

Other books I strongly recommend... but on another level and frankly for a good laugh...

But beware... you might even wet your eyes if not your pants at times:

"The Umpire Strikes Back" by the one and only Ron Luciano

and

The Bronx Zoo by Sparky Lyle

Absolutely concur, Leerhsen's biography of Cobb is the best researched and documented book on the Georgia Peach, and extraordinarily well-written. It's unfortunate that our entertainment culture is so superficial that they latched on to the egregiously corrupt bio by Al Stump to make the Hollywood movie about Cobb. Thanks to that misjudgment, the popular perception of Cobb brought about by the movie is very far from the fact-checked, footnoted truth about Tyrus that Leerhsen so well presents. Tip of the hat to him for getting this right!