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{{Short description|American baseball player (1886–1961)}}
{{About||the Washington, D.C. lawyer|Ty Cobb (attorney)|the Soundgarden song|Ty Cobb (song)}}
{{redirect|The Georgia Peach|other uses|Georgia Peach (disambiguation)}}
{{pp-move|small=yes}}
{{Use American English|date=July 2021}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=July 2024}}
{{Infobox baseball biography
|name=Ty Cobb
|image=1913 Ty Cobb portrait photo.png
|image_size=250
|caption=Cobb with the Detroit Tigers in 1913
|position=[[Center fielder]] / [[Manager (baseball)|Manager]]
|bats=Left
|throws=Right
|birth_date={{birth date|mf=yes|1886|12|18}}
|birth_place=[[Narrows, Georgia]], U.S.
|death_date={{death date and age|mf=yes|1961|7|17|1886|12|18}}
|death_place=[[Atlanta, Georgia]], U.S.
|debutleague = MLB
|debutdate=August 30
|debutyear=1905
|debutteam=Detroit Tigers
|finalleague = MLB
|finaldate=September 11
|finalyear=1928
|finalteam=Philadelphia Athletics
|statleague = MLB
|stat1label=[[Batting average (baseball)|Batting average]]
|stat1value=.366 <!--Don't change this, see section "Regular season statistics" below-->
|stat2label=[[Hit (baseball)|Hit]]s
|stat2value=4,189
|stat3label=[[Home run]]s
|stat3value=117
|stat4label=[[Run batted in|Runs batted in]]
|stat4value=1,944
|stat5label=[[Stolen base]]s
|stat5value=897
|stat6label=Managerial record
|stat6value=479–444
|stat7label=Winning %
|stat7value={{winpct|479|444}}
|teams=
'''As player'''
*[[Detroit Tigers]] ({{mlby|1905}}–{{mlby|1926}})
*[[Philadelphia Athletics]] ({{mlby|1927}}–{{mlby|1928}})
'''As manager'''
*[[Detroit Tigers]] ({{mlby|1921}}–{{mlby|1926}})
|highlights=
* [[Major League Baseball Most Valuable Player Award|AL MVP]] (1911)
* [[Triple Crown (baseball)|Triple Crown]] (1909)
* 11× [[List of Major League Baseball batting champions|AL batting champion]] (1907–1909, 1911–1915, 1917–1919)
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders|AL home run leader]] (1909)
* 4× [[List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders|AL RBI leader]] (1907–1909, 1911)
* 6× [[List of Major League Baseball annual stolen base leaders|AL stolen base leader]] (1907, 1909, 1911, 1915–1917)
* [[Detroit Tigers#Retired numbers and honorees|Name honored]] by the Tigers
* [[Major League Baseball All-Century Team]]
|hoflink = National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum
|hoftype = National
|hofdate=[[1936 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|1936]]
|hofvote=98.2% (first ballot)
}}
'''Tyrus Raymond Cobb''' (December 18, 1886<ref>{{cite web|title=Ty Cobb|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ty-Cobb|website=Encyclopaedia Britannica|access-date=December 17, 2017}}</ref> – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "'''the Georgia Peach'''", was an American professional baseball [[center fielder]]. A native of rural [[Narrows, Georgia|Narrows]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]], Cobb played 24 seasons in [[Major League Baseball]] (MLB). He spent 22 years with the [[Detroit Tigers]] and served as the team's [[player-manager (baseball)|player-manager]] for the last six, and he finished his career with the [[History of the Philadelphia Athletics|Philadelphia Athletics]]. In 1936, Cobb received the most votes of any player on the [[1936 Baseball Hall of Fame balloting|inaugural ballot]] for the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame]], receiving 222 out of a possible 226 votes (98.2%); no other player received a higher percentage of votes until [[Tom Seaver]] in 1992.  In 1999, the ''[[Sporting News]]'' ranked Cobb third on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/lisn100.shtml|title=Baseball's 100 greatest players|publisher=Baseball Almanac|access-date=July 21, 2016}}</ref>
Cobb is credited with setting 9000 MLB records throughout his career.<ref name=JamesPeachJEI>{{cite journal |last=Peach |first=James |date=June 2004 |title=Thorstein Veblen, Ty Cobb, and the evolution of an institution |journal=Journal of Economic Issues |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=326–337 |doi=10.1080/00213624.2004.11506692 |s2cid=157860611 |url=http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-514151_ITM |access-date=January 30, 2007 |quote=(Abstract Only) |archive-date=September 29, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929164528/http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/summary_0199-514151_ITM |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name=Zacharias>{{cite news |last=Zacharias |first=Patricia |title=Ty Cobb, the greatest Tiger of them all |newspaper=[[The Detroit News]] |url=http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=92&category=sports |access-date=February 26, 2007 |quote=(Abstract Only) |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720080112/http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=92&category=sports |archive-date=July 20, 2012  }}</ref><ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb>{{cite web|url=https://baseballbiography.com/ty-cobb-1886|title=The Ballplayers – Ty Cobb|last=Wolpin|first=Stewart|access-date=June 5, 2007|publisher=baseballbiography.com}}</ref><ref name=ESPNSchwartz>{{cite web |last=Schwartz|first=Larry | url=https://www.espn.com/sportscentury/features/00014142.html |title=He was a pain ... but a great pain |access-date=January 30, 2007 |publisher=ESPN Internet Ventures}}</ref> Cobb has won more [[List of Major League Baseball batting champions|batting titles]] than any other player, with 11 (or 12, depending on source).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_most_times.shtml |title=Most Times Leading League |access-date=March 21, 2007 |publisher=Sports Reference, Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070521215410/http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_most_times.shtml |archive-date=May 21, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> During his entire 24-year career, he hit .300 in a record 23 consecutive seasons, with the exception being his rookie season. He also [[List of Major League Baseball players with a .400 batting average in a season|hit .400 in three different seasons]], a record he shares with three other players. Cobb has more five-hit games (14) than any other player in major league history. He also holds the career record for stealing home (54 times) and for stealing second base, third base, and home in succession (4 times), and as the youngest player ever to compile 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs. His combined total of 4,065 runs scored and runs batted in (after adjusting for home runs) is still the highest ever produced by any major league player. Cobb also ranks first in games played by an outfielder in major league history (2,934). He retained many other records for almost a half century or more, including most career [[games played]] (3,035) and [[at bat]]s (11,429 or 11,434 depending on source) until 1974<ref name=BaseballRefCareerGames>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/G_progress.shtml |title=Career Leaders for Games (Progressive)|access-date=March 19, 2007|publisher=Sports Reference, Inc }}</ref><ref name=BaseballRefCareerABs>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/AB_progress.shtml |title=Career Leaders for At Bats (Progressive)|access-date=March 19, 2007|publisher=Sports Reference, Inc }}</ref> as well as the modern record for most career [[stolen base]]s (892) until 1977.<ref name=BaseballRefCareerSB>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/SB_career.shtml |title=Career Leaders for Stolen Bases |access-date=January 30, 2007 |publisher=Sports Reference, Inc }}</ref> He also had the [[List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders|most career]] [[Hit (baseball)|hits]] until 1985 (4,189 or 4,191, depending on source)<ref>{{cite book| last =Soderholm-Difatte| first=Bryan | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FalWDwAAQBAJ&q=ty+cobb+number+of+hits+and+double+counted+1910&pg=PA27 |title=America's Game: A History of Major League Baseball through World War II| page=27|year=2018 |publisher =Rowman and Littlefield  | isbn = 9781538110638|access-date=September 29, 2019 }}</ref><ref name=BaseballRefCareerHits>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/H_progress.shtml |title=Career Leaders for Hits (Progressive)|access-date=March 19, 2007|publisher=Sports Reference, Inc }}</ref><ref name=Holmes>{{cite book| last =Holmes | first=Dan |year=2004| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Dm3hqzbyYkC&q=ty+cobb+4,189&pg=PA136 |title=Ty Cobb: A Biography| page=136 |publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | isbn = 0-313-32869-2 |access-date=January 12, 2009 }}</ref> and most career [[Run (baseball)|runs]] until 2001.<ref name=BaseballRefCareerRuns>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/R_progress.shtml |title=Career Leaders for Runs (Progressive)|access-date=March 19, 2007|publisher=Sports Reference, Inc }}</ref> His .366 career batting average was officially listed as the highest-ever until 2024, when MLB decided to include [[Negro Leagues]] players in official statistics.<ref name="2024rev">{{Cite web |url=https://www.npr.org/2024/05/29/g-s1-1525/mlb-negro-leagues-stats-josh-gibson |title=The Negro Leagues are officially part of MLB history—with the records to prove it and most career |first=Rachel |last=Treisman |date=May 29, 2024 |accessdate=May 29, 2024 |publisher=[[NPR]] |department=Sports}}</ref>
Cobb's reputation, which includes a large college scholarship fund for Georgia residents financed by his early investments in [[Coca-Cola]] and [[General Motors]], has been somewhat tarnished by allegations of racism and violence. These primarily stem from a couple of mostly discredited biographies that were released following his death.<ref name="Gilbert">{{cite web |last=King |first=Gilbert |title=The Knife in Ty Cobb's Back |date=August 30, 2011 |url=http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/history/2011/08/the-knife-in-ty-cobbs-back/ |website=Smithsonian}}</ref> Cobb's reputation as a violent man was exaggerated by his first biographer, sportswriter [[Al Stump]], whose stories about Cobb have been proven as [[Sensationalism|sensationalized]] and largely fictional.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.mlb.com/news/ty-cobb-history-built-on-inaccuracies/c-178601094|title=Ty Cobb history built on inaccuracies|website=MLB.com|language=en|access-date=December 30, 2018}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/2015/06/09/ty-cobb-myth-legend-popular-culture/28765125/|title = How Ty Cobb the truth got lost inside Ty Cobb the myth}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/arts/2015/06/09/ty-cobb-myth-legend-popular-culture/28765125/|title=How Ty Cobb the truth got lost inside Ty Cobb the myth|website=Detroit Free Press|language=en|access-date=December 30, 2018}}</ref><ref name=":0">{{Cite web|url=https://www.saturdayeveningpost.com/2017/07/softer-side-ty-cobb/|title=The Softer Side of Ty Cobb {{!}} The Saturday Evening Post|website=www.saturdayeveningpost.com|date=July 18, 2017|access-date=December 30, 2018}}</ref> While he was known for often violent conflicts, he spoke favorably about black players joining the Major Leagues and was a well-known philanthropist.<ref name="Gilbert"/><ref>{{Cite news |url=https://naplesherald.com/2015/09/24/the-curious-case-of-ty-cobb/ |title=The Curious Case of Ty Cobb |last=Miller |first=Glenn |date=September 24, 2015 |work=Naples Herald |access-date=December 16, 2018 |language=en-US  |archive-date=December 16, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181216074102/https://naplesherald.com/2015/09/24/the-curious-case-of-ty-cobb/ |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.donorstrust.org/strategic-giving/ty-cobbs-philanthropy |title=Ty Cobb's Philanthropy Has Lessons for Us All |last=Lipsett |first=Peter |work=DonorsTrust |date=April 6, 2016 |access-date=August 26, 2021 }}</ref>
==Early life==
Cobb was born in 1886 in [[Narrows, Georgia]], a small, unincorporated rural community of farmers. He was the first of three children born to William Herschel Cobb<!-- Note: state senators qualify [[WP:NPOL]] --> (1863–1905) and Amanda Chitwood Cobb (1871–1936).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3uSbqUm8hSAC&pg=PA358|title=The New Bill James Historical Baseball Abstract|first=Bill|publisher=Simon and Schuster|page=358|year=2003|location=New York|isbn=978-0-7432-2722-3|last=James}}</ref> Cobb's father was a state senator.<ref name="Leerhsen 2016">{{cite web |url=http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/who-was-ty-cobb-the-history-we-know-thats-wrong/2/ |title=Who was Ty Cobb? The history we know that's wrong |first=Charles |last=Leerhsen |publisher=Hillsdale College |year=2016}}</ref>
[[File:Ty Cobb Birthplace Sign on GA Rt 105.jpg|thumb|left|Faded-out sign that shows the birthplace of Ty Cobb at the Narrows in Georgia on Route 105 about four miles southeast of Baldwin, GA]]
When he was still an infant, his parents moved to the nearby town of [[Royston, Georgia|Royston]], where he grew up.<ref>H. G. Salsinger. "Ty Cobb Not Extraordinary Ballplayer as Boy." ''Bridgeport (CT) Telegram'', November 5, 1924, p. 18.</ref> By most accounts, he became fascinated with baseball as a child, and decided that he wanted to go professional one day; his father was vehemently opposed to this idea, but by his teenage years, he was trying out for area teams.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/articles/sports-outdoor-recreation/ty-cobb-1886-1961|title=Ty Cobb (1886-1961)|website=New Georgia Encyclopedia}}</ref> He played his first years in organized baseball for the Royston Rompers, the semi-pro Royston Reds, and the [[Augusta Tourists]] of the [[South Atlantic League]], who released him after only two days. He then tried out for the [[Anniston, Alabama]] based [[Anniston Steelers]] of the semipro [[Tennessee–Alabama League]], with his father's stern admonition ringing in his ears: "Don't come home a failure!"<ref name=Kanfer>{{cite magazine |last=Kanfer|first=Stefan| url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050490-1,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930072056/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1050490-1,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=September 30, 2007 |title=Failures Can't Come Home |date=April 18, 2005 |magazine=Time |access-date=February 26, 2007 }}</ref> After joining the Steelers for a monthly salary of $50, Cobb promoted himself by sending several postcards written about his talents under different aliases to [[Grantland Rice]], the ''[[The Atlanta Journal-Constitution|Atlanta Journal]]'' sports editor. Eventually, Rice wrote a small note in the ''Journal'' that a "young fellow named Cobb seems to be showing an unusual lot of talent."<ref>[[#Cobb|Cobb & Stump (1993)]], p. 48.</ref> After about three months, Cobb returned to the Tourists and finished the season hitting .237 in 35 games. While with the Tourists he was mentored and coached by George Leidy, who emphasized pinpoint bunting and aggression on the basepaths.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rice |first=Stephen |date=April 21, 2023 |title=George Leidy |url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/george-leidy/ |access-date=April 23, 2023 |website=SABR bio project}}</ref> In August 1905, the management of the Tourists sold Cobb to the [[American League]]'s [[Detroit Tigers]] for $750 ({{Inflation|US|750|1905|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733 |title=Ty Cobb |encyclopedia=New Georgia Encyclopedia |access-date=June 3, 2011 |archive-date=August 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805214326/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733 |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.espn.com/mlb/news/story?id=2146324 |title= Cobb still revered, reviled 100 years after first game|agency= Associated Press|date= August 29, 2005}}</ref><ref name=NYTObit>{{cite news |title=Ty Cobb, Baseball Great, Dies; Still Held 16 Big League Marks|newspaper=The New York Times|pages=1, 21 |date=July 18, 1961 }}</ref><ref name=NYTWoolf>{{cite news |first=S. J. |last=Woolf |title=Tyrus Cobb – Then and Now; Once the scrappiest, wiliest figure in baseball, 'The Georgia Peach' views the game as played today with mellow disdain |newspaper=The New York Times|page= SM17 (Magazine section) |date=September 19, 1948 }}</ref><ref name=BaseballRefCobbCareerStats>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/c/cobbty01.shtml |title=Ty Cobb Career Statistics|access-date=May 19, 2021 |publisher=Sports Reference, Inc }}</ref>
On August 8, 1905, Cobb's mother, Amanda, fatally shot his father, William, with a pistol that William had purchased for her.<ref name="Gilbert"/> Court records indicate that William Cobb had suspected Amanda of infidelity<ref name="CobbInfidelity">{{cite web |url=http://blueridgecountry.com/articles/ty-cobb-murder-mystery |title=Ty Cobb: Death In The Dark|date=May 2003|access-date=June 23, 2010 |publisher=Blue Ridge Country }}</ref> and was sneaking past his own bedroom window to catch her in the act. She saw the silhouette of what she presumed to be an intruder and, acting in self-defense, shot and killed her husband.<ref name=Holmes2>{{cite book| last =Holmes | first=Dan |year=2004| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Dm3hqzbyYkC&q=ty+cobb+4,189&pg=PA136 |title=Ty Cobb: A Biography| page=13 |publisher = Greenwood Publishing Group | isbn = 0-313-32869-2 |access-date=January 12, 2009 }}</ref> Amanda Cobb was charged with murder and released on a $7,000 [[recognizance]] [[bail|bond]].<ref name=AmandCobbBond>{{cite court |litigants=State of Georgia vs. Amanda Cobb (bond hearing) |vol=vol2 |reporter=1281p.478 |opinion=9 |court=Franklin County, Georgia, Superior Court |date= September 29, 1905 |url=http://content.sos.state.ga.us/u?/adhoc,53}}</ref> She was [[acquittal|acquitted]] on March 31, 1906.<ref name=AmandCobbVerdict>{{cite court |litigants=State of Georgia vs. Amanda Cobb (murder trial verdict) |vol=vol2 |reporter=1282p040 |opinion=1 |court=Franklin County, Georgia, Superior Court |date= March 31, 1906 |url=http://content.sos.state.ga.us/u?/adhoc,54}}</ref> Ty Cobb later attributed his ferocious play to his late father, saying, "I did it for my father. He never got to see me play ... but I knew he was watching me, and I never let him down."
Cobb was initiated into [[Freemasonry]] in 1907, earning the 32nd degree in 1912.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Co-Freemasonry |first=Masonic Order of Universal |title=Masonic Biographies {{!}} Ty Cobb |url=https://www.universalfreemasonry.org/en/famous-freemasons/ty-cobb |access-date=March 9, 2023 |website=Universal Co-Masonry |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |date=August 24, 2014 |title=Masons in Baseball |url=https://lodge43.org/masons-in-baseball/ |access-date=March 9, 2023 |website=Lodge No. 43, F. & A. M. |language=en-US}}</ref>
In 1911, Cobb moved to Detroit's architecturally significant and now historically protected [[Woodbridge, Detroit|Woodbridge]] neighborhood, from which he would walk with his dogs to the ballpark prior to games. The [[Victorian architecture|Victorian]] duplex in which Cobb lived still stands.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/6784662/ty-cobb-detroit |title=Ty Cobb as Detroit|work= Grantland.com |date=July 27, 2011|access-date=July 15, 2013 }}</ref>
==Professional career==
===Early years===
Three weeks after his mother killed his father, Cobb debuted in [[Center fielder|center field]] for the Detroit Tigers. On August 30, 1905, in his first major league at bat, he doubled off [[Jack Chesbro]] of the [[New York Highlanders]]. Chesbro had won 41 games the previous season. Cobb was 18 years old at the time, the youngest player in the league by almost a year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1905-other-leaders.shtml |title=1905 American League Awards, All-Stars, & More Leaders|work= Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=October 8, 2010 }}</ref> Although he hit only .240 in 41 games, he signed a $1,500 contract to play for the Tigers in 1905.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.lib.msu.edu/red-tape/2017/aug/august-30-1905-ty-cobb-plays-his-first-game-detroit-tiger|title=August 30, 1905 : Ty Cobb Plays His First Game As Detroit Tiger {{!}} MSU Libraries|website=blogs.lib.msu.edu|access-date=January 28, 2020}}</ref>
As a rookie, Cobb was subject to severe hazing by his veteran teammates, who were jealous of the young prospect. The players smashed his homemade bats, nailed his cleats in the clubhouse, doused his clothes before tying knots in them, and verbally abused him.<ref>Russo, p. 17</ref> Cobb later attributed his hostile temperament to this experience: "These old-timers turned me into a snarling wildcat."<ref name=NGECobb>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733 |title=Ty Cobb (1886–1961) |access-date=January 30, 2007 |last=Hill |first=John Paul |date=November 18, 2002 |encyclopedia=[[New Georgia Encyclopedia]] |archive-date=August 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805214326/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Tigers manager [[Hughie Jennings]] later acknowledged that Cobb was targeted for abuse by veteran players, some of whom sought to force him off the team. "I let this go for a while because I wanted to satisfy myself that Cobb has as much guts as I thought in the very beginning," Jennings recalled. "Well, he proved it to me, and I told the other players to let him alone. He is going to be a great baseball player and I won't allow him to be driven off this club."<ref name="kashatus72-73">Kashatus (2002), pp. 72–73.</ref>
[[File:Cobbsign.jpg|thumb|Cobb signs a $5,000 contract in 1908 (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|5,000|1908|r=-1}}}} today) after a holdout]]
The following year, 1906, Cobb became the Tigers' full-time center fielder and hit .316 in 98 games, setting a record for the highest batting average (minimum 310 plate appearances) for a 19-year-old (later bested by [[Mel Ott]]'s .322 average in 124 games for the 1928 [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_19_bat.shtml |title=Batting Leaders Before, During and After Age 19 |work=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=October 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930031332/http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_19_bat.shtml |archive-date=September 30, 2011 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> He never hit below that mark again. After being moved to right field, he led the Tigers to three consecutive [[List of American League pennant winners|American League pennants]] in 1907, 1908 and 1909. Detroit would lose each [[World Series]] (to the Cubs twice and then the Pirates); however, Cobb's [[World Series|postseason]] numbers were far below his career standard. Cobb did not get another opportunity to play on a pennant-winning team.
In 1907, Cobb reached first and then stole second, third and home. He accomplished the feat four times during his career, still an MLB record as of 2022.<ref name=GeorgiaEncyc>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ty Cobb|encyclopedia=The New Georgia Encyclopedia|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733|access-date=January 25, 2009|archive-date=August 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805214326/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ty Cobb – Baseball Legend|publisher=BBC|date=July 22, 2003|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1118648|access-date=January 25, 2009}}</ref> He finished the 1907 season with a league-leading .350 batting average, 212 hits, 49 steals and 119 [[run batted in|runs batted in]] (RBI).<ref name="BaseballRefCobbCareerStats"/> At age 20, he was the youngest player to win a [[list of Major League Baseball batting champions|batting championship]] and held this record until 1955, when fellow Detroit Tiger [[Al Kaline]] won the batting title while twelve days younger than Cobb had been.<ref name=GeorgiaEncyc/><ref name=BaseballDigest>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_11_59/ai_66010628 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803081922/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_11_59/ai_66010628 |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 3, 2008 |title=Facts and Figures – Baseball batting champions |access-date=January 25, 2009 |publisher=Baseball Digest |date=November 2000 }}</ref> Reflecting on his career in 1930, two years after retiring, he told [[Grantland Rice]], "The biggest thrill I ever got came in a game against the Athletics in 1907 [on September 30]... The Athletics had us beaten, with [[Rube Waddell]] pitching.  They were two runs ahead in the 9th inning, when I happened to hit a home run that tied the score. This game went 17 innings to a tie, and a few days later, we clinched our first pennant. You can understand what it meant for a 20-year-old country boy to hit a home run off the great Rube, in a pennant-winning game with two outs in the ninth."<ref name="baseballspast.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballspast.com/film/cobb.html |title=Film from Baseball's Past |publisher=Baseballspast.com |date=March 19, 1930 |access-date=November 8, 2013}}</ref>
[[File:1909 Ty Cobb Honus Wagner.jpg|thumb|left|170px|Cobb (left) and [[Honus Wagner]] during a World Series game between Detroit and Pittsburgh, 1909]]
Despite great success on the field, Cobb was no stranger to controversy off it. As described in ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'', "In 1907 during spring training in Augusta, Georgia, a black groundskeeper named Bungy Cummings, whom Cobb had known for years, attempted to shake Cobb's hand or pat him on the shoulder."<ref name="Gilbert"/> The "overly familiar greeting infuriated" Cobb, who attacked Cummings. When Cummings' wife tried to defend him, Cobb allegedly choked her. The assault was only stopped when catcher [[Boss Schmidt|Charles "Boss" Schmidt]] knocked Cobb out.<ref>''When Cobb Met Wagner: The Seven-Game World Series of 1909'' by David Finoli, McFarland, 2010, page 230.</ref> However, aside from Schmidt's statement to the press, no other corroborating witnesses to the assault on Cummings ever came forward and Cummings himself never made a public comment about it. Author Charles Leerhsen speculates that the assault on Cummings and his wife never occurred and that it was a total fabrication by Schmidt. Cobb had spent the previous year defending himself on several occasions from assaults by Schmidt, with Schmidt often coming out of nowhere to blindside Cobb. On that day, several reporters did see Cummings, who appeared to be "partially under the influence of liquor," approach Cobb and shout "Hello, Carrie!" (the meaning of which is unknown) and go in for a hug. Cobb then pushed him away, which was the last interaction that anyone saw between Cobb and Cummings. Shortly thereafter, hearing a fight, several reporters came running and found Cobb and Schmidt wrestling on the ground. When the fight was broken up and Cobb had walked away, Schmidt remained behind and told the reporters that he saw Cobb assaulting Cummings and his wife and had intervened. Leerhsen speculates that this was just another one of Schmidt's assaults on Cobb and that once discovered, Schmidt made up a story that made him sound like he had assaulted Cobb for a noble purpose.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], pp. 151–152.</ref> In 1908, Cobb attacked a black laborer in Detroit who complained when Cobb stepped into freshly poured asphalt; Cobb was found guilty of battery, but the sentence was suspended.<ref name="Gilbert"/>
In September 1907, Cobb began a relationship with [[The Coca-Cola Company]] that lasted the remainder of his life. By the time he died, he held over 20,000 shares of stock and owned [[Bottling company|bottling plants]] in [[Santa Maria, California]], [[Twin Falls, Idaho]], and [[Bend, Oregon]]. He was also a celebrity spokesman for the product.<ref name=HallofFameCoke>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/2002/021218_cobb_ty.htm |title=Ty Cobb Sold Me a Soda Pop: Hall of Fame Outfielder Ty Cobb and Coca-Cola |access-date=January 30, 2007 |last=Holmes |first=Dan |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206111050/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/2002/021218_cobb_ty.htm |archive-date=December 6, 2006 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> In the offseason between 1907 and 1908, Cobb negotiated with [[Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina]], offering to coach baseball there "for $250 a month, provided that he did not sign with Detroit that season." This did not come to pass, however.<ref>Bryan, Wright, "Clemson: An Informal History of the University 1889–1979," The R. L. Bryan Company, Columbia, South Carolina, 1979, Library of Congress card number 79-56231, {{ISBN|0-934870-01-2}}, page 214.</ref>
The following season, the Tigers finished ahead of the [[Chicago White Sox]] for the pennant. Cobb again won the batting title with a .324 average, but Detroit suffered another loss in the World Series. In August 1908, Cobb married Charlotte ("Charlie") Marion Lombard, the daughter of prominent [[Augusta, Georgia|Augustan]] Roswell Lombard. In the offseason, the couple lived on her father's Augusta estate, ''The Oaks'', until they moved into their own house on Williams Street in November 1913.<ref name=Price1996>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/history/cobb.html |title=Aggressive play defined Ty Cobb |access-date=February 7, 2007 |last=Price |first=Ed |date=June 21, 1996 |newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070209235657/http://chronicle.augusta.com/history/cobb.html |archive-date=February 9, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>
[[File:Cobb_slide_into_third.jpg|thumb|[[Charles M. Conlon]]'s famous picture of Cobb stealing third base during the 1909 season]]
The Tigers won the AL pennant again in 1909. During that World Series, Cobb's last, he stole home in the second game, igniting a three-run rally, but that was the high point for him, finishing with a lowly .231, as the Tigers lost to Honus Wagner and the powerful Pirates in seven games. Although he performed poorly in the postseason, he won the [[Major League Baseball Triple Crown|Triple Crown]] by hitting .377 with 107 RBI and nine home runs, all [[inside-the-park home run|inside the park]], thus becoming the only player of the modern era to lead his league in home runs in a season without hitting a ball over the fence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1909a.shtml|title=Year in Review: 1909 American League|access-date=May 28, 2007|publisher=Baseball Almanac}}</ref>
In the same season, [[Charles M. Conlon]] snapped the famous photograph of a grimacing Cobb sliding into third base amid a cloud of dirt, which visually captured the grit and ferocity of his playing style.<ref name=conlon>{{cite web |url=http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/conlon/cobb/photo2.html |title=Ty Cobb |publisher=Times Mirror Co. |year=1998 |access-date=February 25, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070129000518/http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/conlon/cobb/photo2.html |archive-date=January 29, 2007  }}</ref>
===1910: Chalmers Award controversy===
{{Main|1910 Chalmers Award}}
Going into the final days of the 1910 season, Cobb had a .004 lead on [[Nap Lajoie]] for the American League batting title. The prize for the winner of the title was a [[Chalmers automobile]]. Cobb sat out the final two games to preserve his average. Lajoie hit safely eight times in a [[doubleheader (baseball)|doubleheader]] but six of those hits were [[bunt (baseball)|bunt]] singles. Later it was rumored that the opposing manager had instructed his third baseman to play extra deep to allow Lajoie to win the batting race over the generally disliked Cobb. Although Cobb was credited with a higher batting average, it was later discovered in the 1970s that one game had been counted twice so that Cobb actually lost to Lajoie. As a result of the incident, AL president [[Ban Johnson]] was forced to [[arbitrate]] the situation. He declared Cobb the rightful owner of the title, but car company president Hugh Chalmers chose to award one to both Cobb and Lajoie.<ref name="LoC">{{cite web |last1=Queen |first1=Mike |title=Embarrassing Baseball Scandals Fans Want to Forget |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/headlinesandheroes/2023/07/embarrassing-baseball-scandals-fans-want-to-forget/ |website=Headlines and Heroes: Newspapers, Comics and More Fine Print [Blog] |publisher=Library of Congress |access-date=August 17, 2023 |date=July 11, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|last=Gillette|first=Gary|author2=Palmer, Pete|title=The ESPN Baseball Encyclopedia|publisher=Sterling Publishing Co|location=New York|year=2007|edition=Fourth|pages=1764–1765|isbn=978-1-4027-4771-7}}</ref>
===1911–1914===
[[File:Cobb jackson.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Cobb and [[Joe Jackson (baseball player)|"Shoeless" Joe Jackson]] in Cleveland]]
{{further|1912 suspension of Ty Cobb}}
Cobb regarded baseball as "something like a war," future Tiger second baseman [[Charlie Gehringer]] said. "Every time at bat for him was a crusade."<ref>{{cite book|last=Honig|first=Donald|title=Baseball When the Grass Was Real|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|year=1975|page=42|isbn=0-8032-7267-7}}</ref> Baseball historian [[John Thorn]] said in the book ''Legends of the Fall'', "He is testament to how far you can get simply through will. ... Cobb was pursued by demons."
Cobb was having a tremendous year in 1911, which included a 40-game [[hitting streak]]. Still, [[Shoeless Joe Jackson|"Shoeless" Joe Jackson]] led him by .009 points in the batting race late in the season. Near the end of the season, Cobb's Tigers had a long series against Jackson's [[Cleveland Naps]]. Fellow Southerners Cobb and Jackson were personally friendly both on and off the field.<ref name="Russo 20">[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 20.</ref> Cobb used that friendship to his advantage. Cobb ignored Jackson when Jackson tried to say anything to him. When Jackson persisted, Cobb snapped angrily back at him, making him wonder what he could have done to enrage Cobb. Cobb felt that it was these mind games that caused Jackson to "fall off" to a final average of .408, twelve points lower than Cobb's .420, a 20th-century record which stood until [[George Sisler]] tied it and [[Rogers Hornsby]] surpassed it with .424, the record since then (until 2024) except for Hugh Duffy's .438 in the 19th century.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb />
{{quote box|width=30%|align=left|quote=I often tried plays that looked recklessly daring, maybe even silly. But I never tried anything foolish when a game was at stake, only when we were far ahead or far behind. I did it to study how the other team reacted, filing away in my mind any observations for future use.|source=—Ty Cobb in ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name=NYTDaleyTribute>{{cite news |first=Arthur |last=Daley |author-link=Arthur Daley (sportswriter) |title=Sports of The Times: In Belated Tribute |page=32 (food fashions family furnishings section)|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 15, 1961 }}</ref>}}
Cobb led the AL that year in numerous other categories, including 248 hits, 147 runs scored, 127 RBI, 83 stolen bases, 47 doubles, 24 triples and a .621 [[slugging percentage]]. Cobb hit eight home runs but finished second in that category to [[Home Run Baker|Frank Baker]], who hit eleven. He was awarded another Chalmers car, this time for being voted the AL MVP by the [[Baseball Writers' Association of America]].
[[File:Outing (1885) (14753422496).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Cobb in 1911]]
On May 12, 1911, playing against the [[New York Highlanders]], he scored from first base on a single to right field, then scored another run from second base on a wild pitch. In the seventh inning, he tied the game with a two-run double. The Highlanders catcher vehemently argued the safe call at second base with the [[umpire (baseball)|umpire]] in question, going on at such length that the other Highlanders infielders gathered nearby to watch. Realizing that no one on the Highlanders had called time, Cobb strolled unobserved to third base and then casually walked towards home plate as if to get a better view of the argument. He then suddenly broke into a run and slid into home plate for the eventual winning run.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb /> It was performances like this that led [[Branch Rickey]] to say later that Cobb "had brains in his feet."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/first5/default.htm |title=First Five: The Original Members of the Hall of Fame |last=Holmes |first=Dan |access-date=June 15, 2007 |publisher=[[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608145751/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/first5/default.htm |archive-date=June 8, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>
Describing his gameplay strategy in 1930, he said, "My system was all offense. I believed in putting up a mental hazard for the other fellow. If we were five or six runs ahead, I'd try some wild play, such as going from first to home on a single. This helped to make the other side hurry the play in a close game later on. I worked out all the angles I could think of, to keep them guessing and hurrying."<ref name="baseballspast.com" /> In the same interview, Cobb talked about having noticed a throwing tendency of first baseman [[Hal Chase]] but having to wait two full years until the opportunity came to exploit it. By unexpectedly altering his own [[baserunning]] tendencies, he was able to surprise Chase and score the winning run of the game in question.
On May 15, 1912, Cobb assaulted a heckler, Claude Lucker (often misspelled as Lueker), in the stands in New York's [[Hilltop Park]] where the Tigers were playing the Highlanders. Lucker, described by baseball historian Frank Russo as "a [[Tammany Hall]] lackey and two-bit punk," often berated Cobb when Detroit visited New York.<ref name="Russo 19">[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 19.</ref> In this game, the two traded insults through the first couple of innings. Cobb at one point went to the Highlander dugout to look for the Highlanders' owner to try to have Lucker ejected from the game, but his search was in vain.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 259.</ref> He also asked for the police to intervene, but they refused.<ref name="Russo 19"/> The situation climaxed when Lucker allegedly called Cobb a "half-nigger."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Dm3hqzbyYkC|first=Dan |last=Holmes|title=Ty Cobb: A Biography |year=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |location=Westport, Connecticut |page=58|isbn=978-0-313-32869-5}}</ref> Cobb, in his discussion of the incident in the Holmes biography,<ref>[[#Cobb|Cobb & Stump (1993)]], pp. 131–135.</ref> avoided such explicit words but alluded to Lucker's epithet by saying he was "reflecting on my mother's color and morals." He went on to state that he warned Highlander manager [[Harry Wolverton]] that if something was not done about that man, there would be trouble. No action was taken. At the end of the sixth inning, after being challenged by teammates [[Sam Crawford]] and [[Jim Delahanty]] to do something about it, Cobb climbed into the stands and attacked Lucker, who it turned out was handicapped (he had lost all of one hand and three fingers on his other hand in an industrial accident). Some onlookers shouted at him to stop because the man had no hands, to which Cobb reportedly retorted, "I don't care if he got no feet!"<ref>{{cite web |title=ESPN.com's 10 infamous moments |url=https://www.espn.com/endofcentury/s/other/infamous.html |access-date=August 26, 2007}}</ref> According to Russo, the crowd cheered Cobb on in the fight.<ref name="Russo 19"/> Though extremely rare in the 21st century, attacking fans was not so unusual an activity in the early years of baseball. Other notable baseball stars who assaulted heckling fans include [[Babe Ruth]], [[Cy Young]], [[Rube Waddell]], [[Kid Gleason]], [[Sherry Magee]], and [[Fred Clarke]].<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 258.</ref>
[[File:Ty Cobb 1916-restore.jpeg|thumb|150px|Cobb in 1916]]
The league [[1912 suspension of Ty Cobb|suspended him]]. His teammates, though not fond of Cobb, went on strike to protest the suspension, and the lack of protection of players from abusive fans, before the May 18 game in Philadelphia. For that one game, Detroit fielded a [[List of Major League Baseball replacement players#1912 Detroit Tigers strike|replacement team]] made up of hastily recruited college and sandlot players plus two Tiger coaches and lost 24–2, thereby setting some of Major League Baseball's modern-era (post-1900) negative records, notably the 26 hits in a nine-inning game allowed by [[Allan Travers]], who pitched one of the sport's most unlikely [[complete game]]s.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTravers>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Al_Travers_1892&page=chronology|title=Al Travers from the Chronology|last=Charlton|first=James|access-date=June 15, 2007|publisher=BaseballLibrary.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923182449/http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Al_Travers_1892&page=chronology|archive-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref> The pre-1901 record for the most hits and runs given up in a game is held by the [[Cleveland Blues (NL)|Cleveland Blues]]' [[Dave Rowe (baseball)|Dave Rowe]]. Primarily an outfielder, Rowe pitched a complete game on July 24, 1882, giving up 35 runs on 29 hits.<ref>{{cite web|title=1882 Year in Review|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1882n.shtml|website=Baseball Reference}}</ref> The current post-1900 record for most hits in a nine-inning game is 31, set in 1992 by the Milwaukee Brewers against Toronto; however, the Blue Jays used six pitchers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Milwaukee gets 31 hits|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR199208280.shtml|website=Baseball Reference}}</ref>
The strike ended when Cobb urged his teammates to return to the field. According to him, this incident led to the formation of a players' union, the "Ballplayers' Fraternity" (formally, the Fraternity of Professional Baseball Players of America), an early version of what is now called the [[Major League Baseball Players Association]], which garnered some concessions from the owners.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Baseball Players' Fraternity|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/54781/Baseball-Players-Fraternity|access-date=January 25, 2009}}</ref>
During his career, Cobb was involved in numerous other fights, both on and off the field, and several profanity-laced shouting matches. For example, Cobb and umpire [[Billy Evans]] arranged to settle their in-game differences through fisticuffs under the grandstand after the game. Members of both teams were spectators, and broke up the scuffle after Cobb had knocked Evans down, pinned him and began choking him. In 1909, Cobb was arrested for assault for an incident that occurred in a Cleveland hotel. Cobb got into an argument with the elevator operator around 2:15&nbsp;a.m. when the man refused to take him to the floor where some of his teammates were having a card game. The elevator operator stated that he could only take Cobb to the floor where his room was. As the argument escalated, a night watchman approached and he and Cobb eventually got into a physical confrontation. During the fight, Cobb produced a penknife and slashed the watchman across the hand. Cobb later claimed that the watchman, who had the upper hand in the fight, had his finger in Cobb's left eye and that Cobb was worried he was going to have his sight ruined. The fight finally ended when the watchman produced a gun and struck Cobb several times in the head, knocking him out.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 218.</ref> Cobb would later plead guilty to simple assault and pay a $100 fine. This incident has often been retold with the elevator operator and the watchman both being black. However, recent scholarship has shown that all parties involved were white.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], pp. 219–220.</ref>
On August 13, 1912, the same day the Tigers were to play the [[New York Highlanders]] at [[Hilltop Park]], Cobb and his wife were driving to a train station in [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] that was to transport him to the game when three intoxicated men had stopped him on the way. When Cobb had gotten out of the car to confront the men, they had asked for money and instigated a physical fight, with Cobb defending himself from one of the men by punching him in the chin as another had fled the scene. After being grabbed by the neck by another man, the man had pulled a knife and stabbed him in the back before he forced him away and returned to his car to continue driving to the station for the game. Cobb refused to speak any further of the issue. He would go on to hit 2–3 with two singles and a run scored, as well as batting .418. The Tigers lost 2–3.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Press Democrat 13 August 1912 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SRPD19120813.2.9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Ty+Cobb%22------- |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Detroit Tigers vs New York Highlanders Box Score: August 13, 1912 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA191208130.shtml |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref>
In 1913, Cobb signed a contract worth $12,000 for the six-month season ({{Inflation|US|12000|1913|fmt=eq}}), making him likely the first baseball player in history to be paid a five-figure salary.<ref name="salary milestones">{{cite news |last1=Haupert |first1=Michael |title=Baseball's Major Salary Milestones |url=https://sabr.org/research/baseball-s-major-salary-milestones |access-date=October 21, 2019 |work=The Baseball Research Journal |publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]] |date=Fall 2011}}</ref> This occurred in the same year where Cobb had allegedly grown pessimistic and was quoted as saying: "It seems I am a burden to the Detroit club, as a trespasser of its rules. If that be the case, let [[Frank Navin|Mr. Navin]] put a price on me and I'll take a chance on being able to negotiate my own release. I don't think I shall ever play ball again. This is positively my last statement in this matter." This attributed statement was first published on an April 19, 1913, edition of the [[Los Angeles Herald]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Los Angeles Herald 19 April 1913 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19130419.2.101&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Ty+Cobb%22------- |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref> Cobb did not play that day as the Tigers won 4–0 against the [[St. Louis Browns]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=St. Louis Browns vs Detroit Tigers Box Score: April 19, 1913 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET191304190.shtml |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref>
In June 1914, Cobb pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace after pulling a revolver during an argument at a Detroit butcher shop. He was fined $50 ({{Inflation|US|50|1914|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{cite news |title=Ty Cobb Fined $50 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94500942/ty-cobb-fined-50/ |access-date=February 9, 2022 |work=[[The York Dispatch]] |date=June 25, 1914 |pages=1}}</ref>
===1915–1921===
In 1915, Cobb set the single-season record for stolen bases with 96, which stood until Dodger [[Maury Wills]] broke it in 1962.<ref name=BaseballRefSeasonSB>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/SB_season.shtml |title=Single-Season Leaders for Stolen Bases |access-date=February 7, 2007 |publisher=Sports Reference, Inc }}</ref> That year, he also won his ninth consecutive batting title, hitting .369.
During 1917 spring training, Cobb showed up late for a [[Dallas]] spring training doubleheader against the New York Giants because of a golf outing. Several of the Giants, including [[Buck Herzog]], called him names from the bench. Cobb retaliated by [[glossary of baseball (S)#Spike|spiking]] Herzog during the second game, prompting a [[bench-clearing brawl#Baseball|bench-clearing brawl]] in which Cobb ground Herzog's face in the dirt. The Dallas Police Department had to help stop the brawl, and Cobb was thrown out of the game.<ref name="Herzog SABR">{{cite web|last=Schechter|first=Gabriel|url=https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/buck-herzog/|title=Buck Herzog|work=SABR|access-date=April 26, 2021}}</ref><ref>[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], pp. 124-125.</ref> Both teams were staying at the Oriental Hotel, and at dinner that evening, Herzog walked up to Cobb and challenged him to a fight. The two met an hour later in Cobb's room, where the Tiger outfielder had prepared for the fight by moving furniture out of the way and pouring water on the floor. Cobb's leather-soled shoes enabled him to get better footing than Herzog, who wore tennis shoes. The fight lasted for thirty minutes, over the course of which Cobb knocked down Herzog about six times while Herzog only knocked Cobb down once. The scuffle left Herzog's face bloodied and his eyes nearly shut.<ref name="Herzog SABR"/><ref name="Russo 125">[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 125.</ref> With Herzog vowing revenge, Cobb skipped the rest of the exhibition series against the Giants, heading to Cincinnati to train with the Reds, who were managed by Cobb's friend [[Christy Mathewson]]. However, Cobb later expressed the deepest respect for Herzog because of the way the infielder had conducted himself in the fight.<ref name="Russo 125"/>
In 1917, Cobb hit in 35 consecutive games, still the only player with two 35-game hitting streaks (including his 40-game streak in 1911).<ref name=BaseballAlmanacLongHitStreaks>{{cite web |url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/feats/feats-streak.shtml|title=Consecutive Games Hitting Streaks |access-date=June 6, 2007|publisher=Baseball Almanac}}</ref>  He had six hitting streaks of at least 20 games in his career, second only to [[Pete Rose]]'s eight.<ref name=BaseballPageRose>{{cite web |url=http://www.thebaseballpage.com/players/rosepe01.php |title=Player Pages: Pete Rose |access-date=February 7, 2007}}</ref>
Also in 1917, Cobb starred in the motion picture ''[[Somewhere in Georgia]]'' for a sum of $25,000 plus expenses (equivalent to approximately ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|25000|1917|r=-3}}}} today{{inflation-fn|US}}). Based on a story by sports columnist [[Grantland Rice]], the film casts Cobb as "himself," a small-town Georgia bank clerk with a talent for baseball.<ref name=IMDB>{{cite web |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0158971/ |title=Somewhere in Georgia |publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]] |access-date=February 7, 2007 }}</ref> [[Broadway theatre|Broadway]] critic [[Ward Morehouse]] called the movie "absolutely the worst flicker I ever saw, pure hokum."
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}}
In October 1918, Cobb enlisted in the [[Chemical Corps]] branch of the [[United States Army]] and was sent to the [[American Expeditionary Force|Allied Expeditionary Forces]] headquarters in [[Chaumont, Haute-Marne|Chaumont, France]].<ref name=ChemicalCorps>{{cite journal|last=Gurtowski |first=Richard |date=July 2005 |title=Remembering baseball hall of famers who served in the Chemical Corps |journal=CML Army Chemical Review |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IUN/is_2005_July/ai_n15730920 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060222165016/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0IUN/is_2005_July/ai_n15730920 |url-status=dead |archive-date=February 22, 2006 |access-date=March 10, 2007 }}</ref> He served approximately 67 days overseas before being [[honorable discharge|honorably discharged]] and returning to the United States.<ref name=ChemicalCorps/> He was given the rank of captain underneath the command of Major [[Branch Rickey]], the president of the [[St. Louis Cardinals]]. Other baseball players serving in this unit included Captain Christy Mathewson and Lieutenant [[George Sisler]].<ref name=ChemicalCorps/> All of these men were assigned to the Gas and Flame Division, where they trained soldiers in preparation for [[Chemical warfare|chemical attacks]] by exposing them to gas chambers in a controlled environment,<ref name=ChemicalCorps/> which eventually caused Mathewson to contract the tuberculosis that killed him on the eve of the 1925 World Series.
On August 19, 1921, in the second game of a doubleheader against [[Elmer Myers]] of the [[Boston Red Sox]], Cobb collected his 3,000th hit. Aged 34 at the time, he is still the youngest ballplayer to reach that milestone, and in the fewest at-bats (8,093).<ref name=SportingNews08061999>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/exhibits/online_exhibits/3000_hit_club/cobb_ty.htm |title=The 3000 Hit Club: Ty Cobb |access-date=February 10, 2007 |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070209031106/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/exhibits/online_exhibits/3000_hit_club/cobb_ty.htm |archive-date=February 9, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref><ref name=HallofFameCobb3000>{{cite magazine|url=http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/sports2000/numbers/172730.html |date=August 6, 1999 |title=Inside the numbers: 3,000 hits |access-date=February 10, 2007 |magazine=[[Sporting News]] |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050211195538/http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/sports2000/numbers/172730.html |archive-date=February 11, 2005  }}</ref>
By 1920, [[Babe Ruth]], sold to the renamed [[New York Yankees]] from the [[Boston Red Sox]], had established himself as a power hitter, something Cobb was not considered to be. When his Tigers showed up in New York to play the Yankees for the first time that season, writers billed it as a showdown between two stars of competing styles of play. Ruth hit two homers, a triple, and two singles during the series, compared to Cobb's two hits of a double and a single.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Detroit Tigers vs New York Yankees Box Score: May 24, 1920 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192005240.shtml |access-date=March 29, 2023 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Detroit Tigers vs New York Yankees Box Score: May 25, 1920 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192005250.shtml |access-date=March 29, 2023 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Detroit Tigers vs New York Yankees Box Score: May 26, 1920 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA192005260.shtml |access-date=March 29, 2023 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref>
As Ruth's popularity grew, Cobb became increasingly hostile toward him. He saw the Babe not only as a threat to his style of play, but also to his style of life.<ref name=Nation05082006>{{cite web |url=http://www.thenation.com/doc/20060522/zirin |last=Zirin |first=Dave |title=Bonding With the Babe |work=[[The Nation]] |date=May 8, 2006 |access-date=March 1, 2007 }}</ref><ref name=MF112006>{{cite web|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_9_20/ai_n6244977 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050120092744/http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1608/is_9_20/ai_n6244977 |url-status=dead |archive-date=January 20, 2005 |last=Kalish |first=Jacob |title=Fat phenoms: are hot dogs and beer part of your training regimen? Maybe they should be |publisher=[[Men's Fitness]] |date=October 2004 |access-date=March 1, 2007 }}</ref><ref name=SPTimes>{{cite news |url=http://www.sptimes.com/2004/03/21/Floridian/Thanks__Babe.shtml |last=Klinkenberg |first=Jeff |title=Thanks, Babe |newspaper=[[St. Petersburg Times]] |date= March 24, 2004 |access-date=March 1, 2007 }}</ref>  Perhaps what angered him the most about Ruth was that despite Babe's total disregard for his physical condition and traditional baseball, he was still an overwhelming success and brought fans to the ballparks in record numbers to see him challenge his own slugging records.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Bisher|first1=Furman|title=A Visit with Ty Cobb|journal=Saturday Evening Post|date=1958|volume=230|issue=50|page=42|url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=19509173&site=eds-live&scope=site|access-date=February 27, 2018}}</ref>
On May 5, 1925, Cobb told a reporter that, for the first time in his career, he was going to try to hit home runs, saying he wanted to show that he could hit home runs but simply chose not to. That day, he went 6 for 6, with two singles, a double and three homers.<ref name=BaseballLibMay1925>{{cite web |url=http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/1925MAY.stm |title=May 1925 |access-date=February 8, 2007 |publisher=Baseballlibrary.com |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923224657/http://www.baseballlibrary.com/baseballlibrary/chronology/1925MAY.stm |archive-date=September 23, 2015  }}</ref> The 16 total bases set a new AL record, which stood until May 8, 2012, when [[Josh Hamilton]] of the [[Texas Rangers (baseball)|Texas Rangers]] hit four home runs and a double for a total of 18 bases.<ref>{{cite web|work=Baseball Almanac|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/total_bases_records.shtml|title= Total Bases Records|access-date=May 9, 2012}}</ref> The next day Cobb had three more hits, two of which were home runs. The single his first time up gave him nine consecutive hits over three games, while his five homers in two games tied the record set by [[Cap Anson]] of the old Chicago NL team in 1884.<ref name=BaseballLibMay1925/> By the end of the series Cobb had gone 12 for 19 with 29 total bases, and afterwards reverted to his old playing style. Even so, when asked in 1930 by [[Grantland Rice]] to name the best hitter he'd ever seen, Cobb answered, "You can't beat the Babe. Ruth is one of the few who can take a terrific swing and still meet the ball solidly. His timing is perfect. [No one has] the combined power and eye of Ruth."<ref name="baseballspast.com"/>
===Cobb as player/manager===
[[File:Ty Cobb sliding2-edit1.jpg|thumb|Cobb slides into third base for a triple against the [[History of the Washington Senators (1901–60)|Washington Senators]] at [[Griffith Stadium]], August 16, 1924]]
Tigers owner [[Frank Navin]] tapped Cobb to take over for Hughie Jennings as manager for the 1921 season, a deal he signed on his 34th birthday for $32,500 (equivalent to approximately ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|32500|1921|r=0}}}} in today's terms{{inflation-fn|US}}). The signing surprised the baseball world. Although Cobb was a legendary player, he was disliked throughout the baseball community, even by his own teammates.<ref name=ngeorgiacobb>{{cite web |url=http://ngeorgia.com/people/cobbt.html |title=Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb: a North Georgia Notable |publisher=About North Georgia |access-date=February 27, 2007 |archive-date=January 26, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070126120456/http://ngeorgia.com/people/cobbt.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>
The closest Cobb came to winning another pennant was in 1924, when the Tigers finished in third place, six games behind the pennant-winning [[Washington Senators (1901–60)|Washington Senators]]. The Tigers had also finished third in 1922, but 16 games behind the Yankees. Cobb blamed his lackluster managerial record (479 wins against 444 losses) on Navin, who was arguably even more frugal than he was, passing up several quality players Cobb wanted to add to the team. In fact, he had saved money by hiring Cobb to both play and manage.
In 1922, Cobb tied a batting record set by [[Willie Keeler|Wee Willie Keeler]], with four five-hit games in a season. This has since been matched by [[Stan Musial]], [[Tony Gwynn]] and [[Ichiro Suzuki]]. On May 10, 1924, Cobb was honored at ceremonies before a game in Washington, D.C., by more than 100 dignitaries and legislators. He received 21 books, one for each year in professional baseball.<ref>{{cite book|last=Salsinger|first=H.G.|title=Ty Cobb|year=2012|publisher=McFarland|location=US|isbn=978-0-7864-6546-0|page=162|url=http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-6546-0|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130128090001/http://www.mcfarlandpub.com/book-2.php?id=978-0-7864-6546-0|url-status=dead|archive-date=January 28, 2013}}</ref>
At the end of 1925, Cobb was again embroiled in a batting title race, this time with one of his teammates and players, [[Harry Heilmann]]. In a doubleheader against the [[St. Louis Browns]] on October 4, 1925, Heilmann got six hits to lead the Tigers to a sweep of the doubleheader and beat Cobb for the batting crown, .393 to .389. Cobb and Browns player-manager [[George Sisler]] each pitched in the final game, Cobb pitching a perfect inning.
====Managerial record====
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size: 95%; text-align:center;"
|-
! rowspan="2"|Team !! rowspan="2"|Year !! colspan="5"|Regular season !! colspan="4"|Postseason
|-
!Games!!Won!!Lost!!Win %!!Finish!! Won !! Lost !! Win % !! Result
|-
|-
![[1921 Detroit Tigers season|DET]]|| {{mlby|1921}}
||153||{{WinLossPct|71|82}}|| 6th in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
![[1922 Detroit Tigers season|DET]]|| {{mlby|1922}}
||154||{{WinLossPct|79|75}}|| 3rd in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
![[1923 Detroit Tigers season|DET]]|| {{mlby|1923}}
||154||{{WinLossPct|83|71}}|| 2nd in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
![[1924 Detroit Tigers season|DET]]|| {{mlby|1924}}
||154||{{WinLossPct|86|68}}|| 3rd in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
![[1925 Detroit Tigers season|DET]]|| {{mlby|1925}}
||154||{{WinLossPct|81|73}}|| 4th in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
![[1926 Detroit Tigers season|DET]]|| {{mlby|1926}}
||154||{{WinLossPct|79|75}}|| 6th in AL || – || – || – ||
|-
! colspan="2"|Total ||923||{{WinLossPct|479|444}}|| || {{WinLossPct|0|0}} ||
|}
===Move to Philadelphia===
Cobb announced his retirement after a 22-year career as a Tiger in November 1926, and headed home to [[Augusta, Georgia]].<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> Shortly thereafter, Tris Speaker also retired as player-manager of the [[Cleveland Indians]]. The retirement of two great players at the same time sparked some interest, and it turned out that the two were coerced into retirement because of allegations of game-fixing brought about by [[Dutch Leonard (left-handed pitcher)|Dutch Leonard]], a former pitcher managed by Cobb.<ref name=autogenerated1>{{cite web|url=https://baseballbiography.com/ty-cobb-1886|title=Ty Cobb|access-date=November 24, 2007|publisher=baseballbiography.com}}</ref>
[[File:1928 Gehrig Speaker Cobb Ruth.jpg|thumb|left|250px|[[Lou Gehrig]], [[Tris Speaker]], Cobb, and [[Babe Ruth]], 1928]]
Leonard accused former pitcher and outfielder [[Smoky Joe Wood]] and Cobb of betting on a Tigers–Indians game played in Detroit on September 25, 1919, in which they allegedly orchestrated a Tigers victory to win the bet. Leonard claimed proof existed in letters written to him by Cobb and Wood.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> Commissioner [[Kenesaw Mountain Landis]] held a secret hearing with Cobb, Speaker and Wood.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> A second secret meeting among the AL directors led to the unpublicized resignations of Cobb and Speaker; however, rumors of the scandal led Judge Landis to hold additional hearings<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> in which Leonard refused to participate. Cobb and Wood admitted to writing the letters, but claimed that a horse-racing bet was involved and that Leonard's accusations were in retaliation for Cobb's having released him from the Tigers, thereby demoting him to the [[Minor League Baseball|minor leagues]].<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> Speaker denied any wrongdoing.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/>
On January 27, 1927, Judge Landis cleared Cobb and Speaker of any wrongdoing because of Leonard's refusal to appear at the hearings.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> Landis allowed both Cobb and Speaker to return to their original teams, but each team let them know that they were [[free agent]]s and could sign with any club they wanted.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> Speaker signed with the [[Washington Senators (1901–60)|Washington Senators]] for 1927, and Cobb with the [[Philadelphia Athletics]]. Speaker then joined Cobb in Philadelphia for the 1928 season. Cobb said he had come back only to seek vindication and say he left baseball on his own terms.
Cobb played regularly in 1927 for a young and talented team that finished second to one of the greatest teams of all time, the 110–44 1927 Yankees, returning to Detroit to a tumultuous welcome on May 10 and doubling his first time up to the cheers of Tigers fans. On July 18, Cobb became the first member of the [[4,000 hit club]] when he doubled off former teammate [[Sam Gibson (baseball)|Sam Gibson]], still pitching for the Tigers, at [[Navin Field]].<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/>
Cobb returned for the 1928 season but played less frequently due to his age and the blossoming abilities of the young A's, who were again in a pennant race with the Yankees. On September 3, Ty Cobb [[pinch hitter|pinch-hit]] in the ninth inning of the first game of a doubleheader against the Senators and doubled off [[Bump Hadley]] for his last career hit, although his final at-bats were not until September 11 against the Yankees, when he [[types of batted balls in baseball|popped]] [[out (baseball)|out]] off [[Hank Johnson (baseball)|Hank Johnson]] and grounded out to [[shortstop]] [[Mark Koenig]].<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> He then announced his retirement, effective the end of the season,<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb/> after batting .300 or higher in 23 consecutive seasons (the only season under .300 being his rookie season), a major league record that is unlikely to be broken. Despite not being known as a slugger, he led the AL in [[slugging percentage]] eight times in his 11 seasons from 1907 to 1917.<ref name=BaseballRefCobbCareerStats/>
He also ended his career with a rather dubious record. When Cobb retired, he led AL outfielders for most errors all-time with 271, which still stands today.<ref>{{cite book|title=Curveballs and Screwballs|first1=Jeffrey|first2=Douglas|last1=Lyons|last2=Lyons|isbn=978-0812933154|publisher=Random House Puzzles & Games|year=2001|url=https://archive.org/details/curveballsscrewb00lyon}}</ref> Nineteenth-century player [[Tom Brown (center fielder)|Tom Brown]] holds the major league record with 490 errors committed as an outfielder, while the National League record is held by 19th-century player [[George Gore]] with 346 errors.<ref>{{cite web|title=Fielding Errors: Errors Committed as an OF|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/E_of_career.shtml|publisher=BaseballReference.com|access-date=July 25, 2012}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=George Gore|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/g/gorege01-field.shtml|website=Baseball-Reference.com}}</ref> Cobb ranks 14th on the all-time list for errors committed by an outfielder.
==Post-playing career==
[[File:Ty Cobb HOF plaque.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Cobb's plaque in the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]]]]
Cobb retired a wealthy and successful man.<ref name=Time1937>{{cite magazine |date=May 10, 1937 |title=Champion |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757792,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930231051/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757792,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> He toured Europe with his family, went to [[Scotland]] for some time and then returned to his farm in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref name=Time1937/> He spent his retirement pursuing his off-season avocations of hunting, golfing, polo, and fishing.<ref name=Time1937/> His other pastime was trading stocks and [[bond (finance)|bonds]], increasing his immense personal wealth.<ref name=TyCobbMuseumPhilanthropy>{{cite web | url=http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/philanthropy.shtml.htm | title=Cobb's philanthropy | publisher=The Ty Cobb Museum | access-date=February 10, 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516162007/http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/philanthropy.shtml.htm | archive-date=May 16, 2007 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> He was a major stockholder in the [[Coca-Cola Corporation]], which by itself would have made him wealthy.
In the winter of 1930, Cobb moved into a Spanish ranch estate on Spencer Lane in the affluent town of [[Atherton, California|Atherton]] located south of [[San Francisco, California]], on the [[San Francisco Peninsula]]. At the same time, his wife Charlie filed the first of several divorce suits<ref name=Time04271931>{{cite magazine |date=April 27, 1931 |title=Milestones |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741506-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018010325/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741506-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 18, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> but withdrew the suit shortly thereafter.<ref name=Time05111931>{{cite magazine |date=May 11, 1931 |title=Milestones |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741673-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930041649/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741673-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> The couple eventually divorced in 1947<ref name=Time063019347>{{cite magazine |date=June 30, 1947 |title=Milestones |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854767,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930063754/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854767,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> after 39 years of marriage, the last few years of which Cobb's wife lived in nearby [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]]. The couple had three sons and two daughters: Tyrus Raymond Jr, Shirley Marion, Herschel Roswell, James Howell, and Beverly.<ref name="NYTWoolf"/><ref name=Price1996/><ref name=CobbIMDB>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0167821/bio |title= Biography for Ty Cobb |access-date=February 10, 2007 |publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]]}}</ref>
Cobb's children found him to be demanding, yet also capable of kindness and extreme warmth. He expected his sons to be exceptional athletes in general and baseball players in particular. Tyrus Raymond, Jr. flunked out of [[Princeton University|Princeton]]<ref name=NYTIMES12021994>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/02/movies/film-review-a-hero-who-was-a-heel-or-what-price-glory.html |title=FILM REVIEW; A Hero Who Was a Heel, Or, What Price Glory? |access-date=September 29, 2019|newspaper=The New York Times |last=Maslin |first=Janet |date=December 2, 1994 }}</ref> (where he had played on the varsity tennis team), much to his father's dismay.<ref name=KossuthCobbHangsemup>{{cite web |last=Kossuth |first=James | url=http://wso.williams.edu/~jkossuth/cobb/race.htm |title=Cobb Hangs 'em Up ...eventually |access-date=February 6, 2007}}</ref> The elder Cobb traveled to the Princeton campus and beat his son with a [[whip]] to ensure against future academic failure. Tyrus Raymond, Jr. then entered [[Yale University]] and became captain of the tennis team while improving his academics, but was then arrested twice in 1930 for drunkenness and left Yale without graduating. Cobb helped his son deal with his pending legal problems, but then permanently broke off with him. Even though Tyrus Raymond, Jr. finally reformed and eventually earned an [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]] from the [[Medical College of South Carolina]] and practiced [[obstetrics]] and [[gynecology]] in [[Dublin, Georgia]], until his death at 42 on September 9, 1952, from a [[brain tumor]], his father remained distant.<ref name=NYTJrObit>{{cite news |title=Ty Cobb's Son Dies at 42 |newspaper=The New York Times|page=29 |date=September 10, 1952 }}</ref>
In February 1936, when the first [[Baseball Hall of Fame]] election results were announced, Cobb had been named on 222 of 226 ballots, outdistancing [[Babe Ruth]], [[Honus Wagner]], [[Christy Mathewson]], and [[Walter Johnson]], the only others to earn the necessary 75% of votes to be elected that first year.<ref name=HallofFameVote1936>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1936 |title=Hall of Fame Voting: Baseball Writers Elections 1936 |access-date=October 26, 2007 |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829205105/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1936 |archive-date=August 29, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> His 98.2% stood as the record until [[Tom Seaver]] received 98.8% of the vote in 1992. Those results show that although many people disliked him personally, they respected the way he had played and what he had accomplished. In 1998, ''[[Sporting News]]'' ranked him as third on the list of 100 Greatest Baseball Players.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/lisn100.shtml|title=100 Greatest Baseball Players|publisher=Baseball Almanac|access-date=March 22, 2012}}</ref>
Of major league stars of the 1940s and 1950s, Cobb had positive things to say about [[Stan Musial]], [[Phil Rizzuto]], and [[Jackie Robinson]], but few others.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wso.williams.edu/~jkossuth/cobb/retirement.htm |title=Cobb Hangs 'em Up |access-date=April 18, 2008 |last=Kossuth |first=James }}</ref>  Even so, he was known to help out young players. He was instrumental in helping [[Joe DiMaggio]] negotiate his rookie contract with the [[New York Yankees]].
According to sportswriter [[Grantland Rice]], he and Cobb were returning from the [[Masters Tournament|Masters]] golf tournament in the late 1940s and stopped at a [[Greenville, South Carolina]], liquor store. Cobb noticed that the man behind the counter was [[Shoeless Joe Jackson|"Shoeless" Joe Jackson]], who had been banned from baseball almost 30 years earlier following the [[Black Sox scandal]]. Jackson did not appear to recognize him, and after making his purchase an incredulous Cobb asked, "Don't you know me, Joe?" "Sure, I know you, Ty" replied Jackson, "but I wasn't sure you wanted to know me. A lot of them don't."<ref name=Frommer>
{{cite book |last=Frommer |first=Harvey |page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_FXGNCmieAC&q=I+know+you|access-date=March 26, 2016|year=1992|publisher=University of Nevada Press|title=Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball |isbn=9780803218628 }}</ref><!-- Leaving other flags in this ref in case anyone with access to this book can provide info -->
Cobb was mentioned in the poem "[[Line-Up for Yesterday]]" by [[Ogden Nash]]:
{{quote box |width= 18em |border= 4px |align= center |bgcolor= #FAF0E6 |qalign= center | title=''Line-Up for Yesterday''|quote=C is for Cobb,<br/>Who grew spikes and not corn,<br/>And made all the basemen<br/>Wish they weren't born.
|source= —[[Ogden Nash]], [[Sport (US magazine)|''Sport'' magazine]] (January 1949)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_line.shtml |title=Line-Up For Yesterday|last=Nash|first=Odgen|work= Baseball Almanac |access-date=October 8, 2010 }}</ref> }}
===Later life===
[[File:Ty Cobb 1951 (1).jpg|thumb|Cobb in 1951]]
In 1949, at the age of 62, Cobb married a second time, to 40-year-old Frances Fairbairn Cass, a [[divorcée]] from [[Buffalo, New York]].<ref name=TimeCobb>{{cite magazine | date=September 26, 1949 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800761-1,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018010340/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800761-1,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=October 18, 2007 |title=The Old Gang |magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=February 10, 2007}}</ref> Their childless marriage ending with a divorce in 1956.<ref name=Time05211956>{{cite magazine | date=May 21, 1956 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808526,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205135053/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808526,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 5, 2006 |title=Milestones|magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=February 10, 2007}}</ref> At this time, Cobb became generous with his wealth, donating $100,000 in his parents' name for his hometown to build a modern 24-bed hospital, [[Cobb Memorial Hospital]], which is now part of the [[Ty Cobb Healthcare System]]. He also established the Cobb Educational Fund, which awarded scholarships to needy Georgia students bound for college, by endowing it with a $100,000 donation in 1953 (equivalent to approximately ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|100000|1953|r=0}}}} in current year dollars {{inflation-fn|US}}).<ref name=TyCobbMuseumPhilanthropy/>
Cobb knew that another way he could share his wealth was by having biographies written that would both set the record straight on him and teach young players how to play.{{clarify|reason=How's he sharing his wealth by having biographies written? If it's immaterial wealth (of knowledge), this should be phrased differently. Also, a statement about how Cobb "knew" anything shouldn't be unsourced.|date=December 2023}} [[John McCallum (author)|John McCallum]] spent some time with Cobb to write a combination how-to and biography titled ''The Tiger Wore Spikes: An Informal Biography of Ty Cobb'' that was published in 1956.<ref name=TigerWoreSpikes>{{cite book |first=John |last=McCallum |author-link= John McCallum (author)|title=The Tiger Wore Spikes: An Informal Biography of Ty Cobb |pages=240 pages |publisher=A. S. Barnes |location=New York |year=1956 }}</ref><ref name=BaseballWithBrains>{{cite news |first=Arthur |last=Daley |title=Baseball with Brains|page=231|newspaper=The New York Times Book Review |date=June 17, 1956 }}</ref> In December 1959, he was diagnosed with [[prostate cancer]], [[diabetes mellitus|diabetes]], [[hypertension|high blood pressure]], and [[Bright's disease]].<ref name=NGECobb/><ref name=TyCobbMuseumDYK>{{cite web | url=http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/didyouknow.shtml.htm | title=Did You Know? | publisher=The Ty Cobb Museum | access-date=February 26, 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061230070900/http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/didyouknow.shtml.htm | archive-date=December 30, 2006 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>
It was also during his final years that Cobb began work on his autobiography, ''My Life in Baseball: The True Record'', with writer [[Al Stump]]. Cobb retained editorial control over the book and the published version presented him in a positive light. Stump said that the collaboration was contentious, and after Cobb's death Stump published two more books and a short story giving what he said was the "true story." One of these later books was used as the basis for the 1994 film ''[[Cobb (film)|Cobb]]'' (a box office flop starring [[Tommy Lee Jones]] as Cobb and directed by [[Ron Shelton]]). In 2010, an article by William R. "Ron" Cobb (no relation) in the peer-reviewed ''The National Pastime'' (the official publication of the [[Society for American Baseball Research]]) accused Stump of extensive forgeries of Cobb-related documents and diaries. The article further accused Stump of numerous false statements about Cobb in his last years, most of which were sensationalistic in nature and intended to cast Cobb in an unflattering light.<ref name="Gilbert"/>
===Death===
In his last days, Cobb spent some time with the old movie comedian [[Joe E. Brown]], talking about the choices he had made in his life. According to Brown, Cobb said he felt that he had made mistakes and that he would do things differently if he could. He had played hard and lived hard all his life, had no friends to show for it at the end, and regretted it. Publicly, however, he claimed to have no regrets: "I've been lucky. I have no right to be regretful of what I did."<ref name=NewsweekJuly1961>{{cite journal |date=July 31, 1961 |title= How to Dominate the Diamond|journal=[[Newsweek]] |volume=LVIII |page=54  }}</ref>
He was taken to [[Emory University Hospital]] for the last time in June 1961 after falling into a diabetic coma.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Montville |first1=Leigh |title=The Last Remains of a Legend |magazine=Sports Illustrated |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1992/10/27/the-last-remains-of-a-legend-ty-cobb-baseballs-eccentric-genius-died-in-rural-georgia-more-than-30-years-ago-very-wealthy-and-virtually-alone-the-author-recently-paid-him-a-visit |language=en-us |date=October 27, 1992}}</ref>  His first wife Charlie, his son Jimmy, and other family members came to be with him for his final days. He died there on July 17, 1961, at age 74.<ref name=NGECobb/><ref>[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 22.</ref>
{{quote box|width=25%|align=left|quote=...the most sensational player of all the players I have seen in all my life...|source=—[[Casey Stengel]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 18, 1961<ref name=NYT07181961>{{cite news |title=Cobb, Hailed as Greatest Player in History, Mourned by Baseball World: Passing of Area is Noted by Frick|newspaper=The New York Times|page=21 (Food Fashions Family Furnishings section) |date=July 18, 1961 }}</ref> regarding Ty Cobb shortly after Cobb's death}}
Approximately 150 friends and relatives attended a brief service in [[Cornelia, Georgia]], and drove to the Cobb family [[mausoleum]] in Royston for the burial. Cobb's family kept the event private, not trusting the media to report accurately on it.<ref name="Russo 21"/> Baseball's only representatives at his funeral were three old-time players, [[Ray Schalk]], [[Mickey Cochrane]], and [[Nap Rucker]], and Sid Keener, the director of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but messages of condolence numbered in the hundreds and included notes from [[Joe DiMaggio]] and [[Ted Williams]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Ty Cobb|author=Alexander, C.|page=235|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t47E6tEKCKIC&q=ty+cobb+funeral+cochrane+schalk&pg=PA235|year=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-503598-4}}</ref><ref name=NYTFuneral>{{cite news |title=Funeral Service Held for Ty Cobb|newspaper=The New York Times|page=20 |date=July 20, 1961 }}</ref><ref name="Russo 21">[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 21.</ref> Family in attendance included Cobb's former wife Charlie, his two daughters, his surviving son Jimmy, his two sons-in-law, his daughter-in-law Mary Dunn Cobb and her two children.
At the time of his death, Cobb's estate was reported to be worth at least $11.78 million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{Inflation|US|11780000|1961|r=4}}}} today){{Inflation-fn|US}}, including $10 million worth of [[General Motors]] stock and $1.78 million in [[The Coca-Cola Company]] stock.<ref name=NYT09031951>{{cite news |title=Cobb Said to Have Left At Least $11,780,000|newspaper=The New York Times|page=S3 (Sports section) |date=September 3, 1951 }}</ref>  His [[Will and testament|will]] left a quarter of his estate to the Cobb Educational Fund, and distributed the rest among his children and grandchildren. Cobb is interred in the Rose Hill Cemetery in [[Royston, Georgia]]. As of April 2021, the Ty Cobb Educational Foundation has distributed $19.2 million in college [[scholarship]]s to needy college bound Georgia students.<ref name=TyCobbEdFound>{{cite web | url=http://www.tycobbfoundation.com |title=Ty Cobb Educational Foundation |access-date=January 30, 2007}}</ref>
==Legacy==
{{MLBBioHon
|Image  = Cobb_DET.png
|Name   = Ty Cobb
|Team   = Detroit Tigers
|Year   = 2000
}}
[[File:Ty Cobb's flying feet in 1912.jpeg|thumb|right|Cobb sliding spikes-high into [[History of the St. Louis Browns|St. Louis Browns]] catcher [[Paul Krichell]]]]
{{quote box|width=25%|align=right|quote=The greatness of Ty Cobb was something that had to be seen, and to see him was to remember him forever.|source=—[[George Sisler]]<ref name="BaseballHOF">{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/cobb_ty.htm |title=Ty Cobb |access-date=January 30, 2007 |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205022126/http://baseballhalloffame.org/hofers_and_honorees/hofer_bios/cobb_ty.htm |archive-date=December 5, 2006 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>}}
The historian Steven Elliott Tripp has explored the public's reaction to Cobb as a pioneer sports [[celebrity]] and "a player fans loved to hate."<ref>[[#Tripp|Tripp (2016)]], p. 256.</ref> Tripp writes that Cobb was both loved and hated as a representative of a particular kind of [[masculinity]] on the field, inviting male spectators to participate in the contest through taunts directed at opposing players. Cobb's own sense of manhood, according to Tripp, was a product of his Southern upbringing that prized individualism, excitement, and family honor.<ref>[[#Tripp|Tripp (2016)]], pp. 109–110.</ref> Russo wrote, "There is no denying that Cobb ranks as one of baseball's greatest players, if not the game's fiercest competitor."<ref>[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 15.</ref> Many of baseball's greatest players were friends with Cobb. Mathewson and Walter Johnson were some of his closest friends. Others included [[Joe DiMaggio]], [[Ted Williams]], [[Home Run Baker]], and [[Eddie Collins]]. Following his retirement, Cobb even befriended one of his greatest rivals, [[Babe Ruth]], whose wife Claire was from Georgia.<ref name="Russo 20"/>
Cobb has been judged by some historians and journalists as the best player of the [[dead-ball era]], and is generally seen as one of the greatest players of all time.<ref>{{cite web |last=Zacharias |first=Patricia |title=Ty Cobb, the greatest Tiger of them all |url=http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=92&category=sports |access-date=August 25, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120720080112/http://info.detnews.com/history/story/index.cfm?id=92&category=sports |archive-date=July 20, 2012  }}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Povich|first=Shirley|title=Best Player-Not Best Man|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/longterm/general/povich/launch/cobb.htm|access-date = August 25, 2007 | newspaper=The Washington Post | date=July 24, 1998}}</ref>
Some historians, including Wesley Fricks, Dan Holmes, and Charles Leerhsen, have defended Cobb against unfair portrayals of him in popular culture since his death.<ref name="Vintage"/> A noted case is the book written by sportswriter [[Al Stump]] in the months after Cobb died in 1961. Stump was later discredited when it became known that he had stolen items belonging to Cobb and also betrayed the access Cobb gave him in his final months.<ref>[[#Russo|Russo]], pp. 18-19.</ref> As a result of the movie ''[[Cobb (film)|Cobb]]'', which starred [[Tommy Lee Jones]], there are many myths surrounding Cobb's life, including one that he sharpened his spikes to inflict wounds on opposing players.<ref name="Vintage">{{cite web|last=Holmes|first=Dan|title=Five Myths About Ty Cobb|url=https://www.vintagedetroit.com/five-myths-about-ty-cobb/|website=Vintage Detroit|date=August 30, 2012|access-date=September 29, 2022}}</ref> This accusation was common for many decades before the movie was released.
Writing in ''The Journal of American Culture'', Hunter M. Hampton says that Leerhsen "succeeds in debunking the myth of Cobb that Stump created, but he spawned a new myth by conflating Stump's shortcomings to depict Cobb as an egalitarian."<ref name="Gilbert"/>
In 1977, a [[statue of Ty Cobb]], designed by the sculptor [[Felix de Weldon]], was installed outside the [[Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium]]. It would later be relocated to the front of the [[Royston Public Library|public library]] in his hometown of Royston in 2017.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Ty Cobb Statue|url=https://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/file/4745|access-date=October 14, 2020|website=[[New Georgia Encyclopedia]]}}</ref>
===Views on race===
Five years after Jackie Robinson broke the [[Baseball color line|color barrier]], Cobb publicly supported blacks and whites playing baseball together, adding: "Certainly it is okay for them to play. 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."<ref name="Gilbert"/> Using even stronger language, Cobb told the ''[[Sporting News]]'' in 1952 that "the Negro should be accepted and not grudgingly but wholeheartedly."<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 304.</ref>
In 1953, black newspapers cited his praise for [[Brooklyn Dodgers]]' catcher [[Roy Campanella]], who Cobb said was "among the all-time best catchers" in the sport.<ref>"One of the Game's Top Catchers." ''[[Philadelphia Tribune]]'', August 8, 1953, p. 11.</ref> Following Campanella's accident that left him paralyzed, the Dodgers staged a tribute game where tens of thousands of spectators silently held lit matches above their heads. Cobb wrote the Dodgers owner to show appreciation "for what you did for this fine man."<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 305.</ref> Cobb also stated that [[Willie Mays]] was the "only player I'd pay money to see."<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 305.</ref> In the obituaries that ran in the black press following Cobb's death, he was praised for "[speaking] in favor of racial freedom in baseball."<ref>"Ty Cobb Backed Negroes." ''[[Los Angeles Sentinel]]'', August 3, 1961, B11.</ref>
Leerhesen also notes Cobb was the "main defender and patron" of [[Li'l Rastus|Ulysses Simon Harrison]], an African-American youth who was the Tigers' mascot from 1908 to 1910 under the name "L'il Rastus".<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 189-190.</ref> ''Rastus'' was then understood as the name of a stereotypical foolish, carefree or ignorant black man. Cobb, unlike most players, did not rub the boy's head for good luck.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 189-190.</ref> Cobb took a protective attitude towards Harrison when the team was traveling in racially-segregated areas, and also employed him during the off-season at Cobb's automobile dealership.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 189-190.</ref> As an adult, Harrison worked as a chauffeur for construction executive F. H. Goddard, a job he might have secured with Cobb's assistance.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 189-190.</ref>
==Rivalry with Sam Crawford==
[[Sam Crawford]] and Ty Cobb were teammates for parts of thirteen seasons. They played beside each other in right and center field, and Crawford followed Cobb in the [[Batting order (baseball)|batting order]] year after year. Despite the physical closeness, the two had a complicated relationship.<ref name=Blaisdell1992>{{cite journal | author = Blaisdell, L.D. | year = 1992 | title = Legends as an Expression of Baseball Memory | journal = Journal of Sport History | volume = 19 | issue = 3 | url = http://www.la84foundation.org/SportsLibrary/JSH/JSH1992/JSH1903/jsh1903c.pdf  | access-date = April 17, 2008}}</ref>
[[File:SamCrawford4.jpg|thumb|left|[[Sam Crawford]] and Ty Cobb clown around with a camera, c. 1908]]
Initially, they had a student-teacher relationship. Crawford was an established star when Cobb arrived, and Cobb eagerly sought his advice. The student–teacher relationship gradually changed to one of jealous rivals.<ref name="Richard Bak">{{cite book |title=Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours |last=Bak |first=Richard |year=2005 |publisher=Sports Media Group |isbn=1-58726-257-6}}</ref>  Cobb was not popular with his teammates, and as Cobb became the biggest star in baseball, Crawford was unhappy with the preferential treatment given to Cobb. Cobb was allowed to show up late for spring training and was given private quarters on the road – perks not offered to Crawford. The competition between the two was intense. Crawford recalled that, if he went three for four on a day when Cobb went hitless, Cobb would turn red and sometimes walk out of the park with the game still on. When it was reported that [[Nap Lajoie]] had won the batting title, Crawford was alleged to have been one of several Tigers who sent a telegram to Lajoie congratulating him on beating Cobb.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Strangest Batting Race Ever |url=http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/cle/history/story1.jsp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610051421/http://cleveland.indians.mlb.com/cle/history/story1.jsp |url-status=dead |archive-date=June 10, 2007 |access-date=August 26, 2007}}</ref>
In retirement, Cobb wrote a letter to a writer for ''[[The Sporting News]]'' accusing Crawford of not helping in the outfield and of intentionally fouling off balls when Cobb was stealing a base. Crawford learned about the letter in 1946 and accused Cobb of being a "cheapskate" who never helped his teammates. He said that Cobb had not been a very good fielder, "so he blamed me." Crawford denied intentionally trying to deprive Cobb of stolen bases, insisting that Cobb had "dreamed that up."
When asked about the feud, Cobb attributed it to envy. He felt that Crawford was "a hell of a good player," but he was "second best" on the Tigers and "hated to be an also ran." Cobb biographer Richard Bak noted that the two "only barely tolerated each other" and agreed with Cobb that Crawford's attitude was driven by Cobb's having stolen Crawford's thunder.<ref>[[#Bak|Bak (2005)]], p. 38</ref>
Although they may not have spoken to each other, Cobb and Crawford developed an ability to communicate non-verbally with looks and nods on the base paths. They became one of the most successful [[double steal]] pairings in baseball history.<ref>[[#Bak|Bak (2005)]], p. 177.</ref>
==Regular season statistics==
For several years, Cobb had the highest batting average in major league history, .366.<ref name="2024rev" /> In Cobb's time, major league records were kept very well, but not with the absolute accuracy seen later.<ref name=NYTimes/> Thus, for many years, Cobb's lifetime batting average was reported as .367, but rigorous research of source documents late 20th&nbsp;century found that this is wrong, as some games had been reported incorrectly.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://sabr.org/journal/article/how-many-hits-did-ty-cobb-make-in-his-major-league-career-what-is-his-lifetime-batting-average/ |title=How Many Hits Did Ty Cobb Make in His Major League Career? What Is His Lifetime Batting Average? |author=Herm Krabbenhoft |date=Spring 2019 |work=Baseball Research Journal |publisher=SABR (Society for American Baseball Research) |access-date=February 11, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Banks |first=Kerry |title=Top 100: The Game's Greatest Records |url=https://archive.org/details/baseballstop100g0000bank/page/8/mode/2up |access-date=February 6, 2021 |year=2010 |publisher=Greystone Books |isbn=9781553655077 |page=9}}</ref>
All sources with standing agree that Cobb's lifetime batting average is .366 (except MLB.com, see below); some show slightly different numbers for at-bats and hits, but all devolve to .366. [[Society for American Baseball Research|SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research)]] (seconded by [[John Thorn]] and [[Pete Palmer]], among others), the [[Baseball Almanac]], and [[ESPN]] credit Cobb with 4,189 hits in 11,434 at-bats.<ref>[https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/ty-cobb/ SABRE's Ty Cobb totals][https://www.baseball-almanac.com/players/player.php?p=cobbty01 Baseball Almanac Cobb totals][http://www.espn.com/mlb/history/leaders ESPN Cobb totals]</ref> [[Retrosheet]] gives Cobb the same number of hits in five more at-bats (11,439),<ref>[https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/C/Pcobbt101.htm Retrosheet Cobb totals]</ref> and [[Baseball-Reference.com|Baseball Reference]] and the [[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum|Baseball Hall of Fame]] add one more at-bat (11,440).<ref>[https://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/cobbty01.shtml Baseball Reference Cobb totals][https://baseballhall.org/hall-of-famers/cobb-ty Hall of Fame Cobb totals]</ref> All of these round to .366.
[[MLB.com]] lists Cobb's lifetime average as .367 (4,191 hits in 11,429 at-bats),<ref>[https://www.mlb.com/player/ty-cobb-112431 MLB.com Cobb totals]</ref> the number that had been reported and believed true from Cobb's retirement until the late 20th&nbsp;century. (Other pages on the website do give the correct value.)<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.mlb.com/news/ty-cobb-history-built-on-inaccuracies-c178601094 |title=Author says Cobb's reputation built on tales |author=Anthony Castrovince |date=May 17, 2016 |work=Mlb.com |access-date=February 11, 2021}}</ref> According to former Baseball Commissioner [[Bowie Kuhn]], Major League Baseball continues and will continue to report the incorrect value on the basis of it being [[Grandfather clause|grandfathered in]] ("The passage of 70&nbsp;years, in our judgment, constitutes a certain statute of limitation as to recognizing any changes.")<ref name=NYTimes>{{cite web |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/31/sports/baseball/numbers-are-cast-in-bronze-but-are-not-set-in-stone.html |title=Numbers Are Cast in Bronze, but Are Not Set in Stone |author=Alan Schwarz |date=July 31, 2005 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=February 11, 2021}}</ref>
According to [[Retrosheet]], Cobb recorded 1 six-hit game, 13 five-hit games, and 82 four-hit games in his MLB career.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://retrosheet.org/boxesetc/C/PX_cobbt101.htm|title=Ty Cobb's best performances from retrosheet.org|website=retrosheet.org|access-date=September 24, 2022}}</ref>
Baseball (the sport) does not have official statistics. In ''C.B.C. Distribution Marketing v. Major League Baseball'', the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit]] upholding a 2007 judgement by the [[United States District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri]], ruled that baseball statistics, as being mere facts, are in the public domain and are therefore not the property of Major League Baseball Enterprises, Inc. or any other private or public entity.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://casetext.com/case/cbc-distribution-marketing-v-major-league-baseball |title=C.B.C. Distribution Marketing v. Major League Baseball |date=2005 |work=Casetext |access-date=February 14, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Mead |first1= Daniel |title=C. B. C. Distribution and Marketing, Inc. v. Major League Baseball Advanced Media, LP: Why Major League Baseball Struck Out and Advanced Media, LP: Why Major League Baseball Struck Out and Won't Have Better Luck in its Next Trip to the Plate Won't Have Better Luck in its Next Trip to the Plate |url=https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1279&context=mjlst |journal=Minnesota Journal of Law, Science & Technology |date=2007 |volume=8 |issue=2 |pages=715–736 |doi= |access-date=February 14, 2021}}</ref> However, because Major League Baseball Enterprises, Inc. does have some official legal rights and responsibilities concerning major league baseball – enforcing copyrights on team logos, making the official rules used by the teams, and so forth – and because Major League Baseball does empower the Elias Sports Bureau with "official provider of MLB statistics" status - confusion sometimes arises and thus a few sources can still describe Cobb's major league batting average as being "officially" .367. "Official" in that sense of the word means merely "from the office" of Major League Baseball, the corporation.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://baseballhall.org/discover-more/stories/baseball-history/changing-nature-of-statistics |title=A Number of Changes |last=Smith |first=David |website=baseballhall.org |access-date=September 4, 2022}}</ref> In 2024, MLB.com incorporated the records of more than 2,300 [[Negro Leagues]] players, making [[Josh Gibson]]'s .372 career batting average the new highest.<ref name="2024rev" />
Cobb's career totals from Baseball Reference are as follows.<ref name=BaseballRefCobbCareerStats/> Other sources may have slightly different figures. Caught Stealing is not shown comprehensively because the stat was not regularly recorded until 1920.
{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
|-
| [[Games played|G]]
| [[At bat|AB]]
| [[Run (baseball)|R]]
| [[Hit (baseball)|H]]
| [[Double (baseball)|2B]]
| [[Triple (baseball)|3B]]
| [[Home run|HR]]
| [[Run batted in|RBI]]
| [[Stolen base|SB]]
| [[Caught stealing|CS]]
| [[Base on balls|BB]]
| [[Strikeout|SO]]
| [[Batting average (baseball)|BA]]
| [[On-base percentage|OBP]]
| [[Slugging average|SLG]]
| [[Total bases|TB]]
| [[Sacrifice hit|SH]]
| [[Hit by pitch|HBP]]
|-
| 3,034
| 11,440
| 2,245
| 4,189
| 724
| 295
| 117
| 1,944
| 897
| 212
| 1,249
| 680
| .366
| .433
| .512
| 5,854
| 292
| 94
|}
Cobb's career totals published by Major League Baseball Enterprises, Inc. are shown below:<ref name="OfficialStats">{{cite web|url=http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/individual_stats_player.jsp?c_id=mlb&playerID=112431&HS=True|title=Historical Player Stats: Ty Cobb|access-date=March 16, 2012|publisher=[[Major League Baseball]]}}</ref>
{| border="1" cellpadding="2"
|-
| [[Games played|G]]
| [[At bat|AB]]
| [[Run (baseball)|R]]
| [[Hit (baseball)|H]]
| [[Double (baseball)|2B]]
| [[Triple (baseball)|3B]]
| [[Home run|HR]]
| [[Run batted in|RBI]]
| [[Stolen base|SB]]
| [[Caught stealing|CS]]
| [[Base on balls|BB]]
| [[Strikeout|SO]]
| [[Batting average (baseball)|BA]]
| [[On-base percentage|OBP]]
| [[Slugging average|SLG]]
| [[Total bases|TB]]
| [[Sacrifice hit|SH]]
| [[Hit by pitch|HBP]]
|-
| 3,035
| 11,429
| 2,246
| 4,191
| 723
| 297
| 117
| 1,938
| 892
| ---
| 1,249
| 357
| .367
| .433
| .513
| 5,859
| 295
| 94
|}
==See also==
* [[Major League Baseball titles leaders]]
* [[Triple Crown (baseball)|Major League Baseball Triple Crown]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual home run leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual runs scored leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual doubles leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual runs batted in leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual stolen base leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball annual triples leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball batting champions]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career hits leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career stolen bases leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career runs scored leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career runs batted in leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career on-base percentage leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career OPS leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career total bases leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career doubles leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball career triples leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball single-game hits leaders]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball player-managers]]
* [[List of Major League Baseball individual streaks]]
==References==
{{reflist|30em}}
===Book sources===
{{refbegin}}
*{{cite book |last=Cobb|first=Ty |author2=Al Stump |title=My Life in Baseball: The True Record |year=1993|edition=reprint |isbn=0-8032-6359-7|publisher= University of Nebraska Press |location= Lincoln and London |ref=Cobb}}
*{{cite book |last=Bak |first=Richard |title=Peach: Ty Cobb In His Time And Ours |publisher=Sports Media Group | year=2005 |isbn=1-58726-257-6 |url=https://archive.org/details/peachtycobbinhis0000bakr |ref=Bak}}
*{{cite book|last=Russo|first=Frank|title=The Cooperstown Chronicles: Baseball's Colorful Characters, Unusual Lives, and Strange Demises|location=New York|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|year=2014|isbn=978-1-4422-3639-4 |ref=Russo}}
* {{cite book |last=Leerhsen |first=Charles |title=Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty |date=2015 |location=New York, N.Y. |publisher=Simon & Schuster |isbn=978-1-451645-76-7 |url=https://archive.org/details/tycobbterriblebe0000leer |ref=Leerhsen}}
*{{cite book |last=Tripp |first=Steven Elliott |title=Ty Cobb, Baseball, and American Manhood |date=2016 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham, Md. |isbn=978-1-44-225191-5 |ref=Tripp}}
{{refend}}
==Further reading==
*{{cite book |last=Alexander |first=Charles |title=Ty Cobb |url=https://archive.org/details/tycobb00alex |url-access=registration |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=New York |year=1984 |isbn=0-8032-6359-7 }}
*{{cite book |last=Bak |first=Richard |title=Ty Cobb: His Tumultuous Life and Times |publisher=Taylor |location=Dallas, Texas |year=1994 |isbn=0-87833-848-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/tycobbhistumultu0000bakr }}
*{{cite book |last=Stanton |first=Tom |title=Ty and The Babe, Baseball's Fiercest Rivals: A Surprising Friendship and the 1941 Has-Beens Golf Championship |publisher=Thomas Dunne Books |location=New York |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-312-36159-4 |url=https://archive.org/details/tybabebaseballsf00toms }}
* {{cite book |last=Cobb |first=Herschel |title=Heart of a Tiger: Growing Up with My Grandfather, Ty Cobb |date=2013 |publisher=ECW Press |location=Toronto |isbn=978-1-77-041130-2 |url=https://archive.org/details/heartoftigergrow0000cobb}}
==External links==
{{Commons category}}
{{Wikiquote}}
*{{baseballstats|mlb=112431|espn=20249|br=c/cobbty01|fangraphs=1002378|brm=cobb--001tyr|retro=C/Pcobbt101}}
*{{baseball-reference manager|cobbty01}}
*{{Official website|http://www.cmgww.com/baseball/cobb/}}
*{{bbhof|cobb-ty}}
*{{sabrbio|ty-cobb}}
*{{find a grave|210}}
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