Who Was Ty Cobb? The History We Know That’s Wrong

[Steve]

Cobb was, like the rest of us, a highly imperfect human being. He was too quick to take offense and too intolerant of those who didn’t strive for excellence with the over-the-top zeal that he did. He did not suffer fools gladly, and he thought too many others fools. He was the first baseball celebrity, and he did not always handle well the responsibilities that came with that. And yes, he once went into the stands and repeatedly punched a man who had been heckling him for more than a year, and who turned out to have less than the full complement of fingers—hence the story of him attacking a handicapped fan. This is a mark against him. But was he a racist and an embarrassment to the game? Far from it.

http://imprimis.hillsdale.edu/who-wa...w-thats-wrong/

[dfresh]

That was a great article. The author did a great job of going through the actual records to counter all that I have read or heard on Ty Cobb.

[snopes]

Yeah, I read his book last year. It's kind of like the Black Sox scandal, where one bad biographer tainted the whole public perception of people and events.

[dfresh]

I figured that you would be interested, since it combines baseball and a form of urban legends (or smears, it sounds like.)