A PUBLICATION OF HILLSDALE COLLEGE

ImpOVERr 3,400,000imi READERS MONTHLYs March 2016 • Volume 45, Number 3

Who Was ? The History We Know That’s Wrong Charles Leerhsen Author, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty

CHARLES LEERHSEN is a journalist, author, and adjunct professor at the City University of New York’s Graduate School of Journalism. He has been an editor for Sports Illustrated, People, and Us Weekly, and spent eleven years as a senior writer at Newsweek. He has also written for Esquire, Rolling Stone, The New York Times Magazine, Smithsonian, and Money. He is the author of several books, including Crazy Good: The True Story of Dan Patch, the Most Famous Horse in America and, most recently, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, which won the 2015 Casey Award for best baseball book of the year.

The following is adapted from a speech delivered at Hillsdale College on March 7, 2016, during a program on “Sports and Character” sponsored by the College’s Center for Constructive Alternatives.

Ty Cobb was one of the greatest baseball players of all time and king of the so- called Deadball Era. He played in the major leagues—mostly for the but a bit for the Philadelphia Athletics—from 1905 to 1928, and was the first player ever voted into the Hall of Fame. His lifetime of .366 is amazing, and has never been equaled. But for all that, most Americans think of him first as an awful person—a racist and a low-down cheat who thought nothing of injuring his fellow players just to gain another base or score a run. Indeed, many think of him as a murderer. Ron Shel- ton, the director of the 1995 movie Cobb, starring Tommy Lee Jones in the title role, told me it was “well known” that Cobb had killed “as many as” three people. It is easy to understand why this is the prevailing view. People have been told that Cobb was a bad man over and over, all of their lives. The repetition felt like evidence. HILLSDALE COLLEGE: PURSUING TRUTH • DEFENDING LIBERTY SINCE 1844

It started soon after Cobb’s death in reporting I had learned working at 1961, with the publication of an article Newsweek in its heyday—it didn’t even by a man named Al Stump, one of sev- take me ten minutes to find something eral articles and books he would write that brought me up short. about Cobb. Among other things, Stump Cobb being from —he grew claimed that when children wrote to up and is buried in Royston, a town in Cobb asking for an autographed picture, Georgia’s northern hills—I had begun he steamed the stamps off the return by searching old issues of the Atlanta envelopes and never wrote back. In Journal-Constitution. I quickly came another book—this one about Cobb’s across a curious article written in late contemporary —baseball 1911, after the baseball season had historian Timothy Gay wrote (implau- ended, when Cobb was touring in a sibly, if you think about it) that Cobb three-act comedy called The College would pistol-whip any black person he Widow. (In those days, ballplayers were saw on the sidewalk. And then there were tied to their teams by the reserve clause the stories about how Cobb sharpened and couldn’t sell their services for their his spikes: before every game, numer- true market value; to make extra money, ous sources claim, he would hone his they often capitalized on their fame by cleats with a file. In the 1989 film Field appearing in plays or vaudeville.) The of Dreams, Jackson says writer of the article was recounting a that Cobb wasn’t invited to the ghostly backstage visit with Cobb, and described cornfield reunion of old-time ballplayers him as a man who very much wanted because “No one liked that son of a bitch.” to please the audience. Cobb was also The line always gets a knowing laugh. going out of his way to accommodate When I pitched my idea for a book the interviewer (who was asking tedious on Cobb to Simon questions) while and Schuster, I was simultaneously being −´ squarely in line with Imprimis (im-pri-mis), hospitable to a second [Latin]: in the first place this way of thinking. guest—a he I figured my task EDITOR had played with in the Douglas A. Jeffrey would be relatively DEPUTY EDITORS minor leagues—who easy. I would go back Matthew D. Bell showed up in the Timothy W. Caspar to the original source COPY EDITOR small dressing room material—the news- Monica VanDerWeide smoking a cigar. It ART DIRECTOR paper accounts, doc- Angela E. Lashaway was like the crowded uments, and letters MARKETING DIRECTOR stateroom scene in that previous biogra- William Gray the Marx Brothers’ PRODUCTION phers had never really Lucinda Grimm A Night at the Opera, looked at. I would CIRCULATION MANAGER and meanwhile the find fresh examples Wanda Oxenger play was in progress, STAFF ASSISTANTS of Cobb being mon- Robin Curtis Cobb was trying Kim Ellsworth strous, blend them Kathy Smith to make costume with the stories that Mary Jo Von Ewegen changes, and the stage

Al Stump and oth- Copyright © 2016 Hillsdale College manager was barking ers wrote, and come The opinions expressed in Imprimis are not at Cobb to be on his necessarily the views of Hillsdale College. up with the first Permission to reprint in whole or in part is mark in 30 seconds. major Cobb book in hereby granted, provided the following credit What did this line is used: “Reprinted by permission from more than 20 years. Imprimis, a publication of Hillsdale College.” story say about Ty But when I started SUBSCRIPTION FREE UPON REQUEST. Cobb? On the one in on the nuts-and- ISSN 0277-8432 hand, he was just Imprimis trademark registered in U.S. bolts research with Patent and Trademark Office #1563325. doing what any original sources—the decent person would kind of shoe-leather do—being as polite as 2 MARCH 2016 • VOLUME 45, NUMBER 3 < hillsdale.edu possible under trying circumstances. men. So how did such a distinguished But on the other, Cobb’s ordinary author make such obvious mistakes? decency was exactly the point. For me, When I asked Alexander about this, with this one story, the myth of the he simply replied, “I went with the best evil Ty Cobb began to crumble. information I had at the time.” As I proceeded I found many more But what about Cobb’s 19th-century stories contradicting the myth. Was he Southern roots? How could someone widely hated? An old newspaper clip- born in Georgia in 1886 not be a racist? ping reported that the White What I found—and again, not because Sox gave Cobb an award—remark- I am the of researchers, but ably, a set of books; Cobb was known because I actually did some research—is as a voracious reader of history—for that Ty Cobb was descended from a long being Chicago’s most popular visit- line of abolitionists. His great-grand- ing player. And it turns out that when father was a minister who preached the Detroit Tigers were in town, Ring against slavery and was run out of town Lardner, Chicago’s smartest and best for it. His grandfather refused to fight sportswriter, bought cheap seats in the in the Confederate army because of the outfield so he could spend the game slavery issue. And his father was an edu- bantering with Cobb. cator and state senator who spoke up for Did he steal stamps from children? his black constituents and is known to Letters in museums and private collec- have once broken up a lynch mob. tions make abundantly clear that Cobb Cobb himself was never asked about responded to his young fans, sometimes segregation until 1952, when the Texas with handwritten letters that ran to five League was integrating, and Sporting pages. And he always told them he was News asked him what he thought. “The honored by their autograph requests. Negro should be accepted wholeheart- What about race? It is “common edly, and not grudgingly,” he said. “The knowledge” that Cobb was “an avowed Negro has the right to play professional racist”—but when and where did he make baseball and whose [sic] to say he has such a vow and where is it recorded? not?” By that time he had attended A 1984 biography of Cobb, written many Negro league games, sometimes by a college professor named Charles throwing out the first ball and often Alexander, is typical. It describes three sitting in the dugout with the players. people who fought with Cobb—a night He is quoted as saying that Willie Mays watchman, a bellhop, and a butcher—as was the only modern-day player he’d being black. Such evidence was enough pay to see and that Roy Campanella for documentary filmmaker Ken Burns, was the ballplayer that reminded him whose made-for-PBS series Baseball most of himself. described Cobb as an embarrassment to Cobb was, like the rest of us, a highly the game because of his racism and cast imperfect human being. He was too Cobb as the anti-Jackie Robinson. quick to take offense and too intolerant But Burns, like so many others, of those who didn’t strive for excellence was letting himself be misled by the with the over-the-top zeal that he did. oft-repeated myth. Looking into cen- He did not suffer fools gladly, and he sus reports, birth certificates, and thought too many others fools. He was contemporary newspaper accounts, I the first baseball celebrity, and he did found that all three of the black fight- not always handle well the responsibili- ers cited by Charles Alexander were in ties that came with that. And yes, he fact white. Yes, Cobb had also fought once went into the stands and repeat- with two black men during his life, but edly punched a man who had been those fights didn’t have racial overtones, heckling him for more than a year, and and Cobb—who had an extremely thin who turned out to have less than the skin—fought with many more white full complement of fingers—hence the 3 MARCH 2016 • VOLUME 45, NUMBER 3 < hillsdale.edu story of him attacking a handicapped Chicago slide (referred to by him but fan. This is a mark against him. But was never explained), the first-base slide, he a racist and an embarrassment to the the home-plate slide, and the cuttle-fish game? Far from it. slide—so named because he purposely Cobb’s mind-boggling statistics sprayed dirt with his spikes the way don’t tell half the story of the ballplayer squid-like creatures squirt ink. Coming he was. It is often not remembered, in, he would watch the infielder’s eyes because there is very little motion pic- to determine which slide to employ. ture footage of him, but Cobb was likely What of the stories about him the most exciting player of all time. sharpening his spikes and injur- Yes, he got thousands of hits with his ing opposing players? Cobb believed unusual split-hands grip, and that in strongly that the runner had the right itself was entertaining; but it was what of way in what he called “my little happened after he got on base that set patch,” in front of the bag. The oppos- him apart. “Ty Cobb getting a walk is ing players who were asked to com- more exciting than Babe Ruth hitting a ment on him respected his ability and ,” a sportswriter once said. consistency, and agreed with his “little When Cobb made it to first—which patch” theory. “It was no fun putting he did more often than anyone else; he the ball on Cobb when he came slash- had three seasons in which he batted ing into the plate,” said Wally Schang, over .400—the fun had just begun. He who caught for almost every American understood the rhythms of the game League Club. “But he never cut me and he constantly fooled around with up. He was too pretty a slider to hurt them, keeping everyone nervous and anyone who put the ball on him right.” off balance. The sportswriters called Infielder Germany Schaefer, a team- it “psychological baseball.” His stated mate of Cobb, called him “a game intention was to be a “mental hazard square fellow who never cut a man with for the opposition,” and he did this by his spikes intentionally in his life, and hopping around in the batter’s box— anyone who gets by with his spikes constantly changing his stance as the knows it.” And if Cobb could dish out pitcher released the ball—and then, the punishment, he could also take it. when he got on base, hopping around Catcher Steve O’Neill of the Cleveland some more, chattering, making false Naps once favored Cobb with the great- starts, limping around and feigning est compliment a catcher can give: “He injury, and running when it was least came home on a base and I was expected. He still holds the record for blocking the plate. I got him in the stealing home, doing so 54 times. He kidneys and knocked him out. When once stole second, third, and home on he came to he didn’t say a word. He just three consecutive pitches, and another got up and limped out to his position.” time turned a tap back to the pitcher There is a famous photograph that into an inside-the-park home run. is often used to indict Cobb. It shows “The greatness of Ty Cobb was Cobb and St. Louis Browns catcher Paul something that had to be seen,” George Krichell in 1912. Cobb appears to be fly- Sisler said, “and to see him was to ing foot-first into Krichell’s crotch while remember him forever.” Cobb often the catcher squints in pained anticipa- admitted that he was not a natural, tion. But there is a 1950s interview with the way Shoeless Joe Jackson was; he Krichell, then a scout for the Yankees, worked hard to turn himself into a and by his own testimony, Cobb was ballplayer. He had nine styles of slides aiming his foot at the ball in Krichell’s in his repertoire: the hook, the fade- glove, and succeeded in knocking it to away, the straight-ahead, the short or the backstop. Here is Krichell’s account: swoop slide (“which I invented because “The ball hit the grandstand on the fly. of my small ankles”), the head-first, the I was mad and stunned. Cobb was mad 5 HILLSDALE COLLEGE: PURSUING TRUTH • DEFENDING LIBERTY SINCE 1844

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and shaken. In a way it was really my In that sense Cobb was always fault. I was standing in front of the plate, controversial. But how did he come to instead of on the side, where I could tag be portrayed as a monster? After he Ty as he slid in. But out of that mix-up I retired in 1928, he stayed out of Major learned one thing: never stand directly League Baseball, and the game changed in front of the plate when Cobb was to a slugger’s sport. It became the game roaring for home.” of , Joe DiMaggio, and To the extent that the myth of Ty Mickey Mantle, and Cobb faded from Cobb is connected to his aggressive memory. By the late 1950s, when Cobb style of play, it has seeds in his play- went on the TV quiz show I’ve Got a ing career. People in those days were Secret, the panelists not only didn’t fascinated by spikes—an adult fan in guess his “secret”—“I have the high- the early days of baseball had almost est batting average of all time”—they certainly not played the game, and couldn’t identify him by sight. Cobb thought of spikes as exotic. The leg- didn’t like that, and he disliked even end of “the man who sharpened his more being remembered as a dirty spikes” had been around since at least player. As he grew older and less the 1880s, and had been attributed to healthy he became obsessed with set- many, including John McGraw. And ting the record straight, and he started some sportswriters—understanding to shop around an autobiography. that sports is less about scores than Doubleday & Co. agreed to publish it about storylines, and that without and assigned a ghostwriter, Cobb being antagonists stories fall flat—were will- too ill to write it himself. For this job ing to fan the flame and depict the they picked a man who was known for aggressive, unpredictable Cobb as quantity over quality, a hard-drinking a dirty player. Many of the quotes I hack newspaperman named Al Stump. found from opposing players defend- Stump, who had never met Cobb, ing Cobb’s style were in response to spent only a few days with him before charges that he was a spiker. To a man, setting off to write. For several months he they said he wasn’t. And in 1910, Cobb refused to show Cobb the work in prog- wrote to the presi- ress, and when Cobb finally prevailed dent asking that players be forced to upon the publisher to give him a look, he dull their spikes so that he might be was angry. Stump was filling in the gaps free of the dirty-player charge. by making up stories out of whole cloth, 6 MARCH 2016 • VOLUME 45, NUMBER 3 < hillsdale.edu and Cobb’s voice in the book sounded church and lined the way to the cem- suspiciously like Stump’s own. Cobb etery. Despite all this, people thrilled to wrote letters threatening a lawsuit if the the story of the monstrous Cobb. And book wasn’t cancelled or rewritten. But the story got a lot of attention because no he died soon thereafter, and the book— one had ever written anything like this entitled My Life in Baseball: The True before about a major sports figure. Record—came out a few months later. The next big development came in Stump also struck a deal with a sen- 1984, when Charles Alexander published sationalist barber shop magazine called, his book. The word “racist”—non- ironically, True. For $4,000, a tidy sum existent in Cobb’s time—was by then in 1961, he would write a seamy tell-all very much a part of the lexicon, and about what it was like to live and work people were eager to make assumptions with Cobb in his final days. Stump had about a Southern white man. A decade negotiated the fee by pitching the tale of later, director Ron Shelton bought the a wild man drinking to excess and driv- screen rights to Stump’s True magazine ing around the Lake Tahoe area waving article and urged Stump, still alive, to a gun at (unnamed) people, cursing at write yet another book—a biography (unnamed) emergency room doctors, this time—that would serve to promote flinging drinks at (unnamed) bartend- the movie. This 1994 book, also entitled ers, and waking up an (unnamed) bank Cobb, was a huge bestseller and was president in the middle of the night—in excerpted in Sports Illustrated. Then person, with a gun—to stop a $5 check. came Ken Burns’ Baseball documentary, All the women in Cobb’s family feared which parroted Stump and Alexander. him, Stump wrote, again without nam- And the myth grew further with the rise ing names. Furthermore, he may have of the Internet—search for “Ty Cobb” on killed some unnamed person, though Twitter and see what you find. he was never prosecuted and the story I knew going into this project—hav- never made the newspapers. Everyone in ing been at one time an editor at People baseball had hated him, Stump claimed, magazine—that human beings take adding meanly and dishonestly that only delight in the fact that the rich and three people went to Cobb’s funeral. famous are often worse and more miser- It didn’t matter that sportswriters able than they are. What I didn’t under- rushed to Cobb’s defense, saying they stand before was the power of repetition had visited his homes in Tahoe and to bend the truth. In Ty Cobb’s case, Georgia during this same period—had the repetition has not only destroyed spent more time with him than Stump, a man’s reputation, it has obliterated in fact—and never witnessed such a real story that is more interesting behavior. It didn’t matter that all of than the myth. Is it too late to turn Stump’s sources were anonymous, all things around? John the Evangelist his quotes unidentified, and that Stump said, “The truth will set you free.” But himself had been banned from several against that there is the Stockholm newspapers and magazines for making syndrome, whereby hostages cling things up. It didn’t matter that Cobb’s avidly to what holds them in bondage. family had put I guess it’s me out the word that versus Al Stump. his funeral was Who knows who will a private service, win? What I know or that four of his for certain is that the closest friends DID YOU KNOW? greatness of Ty Cobb in baseball did The Michigan Press Association named was something that Hillsdale College’s student newspaper, The attend, or that Collegian, the “best weekly college had to be seen, and to thousands of newspaper in Michigan” for the 2014-2015 see it was to remem- people packed the academic year. Student writers for The ber it forever. ■ Collegian also won 23 individual awards, including top honors in four categories. 7