Ty Cobb Research Paper Free Essay Example

Ty Cobb could be easily called the greatest baseball player of all time. His determination and persistence is what made him the best. Through the lessons and morals of hard work that his father had taught Ty Cobb as a boy, he was able to become a great hard-working baseball player. His personal life was hard at times, but nonetheless he earned astonishing achievements in the 24 season playing career in the American league. A batting record for runs scored of 2,245, runs batted in of 1,937, a record of 892 stolen bases, and his record of a batting average of .

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366 has still not been beaten.

His record of 96 stolen bases in one season in 1915 was not beaten until 1962. No one can deny his skill in the sport, he took it further than anyone else did at that time. Ty showed that it was not a sport for those who were not rough, or not willing to get a few bruises. The balance between intelligence and athleticism in the game is what he was interested in.

Every baseball player, from the minors and up, are not only playing for the team, but also for themselves. There are plenty of benched players who are willing to get their chance. Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born on December 18, 1886 in Royston, Georgia.

His mother was a very young woman named Amanda Chitwood. Ty’s father, William Herschel Cobb, bought a 100 acre farm to supplement his teaching income. This farm is where Ty learned his hard working values and morals from his father.

They grew very close to each other thanks to farming. Baseball was played very differently back then. “It was as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch” His father was disapproving when Ty spent a lot of his time playing baseball. He says he started playing “because I loved the competition, the matching of muscle and wits.

It was a joust and a challenge”. Ty used to wind yarn around and coved it in leather in order to make his own baseballs. “…The new kid in town who owned a hittable ball could overcome social obstacles faster than a boy who didn’t. ” When Ty was not farming with his father, he was playing baseball. His father though that if Ty kept playing baseball he might become an alcoholic and a womanizer like the stereotype of baseball players back then. When Ty was 17, he went to his father for permission to go try out for the South Atlantic League team in Augusta.

William let him go in hopes that Ty would understand that the game is not for him. “You’ve chosen. So be it, son. Get it out of your system, and let us hear from you. ” He sent him off with 6 checks for $15 each and wished him luck. An early sign that Ty was to become a professional baseball player was how hard he played. “I was a man who saw no point in losing, if I could win. ” He would play any chance he got, practicing batting, and keeping in shape by working on the farm. He developed a unique style of his game.

He would choke up on the bat more than anyone else, creating his own way of hitting and playing. After playing for the South Atlantic team for a while, he broke into his professional career playing for the Detroit Tigers in 1905 at the age of 18. That is the team in which he would spend his 24 seasons. He made his first major league appearance on August 30, 1905 playing center field. On his first turn at bat he hit a game-winning double off of Jack Chesbro, one of the leading pitchers of that time. The following year Ty became the full time center fielder for the Tigers.

In 1907, he got his first three records out of over 90. In 1911, Ty got his highest batting average of his career of . 420. Ty was famous for not only his physical abilities, but also his psychological games. He was the first baseball player to study the psychology of pitchers. He practiced the “war of nerves” method of getting on base. “I always try to keep the other team on their toes, so they won’t know where the ball is going, my attack is directed at the third baseman, I try to worry him” Ty was never bother by the criticism that he received from other players and onlookers.

However in 1912, he jumped into the stands and administered a “physical punishment” on an abusive and cruel spectator, who turned out to be an amputee. He was given an indefinite banishment from baseball. The ban only lasted 10 days, because the Detroit players went on strike and refused to play without him. Mostly because of the weak pitching, the Tigers dropped to seventh place in 1921. In 1921, after the manager Hugh Jennings retired, Ty Cobb became the new Detroit Tigers manager, but he kept playing and directed his team from the outfield.

In 1922, he managed his team to third place, and the following year he got them to the second place. In 1926, manager George Moriarty replaced him Tiger’s dropped to sixth place. Ty finished out his career with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia Athletics, for when he played two seasons. When he retired at the end of 1928, he had played in 3,033 professional games, more than anyone else on record. When the first balloting for the Baseball Hall of Fame took place in 1936, Ty Cobb received more votes than Babe Ruth. Ty Cobb was the first plaque to be placed in the gallery of baseball immortals at Cooperstown, New York.

He retired with 4,191 major league hits. As a memorial to his parents, Ty donated $100,000 in 1948 for the erection of a modern hospital in his hometown. Later Ty was diagnosed with multiple diseases. On July 17, 1961, a month after checking himself into Emory Hospital, he died in his sleep. Although most of his family did not like him, they did go to see him in his final days. In his will he took a quarter of his $11 million dollars and donated it to the Cobb Educational Fund, and the rest to his children and grandchildren.

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