100 Years After Ty Cobb's Tigers Career Came to an End

My favorite Tiger of all time has always been Ty Cobb. I have a custom, no-number, old-school Cobb jersey that I wear to every Tigers game I attend as a fan.

November 3, 1926, marked the end of Ty Cobb's career with the Detroit Tigers. Exactly 100 years ago, Cobb officially departed the organization after playing in Detroit from 1905-1926. He also served as the team's manager during the final five years of his tenure while continuing to play.

Cobb won the MVP award in 1911, captured the Triple Crown in 1909, led the American League in stolen bases six times and won 12 A.L. batting titles. Yet, thanks in large part to a movie portraying Cobb as a disgruntled man disliked by practically everyone, along with myths that have persisted for more than 100 years about him intentionally sharpening his spikes and sliding feet-first into opposing players, his legacy has taken a serious hit.

It has almost gotten to the point where Tigers fans feel guilty about celebrating the greatest player to ever wear the Old English D.

The truth, though, is that much of it is nonsense. The narrative that Cobb was universally hated has been challenged time and time again. There is a plethora of stories detailing how good Cobb was to his teammates and opponents. Unfortunately, through a century of stories being passed down, facts have been twisted, exaggerated and misconstrued.

The reason behind the movie's portrayal of Cobb was largely a matter of copying and pasting a book filled with fabrications. Author Al Stump, who wrote about Cobb as the "meanest man in the world," portrayed him as a brutal lowlife who was racist, had killed a man and was generally hated by everyone.

Despite not spending nearly as much time with Cobb as his writing suggested, Stump published a book in the 1960s that helped cement this image. Whether it was an attempt to make money or something more personal, Stump continued pushing the narrative, even republishing the book in the 1990s.

The damage to Cobb's reputation had all but been done. A complete picture of the man was created out of little more than lies, fundamentally changing how generations would remember one of baseball's greatest players.

The movie starring Tommy Lee Jones was a box-office flop. Apparently, audiences weren't interested in watching a supposedly racist baseball player from the early 1900s on the big screen. Knowing that so much of the story was built on questionable claims makes Hollywood's failure with the project that much more satisfying.

Al Stump did his best to ruin Cobb's name. Maybe it was all for money. Maybe it was out of spite. Regardless, a 2010 article helped bring attention to the inaccuracies surrounding Cobb's reputation and challenged much of the narrative that had followed him for decades.

Unfortunately, not everyone who heard the original stories ever encountered the counterarguments. Even today, Cobb is often remembered as a dirty player and a universally hated man.

Ty Cobb never sharpened his spikes, no matter what some people may want to believe. In fact, in 1910, he wrote a letter to the league advocating that players with newer, sharper spikes dull them to decrease the risk of injuries. This was despite already being labeled a dirty player who supposedly sharpened his own spikes.

Cobb was also routinely labeled a racist. While his public record on race is certainly a complicated subject, he did express support for Black athletes playing professional sports. In one of his few recorded comments on the subject, Cobb stated, "The Negro has the right to play professional sports," adding, "and who's to say he has not?"

Now, 100 years after Cobb's departure from the Detroit Tigers, his statue still stands proudly alongside the other greats from Detroit in the outfield viewing area of Fifth Third Park. (It's still weird typing that instead of Comerica Park.)

Yet, the perception of who Cobb was remains misconstrued.

To me, Ty Cobb was, and always will be, the identity of grit on a baseball field. His accomplishments speak for themselves, and his place in Tigers history should never be diminished by stories that have been repeatedly challenged.

Here's to another 100 years of celebrating one of the greatest players to ever put on a Detroit Tigers uniform and restoring the good name of Ty Cobb.