Everything You Know About Ty Cobb is a Media Fabrication

April 28, 2017

Peter Solari, Contributing Editor Follow @4PeteSakeNY

If you grew up a baseball fan like I did, then you've likely heard all the stories about Detroit Tigers' legend Ty Cobb being the most vile human being to ever walk the earth. What you haven't heard, in all probability, is that nothing could be further from truth than those tales. Cobb's ugly reputation was concocted by a propagandist media, who didn't like him personally, and passed down by historians inexplicably didn't know any better.

This propaganda technique is known as "the big lie," and was coined by Adolph Hitler in his 1925 book "Mein Kampf". Joseph Goebbels, Minister of Propaganda of Hitler's Third Reich said, "If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it."

Ty Cobb is just one of countless victims of history's big lie. Thankfully, in his case, we possess the resources to rebut these fabrications. However, these falsehoods are so ingrained in American culture, it probably won't make any difference.

Charles Leerhsen is a former executive editor at Sports Illustrated,  and has written for numerous other publications, as well. Leehsen has also authored several books, including Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, and in a Prager U video from April 3rd, he explained that his investigation into the man with the highest lifetime batting average in history (.366), didn't exactly turn up the results you would likely expect. Here's more from Aaron Bandler at The Daily Wire:

But once Leerhsen dug into Cobb's background, he realized that there was nothing to substantiate these claims about Cobb.

Cobb certainly didn't have a reputation as a dirty player among his colleagues; he was well-respected by both his teammates and opponents. For example, catcher Wally Schang stated that Cobb "was too pretty a slider to hurt anyone who put the ball on him right." Cobb's dirty reputation is also contradicted by the fact that he asked the league to blunt the spikes on cleats.
One instance that people point to as reflective of Cobb's dirty playing style is a picture of him sliding his foot into the opposing catcher's crotch. But in actuality, Cobb was aiming for the catcher's glove to pop the ball out his hand; the catcher later admitted that he was out of position.

The charges of racism are also false. Not only was Cobb's family filled with abolitionists, he advocated for blacks to join professional baseball and frequently sat in the dugout with black baseball players in the Negro League. The story about Cobb stabbing and killing a black waiter is likewise a complete fabrication; in reality Cobb had gotten into a fight with a white watchman.

These false smears all stemmed from "a bitter, opportunistic journalist named Al Stump whom Cobb had once threatened to sue for making up stories about him."

Check out the entire video below to hear Leerhsen in his own words, and to get a more thorough understanding of the point he's making. It's a pretty short video and well-worth the watch, especially for baseball fans. Just be prepared to have your mind blown.

You've got to admit, that's pretty astonishing. I'm a huge baseball fan and a student history, but everything I knew about Cobb was wrong! I talked about this on episode 10 of For Pete's Sake: The Podcast on April 14th, which you're free to listen to below [relevant portion starts at 35:25], if you'd like.

I spend a fair amount of time on the podcast criticizing the media for their biases, and I've been accused of being obsessed. That's a fair criticism and I've wondered it about it myself. However, stories like this one give me a feeling of vindication, and are the reasons I will push on. By all accounts, Cobb was a very decent human being and a great ballplayer, whose legacy was tarnished by a muckraking "journalist" with an agenda. This just goes to show how truly powerful the media's voices are, and why standing up to those practicing sensationalism is so important.

In a world that is consumed by "fake news," at a time when people are questioning the role political narratives have, and are continuing to play in ESPN's nosedive into irrelevancy, it's imperative that we speak up when the press becomes more interested in fables than facts.

In all likelihood, Cobb's image has been irreparably harmed. Nowadays, it's pretty much accepted as common fact that he was a terrible racist. If the sports media, with their political and social agendas, are allowed to pursue their motives unchecked, what will people be saying about Mike Trout, Bryce Harper, or any other star in any other sport, a hundred years from now?

And if you think I'm being paranoid, look no further than the case of the legendary Ty Cobb, perhaps the greatest ballplayer who ever lived, or as he's more commonly known: the biggest jerk of his time.