Many people have long believed that Ty Cobb, the legendary baseball player, was one of the most racist athletes in history. However, upon closer examination of his biography and other well-researched baseball books, it’s clear that these accusations are largely unfounded. Cobb has been unjustly vilified as a racist, with many of the claims against him proving to be false.
Key Takeaways
- According to a biography of Hall of Famer Tris Speaker, “he viciously pistol-whipped African-American men whose only offence was to share a sidewalk with him on several occasions.”
- And despite all of these unfounded claims that Ty Cobb was racist, the reality appears to be very different.
Ty Cobb is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in Major League Baseball history, yet his personal life and the truths surrounding it have often been overshadowed by time.
While his on-field accomplishments remain unmatched, with Cobb retiring as the first player inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame and holding over 90 records—including a still-unbroken .366 career batting average—much of his legacy has been clouded by misconceptions.
Cobb passed away on the afternoon of July 17, 1961. It was then that his reputation became a target for dime-store authors eager to sensationalize the life of baseball’s greatest player.
While Cobb’s blunt demeanor was well known, he was far from the vicious figure many assumed. In fact, he was an early and outspoken advocate for integrating Major League Baseball, contradicting claims of him being the sport’s most notorious racist.
After Cobb’s death, numerous individuals, including fellow players and those claiming to know him, penned stories about him. Unfortunately, many of these accounts were distorted, further muddying the true legacy of Ty Cobb.
Ty Cobb Getting Framed As A Racist
“Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty” (Simon & Schuster), Charles Leerhsen’s latest biography, begins with a humorous routine. That lists some of the many myths surrounding the baseball hero.
Did he beat his wife? “He was a beater of everything,” comedian Jim Norton said.
“A terrible racist. Cobb, a Demerol addict, assaulted a black groundskeeper in 1907 and choked the man’s wife after she stepped in.”
According to a biography of Hall of Famer Tris Speaker, “he viciously pistol-whipped African-American men whose only offence was to share a sidewalk with him on several occasions.”
Cobb is described as “an embarrassment to the game” in Ken Burns’ “Baseball.” The most well-known of these is Cobb’s involvement with the Ku Klux Klan. And that he stabbed a black waitress in Cleveland.
However, none of these claims are accurate. Some of the things that these authors have misunderstood over the years should be corrected.
The most notable of these is the attack on Cobb’s relationship with Blacks and minorities by contemporary writers.
Ty Cobb Was Praised by Black People for Speaking “In Favor of Racial Freedom in Baseball” and Was Not a Racist
Only little parts of the stories appear to be accurate and look implausible.
Cobb allegedly assaulted a white security guard in a Cleveland hotel in 1909. The attack resulted in a black man being stabbed and losing his life.
However, this is not true. Cobb claimed to have lightly raked the guard’s wrist with a pen knife. But later claimed he stabbed him in the shoulder and hand. Race played no role in this incident, as no other men were described as black.
Leerhsen does not corroborate Charles Alexander’s 1984 biography of Charles Cobb, which asserts that the bellboy and watchman were both black.
Cobb agreed to pay the watchman a fine and settlement after entering a guilty plea to simple assault. Sometimes, people misrepresent Alexander’s narrative as a tale about a black waiter who was stabbed because he was ungrateful.
And despite all of these unfounded claims that Ty Cobb was racist, the reality appears to be very different. Cobb openly backed blacks and whites playing baseball together five years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier.
He said,
Certainly it is okay for them to play. I see no reason in the world why we shouldn’t compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility. Let me say also that no white man has the right to be less of a gentleman than a colored man; in my book that goes not only for baseball but in all walks of life
After his passing, the obituaries that appeared in the black press commended Cobb for “[speaking] in favor of racial freedom in baseball.”
These facts lead to the conclusion that racism had nothing to do with Ty Cobb’s misdeeds, even if he did get in trouble for them.
The primary causes of today’s antipathy for Cobb are Alexander’s errors and Al Stump, Cobb’s ghostwriter. Writers have created a fictionalized autobiography so full of falsehoods that, at the time of his death in 1961, Cobb was getting ready to file a lawsuit to prevent its publication.
In Case You Didn’t Know
- Tyrus Raymond Cobb, commonly referred to as Ty Cobb, was born in Narrows, Georgia, on December 18, 1886.
- He was the eldest of William Herschel Cobb and Amanda Chitwood Cobb’s three children. Cobb’s dad was a state senator.
