Another Bad Boy Cobb Story

1909 Unleashed

                                               

“The Georgia Peach”

Cobb is Unleased

 By 1909, Ty Cobb and his ferocious style of play was the biggest topic of conversation, It was his fourth year and, at age 22, he was becoming established as the number one batter in the American League and was being compared to the great Honus Wagner of the NL Pittsburgh Pirates. Unfortunately, he was becoming equally famous for his aggressiveness on and off the field. Even the mild-mannered gentlemen, A’s  owner and manager, Connie Mack, labeled Cobb “a back alley artist” and “a no good ruffian” following one of his famous “spikes up” slide against  3B Frank Baker during a critical game against his A’s in early August. It was one of many such plays on the field, but there were also incidents of off-the-field violence. In the World Series, Cobb had to travel separately from the team when traveling to Pittsburgh from Chicago as he could not enter Ohio due to an outstanding warrant against him from a  stabbing incident at a Cleveland hotel. Cobb was as bad as he was good.