The next baseball legend to get a card in my "Minor League Days:
Legends Edition" set, the "Georgia Peach, Ty Cobb, arguably the greatest
hitter of them all:
Here we see a young Cobb
as a member of the Augusta Tourists of the South Atlantic League in
either 1904 or 1905, just a teenager ready to set the baseball world on
fire before he was through.
Records are sparse, but it seems
he hit .237 and .326 in his two partial seasons playing there before
making the jump to the Majors in 1905.
Basically all the man did between the foul lines one he did hit the Big Leagues was win 12 batting
titles, reach 200 hits in a season nine times, hit .366 for his entire
career, a triple crown in 1909, score over 2200 runs, hit over 720
doubles, just under 300 triples, and even drove in 1938 runs during the
dead-ball era! Oh, and let's not forget the 897 stolen bases!
It's even funny to think that it's so easy to overlook the fact that Cobb also led the league in slugging eight times!
It's Ty Cobb for pete's sake!
The man was incredible, and it is somewhat understandable that he became bitter when Babe Ruth came along and put the offensive focus on power as opposed to "small ball", almost erasing all appreciation for those "intangibles" that Cobb was famous for.
It's even funny to think that it's so easy to overlook the fact that Cobb also led the league in slugging eight times!
It's Ty Cobb for pete's sake!
The man was incredible, and it is somewhat understandable that he became bitter when Babe Ruth came along and put the offensive focus on power as opposed to "small ball", almost erasing all appreciation for those "intangibles" that Cobb was famous for.
But it is also tragic
that he was portrayed in such a negative light by Al Stump, and believed
by so many years later, unjustly so, as we are learning more and more
that he was NOT the beast he was said to have been when he was alive.
Rest in Peace Ty Cobb!
