Ty Cobb’s Reputation Getting a Replay, Review

Tiger Great Ty Cobb deserves the re-write he’s getting, his granddaughter says.

Cindy Cobb was only four when her legendary grandfather passed away, but she’s on a mission to change the public’s perception of baseball player Ty Cobb.

 

After his stellar career with the Detroit Tigers, Ty Cobb’s life off the field also became part of baseball mythos: a brilliant, but hot-tempered and even violent man.

 

Granddaughter Cindy Cobb says that is not accurate. “The dark tales that were spun after my grandfather died were just total sensationalism,” she says. “If you know him, you would know differently.”

 

Instead of the mythology about Cobb’s life — he died in 1961 — she prefers a biography called “Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty.” Author Charles Leerhsen finds little evidence for many of the most infamous stories about the ballplayer. Click here to listen to his interview on Detroit Today last year.

 

Click on the link above to hear Cindy Cobb’s interview on WDET’s CultureShift.

 

 

Author

  • Amanda LeClaire is an award-winning journalist and managing editor and lead reporter of WDET's new environmental series, the Detroit Tree Canopy Project, as well as WDET's CuriosiD podcast. She was the host of WDET’s CultureShift and a founding producer of the station’s flagship news talk show *Detroit Today*. Amanda also served as a Morning Edition host at WDET and previously worked as a host, audio and video producer, and reporter for Arizona Public Media.