Customer Reviews

Ty Cobb: Safe at Home

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book is well written, having been thoroughly researched by the author who interviewed several family members. It is about the human side of Cobb and reveals little known events that shows Cobb at times was all about family and community. The book chronicles several of Cobb's friends in Augusta, Detroit, Philadelphia, and elsewhere. It shows him to be highly respected and admired throughout the nation. Of course the ball players of his era were tenacious and highly competitive. There is new material never written about that the reader will find very informative. This is more than about baseball as it is all about Cobb's life. I am sure that many baseball fans will find this book informative and pleasurable.It is one of the best books on Cobb that I have ever read, possibly the greatest player to ever play the game.

Ty Cobb: Safe at Home is a very well written biography by Don Rhodes. I had limited expectations of the book and why not? Cobb has been portrayed as so many things with so many differing personalities. After reading this book I must admit that I was more than pleasantly surprised. The author provides a lot of personal information from interviews with two of Cobb's daughters, amongst others. One would think they would have nothing good to say about their father, but quite the opposite became evident. They had many good things to say about their father the person.

What really appealed to me about this book was that the author chose to focus more on Ty Cobb the person, rather than Ty Cobb the baseball star. He does not shy away from the controversies that plagued Cobb, nor does he defend him. It is what it is and to me that added an unexpected piece to an often confusing puzzle.

Having read my fair share of books on Ty Cobb, I'd have to rank this one near the top.

There are positive and negative sides to this book.

On the negative side, it is a rather short bio. There isn't that much baseball. Some of Ty's most important moments in life are not explored enough.

On the positive side, we get to know Ty a little better. I'd say this book covers what Al Stump's "Coob" did not. It's truly incredible what Ty Cobb left for his fellow human beings. The heritage he left for younsters, teenagers and sick persons is outstanding. In some case, he went out of his way to help others.

Ty Cobb just was not only the depressive, anti-social and racist psychopath some historians, writers and reporters want you to think.

As Bill James once wrote, when you didn't challenge him, he was a nice enough human being.

The author takes up the defense of Ty Cobb, probably the most disliked man to ever play major league baseball. What motivates this defense is hard to tell - only a few minor references to Cobb's bad reputation sneak into the book. If you're looking for stories about baseball in the golden age, this isn't going to please you. If you want minute details about Ty Cobb's life at home and his activities outside baseball, this is what you want. I doubt that very many people actually want that.

Great book. I cannot put it down. Has a lot of facts of Cobb's life which I never read in any other book on the great baseball player.