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35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The true historical record of Cobb, July 5, 2000
Alexander approaches baseball history as a historian; not a mere storyteller. This book reflects that approach. Alexander reports the feats and faults of Cobb, but doesn't try to pass judgement. Cobb's career speaks for itself (men are still chasing some of his records). However, in our age of political correctness Cobb's misbehavior speaks louder. Alexander details a complete Cobb. For all his faults Cobb was mannered and gracious in public (most of the time), a perfect host (if he liked you) and a generous philanthropist. This is the side most other Cobb bio's whitewash. This book proves useful as a resource about Cobb. It details the facts about his life season by season. The only way to improve the book would be to add more detail and color to some of Cobb's exploits-- but then the book would have to be about 500 pages. I consider this to be the primere biography of Ty Cobb. However, those looking mostly for anidotes, stories and that harsh personality brought to life might want to check out Al Stumps' "Cobb". I suggest reading both to develop the full image of the Greatest innovator baseball has ever seen.
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30 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent, March 6, 1999
By A Customer
Perfect companion to Al Stump's bio of Cobb. Alexander is more factual; Stump gives the reader a more thorough understanding of Cobb and his peculiarly ferocious personality. (The Alexander and Stump biographies portray a man who is one part Bedford Forest, one part Patton, one part Perot and one part Michael Jordan). For instance, Alexander devotes little more than one paragraph to Cobb's nervous breakdown in August, 1906. On the other hand, Stump details the inhumane hazing Cobb received from his yankee teammates in 1906 due to southern upbringing which led to Cobb's breakdown and fed his massive paranoia. Stump does a much better job on detailing Cobb's rivalry with Babe Ruth. Alexander briefly mentions the rivalry; Stump details the intense hatred Cobb felt for Ruth. For example, as player-manager of the Tigers, Cobb would often scream at the thick-lipped Ruth from the dugout, "You Nigga', Nigga' etc., etc.." However, where Stump takes many of Cobb's stories and yarns at face value, Alexander sifts through the clouds and tells the reader what is definitely true and leaves out what might be lies. Ty Cobb is the most interesting baseball player of all time though not the most important (Jackie Robinson, Babe Ruth, Roberto Clemente and, because of his role in free agency, Catfish Hunter were more important than Cobb). To get a real good feel of Ty Cobb, you need to read two books. Mr. Alexander's book is one of the two.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
TY COBB BY CHARLES C. ALEXANDER (1984), February 23, 2004
TY COBB BY CHARLES C. ALEXANDER (1984) Audio book review Charles C. Alexander's Ty Cobb is an illuminating review of the legendary early Twentieth Century baseball superstar. This audio book, read by Walter Zimmerman, is written more like historical biography than a baseball book
Alexander dispels many long-held Cobb myths. Cobb was mean and nasty, but not nearly the ogre of legend. In fact, Cobb was a devout Christian (Baptist), very well spoken, a man who cared about his public image, and engaged himself in many acts of on and off-field kindness. Caricatured as a savage racist by revisionist history, Cobb actually was kindly in his relations with the many black people he grew up with in Georgia, some of whom worked for his family. He had no patience for blacks he considered uppity. He was not Branch Rickey, but he was not the Grand Dragon of the K.K.K., either. Miserly? Sometimes, but without fanfare he took care of players who had hit the skids. A spikes-sharpened demon? You bet, but Ty also shook hands with his combatants after the dust settled, and performed various acts of dovish peacemaking for the benefit of hostile fans.
Alexander is not a psychiatrist, but it is obvious that the fact that Cobb's mother killed his father in what may not have been an accident, during an incident that occurred because Mr. Cobb suspected Mrs. Cobb of having an affair, shaped Ty's combative nature. What has been lost over the years is that Cobb became friendly with Babe Ruth (common legend holding that he always hated him). Cobb was a shrewd millionaire investor who never needed to work after baseball, therefore separating himself from regular contact with people while living in huge mansions that were too big for him, after his wife left. Most telling is the relationship Cobb had with his two male children. He raised them strictly, and because of baseball travel left much of the child rearing to his wife. When he retired, they were grown up and on their own, and Cobb had genuine regrets for "missing" their childhood's. He wished he had been a doctor, so he could have been home for his kids, and when one of his sons went into medicine, Cobb lamented that if he, too, were a doctor they would have something in common. With all that baggage in tow, Cobb had to endure the premature deaths of both of the boys from untimely illnesses, living the last 20-odd bitter years of his life blaming himself.
Cobb may have been hard to live with, but this book empathetically explains some of the demons that drove the man into becoming a brilliant stock manipulator, a taskmaster father, an unfeeling husband, a reviled teammate, a hated opponent, and in the opinion of those who saw him, perhaps the greatest baseball player who ever lived!
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