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Lot 48
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Ty Cobb Fantastic 11 Page Letter, "The World Series no doubt will be represented by San Francisco or Los Angeles club though baseball is most unpredictable, it's barely possible Milwaukee might barge through or even Pittsburgh, looks to me Chicago White Sox in American League."
Ty Cobb Fantastic 11 Page Letter, "The World Series no doubt will be represented by San Francisco or Los Angeles club though baseball is most unpredictable, it's barely possible Milwaukee might barge through or even Pittsburgh, looks to me Chicago White Sox in American League."
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Description:

Cobb Ty

Ty Cobb Fantastic 11 Page Letter, a Personal Inside Look at the Man Behind the Legend



 

Eleven page autographed letter signed, on letterhead of "Tyrus R. Cobb, 48 Spencer Lane, Atherton, Menlo Park, California". Extensively penned by Ty Cobb in green ink to the rectos of each page,  with versos blank. , 7.25" x 10.5". Dated "8/29/59", and signed on the last page by Ty Cobb as "T.R.C." Fine with front page with small handling mark, else balance of pages clean and bright with strong vibrant green ink. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope with the stamp cut out. Envelope is torn and lightly grubby.

 

He is regarded by some historians and journalists as the best player of the dead-ball era (1900-1919), and is generally seen as one of the greatest players of all time. During the dead-ball era, baseball was much more of a strategy-driven game, relying on stolen bases and hit and run type plays (for example, Cobb would manage to get to first base, and then proceed to steel second, third and home, an accomplishment he managed 4 times in his career). Cobb is widely credited with setting 90 MLB records during his career. His combined total of 4,065 runs scored and runs batted in (after adjusting for home runs) is still the highest ever produced by any major league player. He still holds several records as of the end of the 2017 season, including the highest career batting average (.366 or .367, depending on source) and most career batting titles with 11 (or 12, depending on source). He retained many other records for almost a half century or more, including most career hits until 1985 (4,189 or 4,191, depending on source), most career runs (2,245 or 2,246 depending on source) until 2001,most career games played (3,035) and at bats (11,429 or 11,434 depending on source) until 1974,and the modern record for most career stolen bases (892) until 1977.He still holds the career record for stealing home (54 times) and for stealing second base, third base, and home in succession (5 times), and as the youngest player ever to compile 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs!

 

But as outstanding as his professional life may have been, his personal life was fraught with extensive complications and misery. This provides insight into this lengthy letter written by Cobb when he was about 74, and only a few months before he was diagnosed with 4 illnesses: prostate cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure and Bright’s disease. His childhood had ended abruptly when he was 18, just weeks before his baseball debut, when his mother accidentally shot and killed his father.  From the time he was a rookie with the Tigers, his teammates alienated him with their taunting. He had a bad temper, and his anger led him to altercations both on and off the field, having skirmishes with heckling fans as well as other players. He was judgmental, demanding, racist and anti-sematic. As well, Cobb struggled with his marriages (he was divorced several times) and as a father, even whipping his son for failing at Princeton College [University?]. By the date of this letter, Cobb was alone and unwell.  His letter alludes to both preferring his loner life style, and his active and hectic schedule:

 

 "Now you have my schedule, I have an invitation to come to Boston, Mass Sept 20 I believe, a sports event honoring those of the past, in sports, I thought of going, possibly have an opportunity to see you in New York. These events, many I have to turn down for I am far away and the demands of travel are very demanding, my last trip Georgia, N.Y. Cooperstown where I met you, then back to N.Y. then Detroit, then Kansas City, Mo. And finally back here, you could not know the exactions of the many, friends, fans, old baseball players, talk into late hours of night, little sleep, one cannot be rude, one feels honored with such , but one has to endure and one comes off a trip like this, much exhausted, for instance after Detroit, Cooperstown, N.Y. and Georgia, I arrive in Kansas City the next 48 hours and final arrival home. I had 4 hours of sleep … "

 

He also notes he is alone, and has three homes, so that, for health reasons, he can live in various climates, but that he has trouble getting and keeping help:

 

"I have to have house & home help. This is a whale of a problem today. I have had many servants and no more depressing thing can happen to me or one in my position, alone and not used to doing things … to have servants, tell you their mother or father or husband has had an attack and they must leave your employ and there you are left alone, and you make another try … (in Georgia) I have the same trouble getting help, in all my experiences I never fired one, the present day conditions thanks to Franklin Roosevelt etc … "   Cobb continues with his judgmental and anti-sematic attitude while discussing his most recent help, a divorced woman who worked at a woman's dress shop. He offered to pay her more than she was getting since she was "underpaid by a Jew owner of a small chain of woman's wear shops." but who in the end also left him without notice, never announcing her intentions to do so and just quit, "leaving at once to catch a plane." 



But even while he was lamenting over his help, he still had his mind on baseball noting "The world series no doubt will be represented by San Francisco or Los Angeles club though baseball is most unpredictable, its barely possible Milwaukee might barge through or even Pittsburgh, looks to me Chicago White Sox in American League."

 

During the last years of his life he was known to have told movie comedian Joe E. Brown that he felt that he had made mistakes and that he would do things differently if he could. He had played hard and lived hard all his life, had no friends to show for it at the end, and regretted it. An incredible inside look at this super star who fell to earth due to what some say were his "internal demons". He leaves behind perhaps a most incredible baseball legacy, but a highly controversial personal legacy.



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