Cobb

By: Al Stump

Narrated by: Ian Esmo

As a boy in the 1890s he went looking for thrills in a rural Georgia that still burned with humiliation from the Civil War. As an old man in the 1960s he dared death, picked fights, refused to take his medicine, and drove off all his friends and admirers. He went to his deathbed alone, clutching a loaded pistol and a bag containing millions of dollars worth of cash and securities.
During the years in between, he became, according to Al Stump, "the most shrewd, inventive, lurid, detested, mysterious, and superb of all baseball players." He was Ty Cobb.
In Cobb, Stump tells how he was given a fascinating window into the Georgia Peach's life and times when the dying Cobb hired him in 1960 to ghostwrite his autobiography.©1994 by Al Stump (P)1997 by Blackstone Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"Stump has resurrected Cobb in all his terrifying malevolence...Spellbinding." (The Washington Post)
"Cobb is a big, raw, rought-cut diamond of a book and the most powerful baseball biography I have read." (Roger Kahn, author of The Summer Boys)

Great Book About a Horrible Man

This is a well written book about an absolutely evil deplorable scumbag. Anyone who tries to whitewash or soften Cobb's blatant racism, hate, malignant narcissism, and fetish for violence is fighting a futile battle. Direct quotes from Cobb confirm what a lousy excuse for a man he was. His teammates hated him. His family knew he was awful. He has almost no real friends and burned bridges with the few he did have. Of course to Cobb, everyone else was a POS and the whole world was against him. He was a great baseball player. Definitely one of the best ever. Also one of the worst people who ever lived. He makes me wish I believed in hell.

The Georgian dialect by the performer was hard to listen to.

The stories were good but the statistics were a little overdone. I understand his dominance but it was a little drawn out. Stump took some liberties with his racism reputation. He was a huge advocate for Jackie in 1947.

Baseball Plus

This fine biography would obviously be a must-listen for any baseball fan. It's a story packed with incident, controversy and a flavor of baseball's past that is brought to life so fully that it seems as contemporary as Bonds and Pedro.

My only question is: Would a non-fan be interested? I think quite possibly not, although Ty Cobb was such a head-case that this is clearly not your average sports biography. It is also part history, part psychology and part simply evidence of thorough research.

Think you know Ty Cobb?

I did too. I didn't. Nor did I really have a flavor for the beginnings of Major League Baseball. Al Stump's book not only gives a balanced look at Cobb but it also details other interesting aspects of early baseball, from equipment and style to greedy owners (like today). Any baseball fan should read this.

What a man -- what a book!

This is a glorious book about one of the strangest and most talented sportsmen who ever played. While there is plenty of baseball action and history, you don't have to know a bean ball from a foul ball to enjoy this book. Ty Cobb was such a unique character, on and off the field, that his story is worth listening to. You may finish by hating this man, pitying him, or admiring the qualities that made him the greatest baseball player who ever lived. The writing is as compelling as the story, and the author's relationship with the subject is an interesting sideline.