Ty Cobb

A Terrible Beauty

By: Charles Leerhsen

Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner

Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

Finally - a fascinating and authoritative biography of perhaps the most controversial player in baseball history, Ty Cobb.

Ty Cobb is baseball royalty, maybe even the greatest player who ever lived. His lifetime batting average is still the highest of all time, and when he retired in 1928, after twenty-one years with the Detroit Tigers and two with the Philadelphia Athletics, he held more than ninety records. But the numbers don't tell half of Cobb's tale. The Georgia Peach was by far the most thrilling player of the era: "Ty Cobb could cause more excitement with a base on balls than Babe Ruth could with a grand slam," one columnist wrote. When the Hall of Fame began in 1936, he was the first player voted in.

But Cobb was also one of the game's most controversial characters. He got in a lot of fights, on and off the field, and was often accused of being overly aggressive. In his day, even his supporters acknowledged that he was a fierce and fiery competitor. Because his philosophy was to "create a mental hazard for the other man," he had his enemies, but he was also widely admired. After his death in 1961, however, something strange happened: his reputation morphed into that of a monster - a virulent racist who also hated children and women, and was in turn hated by his peers.

How did this happen? Who is the real Ty Cobb? Setting the record straight, Charles Leerhsen pushed aside the myths, traveled to Georgia and Detroit, and re-traced Cobb's journey, from the shy son of a professor and state senator who was progressive on race for his time, to America's first true sports celebrity. In the process, he tells of a life overflowing with incident and a man who cut his own path through his times - a man we thought we knew but really didn't.

©2015 Charles Leerhsen (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.

Loved the book and Ty.

All the misconceptions and outright lies exposed. read exceptionally well. Thank you for enlightening us.

First-rate biography, well narrated

Leershen's biography of the great Cobb is an outstanding piece of journalism, combining rigorous research with an entertaining narrative. So much of what was previously written about Cobb seems to have been utter fiction (e.g. that he was a racist, a dirty ballplayer, even a murderer). Yet while the portrait is sympathetic, Leershen does not paper over Cobb's shortcomings act as his apologist.

Hillgartner's narration is also outstanding, using accents judiciously (including a Georgia drawl for Cobb) and pronouncing all of the names right—something that is all too rare in sports biographies.

A great read for fans of old-time baseball.

maybe the best sports book I've ever read.

I'm not sure there's another person in history portrayed more inaccurately than Ty Cobb. I'll never again look at Ken Burns's Baseball (or any other of his works) with such reverence. If he could be THAT wrong about arguably the greatest baseball player of all time in a documentary series ABOUT BASEBALL, there's simply no telling what else he's gotten wrong. I know his information came from "biographer" Al Stump, but Stump had long been discredited. The evidence that Ty Cobb was not remotely the monster he was made out to be is plentiful and not hard to come by. Poor form, Ken Burns. Poor form.

Setting the record straight

Would you consider the audio edition of Ty Cobb to be better than the print version?

I listened to audio. Would like to see the print version assuming it contains photos. I did not purchase the print version.

What other book might you compare Ty Cobb to and why?

I don't really have a specific book for comparison. I read a Cobb biography when I was a kid, but I don't remember the title or the author.

What about Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance did you like?

Hillgartner's performance is easy on the ears. He seemed able to emulate the dialect one would expect of Cobb and others.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Very much so. I completed the book mostly over the course of two weekends. I listened for long stretches at a time as the content kept me entertained and interested.

Any additional comments?

Leehrsen does Ty Cobb a great service. He deftly rights the wrongs claimed of Cobb that were manufactured by Al Stump and which have persisted for over 50 years. Ever heard the story about Ty Cobb having a pistol and stock certificates by his side on his death bed? Symbols of his ferocity and success? Yeah, I did too. I've believed that for years. Isn't true. Leehrsen definitively discredits this and many other falsehoods you've heard about Cobb.

I became interested in Cobb when I was in elementary school living in Georgia, the same state from which Cobb was born in raised. Since then, I understood Cobb to be the fiercest of competitors on the diamond and a terrible person off of it. Leehrsen has confirmed the former and dispelled that latter. The author makes effective use of primary source material and first and second hand accounts to correct the record as to who the man Ty Cobb really was. In doing so, he takes you back in time - - where you can almost see Ty Cobb terrorizing the base paths of the American League. Something that today, one only can dream about as there is no footage of Cobb stealing a base that you can simply look up on YouTube.

Leehrsen eviscerates the myth of Cobb generated by an opportunistic Stump. One cannot come away from a reading/listening of Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty without a new found understanding and appreciation for the man and competitor who was Ty Cobb. I highly recommend this title.

Fantastic book that digs deeper for the truth!

Fantastic book that digs deeper for the truth about Ty Cobb. If you read Stump's book it saw the COBB movie,, you owe it to yourself to enjoy this one!

Let's set the record straight!!

Probably the most reasonable assessment of arguably the greatest baseball player of all time. With great insight into the early days of the game and the stars of the "Dead ball era" of baseball. Thank you Mr Leerhsen for addressing an injustice that I have no doubt is repeated about most people of renown.

Beautiful..

In retrospect, its regrettable Leerhsen had to spend time righting the wrongs done to Cobb’s legacy, but it other ways it’s poignant and genius in its own way. Never before has a biography moved me like this one, except maybe Morris’ Roosevelt Trilogy. To say more is to spoil it. Listen and be transported back in time to the excitement and celestial complexity that was Ty Cobb.

I believed the lies…but not anymore

I remember a couple of weeks ago having
a baseball conversation with a friend and Ty Cobb’s name inevitably came up. My friend asked “What do you think about Ty Cobb?” I replied that he was probably one of the dirtiest players to ever play the game!
All he said was “Are you sure about that?” He
said he read a book called ‘Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty’ and that he would gladly lend it to me.

For some reason I couldn’t wait for the borrowed book, so I found it on Audible when I got home that very night and began to listen.

Charles Leerhsen is a fantastic writer who had me captivated from first pitch to the last out.
Malcolm Hillgartener has a great voice to narrate this story. I did however find myself getting madder and madder the more I listened to Malcolm interpret Mr. Leerhsen’s words. I was mad because for 60 years I believed the lies about Ty Cobb, arguably one of the
greatest baseball players of all time. Because of the lies, I was duped. But I have learned a great lesson through this book, which is to never take information as fact until it can truly be verified as legitimate. Amazing what we can learn from the game of baseball and it’s tarnished stars long after they have parted this mortal coil.

Thank you Charles Leerhsen for setting the scorecard straight!

I highly recommend this Audible audiobook. I look forward to listening to it again in the extra innings to come.

The unheard story

Excuse me while I️ write this for I️ am a baseball guy, not an English major. Great to hear a different story about Cobb. Personally, I️ always found it hard to believe he was as bad of a person the stories made him out to be. Glad I️ came across this book to clear his name.

Fantastic book

As I reviewed the opening chapter or two of the book, I sensed it may be just a reworking of old takes by a Cobb apologist. I couldn't have been further from the truth. The book exposes the falsehoods, the laziness of writers and researchers, and the failure of baseball fans, and the general public, to demand substantive proof or evidence of what amounts to the libeling and slandering of a great ball player. The history of Ty Cobb needs to be corrected. Are you listening Ken Burns?