Ty Cobb

Ty Cobb

Although often overshadowed in baseball history by Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb is considered by many sports enthusiasts to be the greatest player to ever play the game of baseball. Tyrus Raymond Cobb, was born December 18, 1886 in Banks County in Narrows, Georgia. He quickly gained much notoriety for his great skill in baseball and eventually earned a position with the Detroit Tigers at the age of nineteen, after playing for several semi-pro and Sally league teams. Cobb compiled twelve batting titles, a .367 career average, and totaled 4191 hits (second all-time) in a career that spanned twenty-two years (1905-1928). With these and other superb achievements, Ty was inducted as the first member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936, receiving more votes the Babe Ruth and Honus Wagner. As Cobb aged, his physical condition worsened and he developed terminal cancer. He eventually died July 17, 1961 in Atlanta, Georgia at the age of seventy-four.

The greatness cannot begin to be quantified in statistics and numbers. Ty Cobb redefined the words hard work and determination by stretching his limited God-given ability to the maximum, and making himself into a baseball legend. Cobb throughout his lifetime insisted that he was "not a super athlete, rather he had a great desire to win." Thus, Ty Cobb’s motivation and determination to excel created a pathway to his success.

Much of what made Ty Cobb so successful was his great work ethic. Cobb displays this desire best in what could be considered his epithet: "I’ve got to be first all the time- in everything." This work ethic was instilled in him from the moment that he was born.

Ty always wanted to play the game he fell in love with from an early age, but his father al...

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...-business" and "no play" attitude which enabled him to achieve stardom. "The Peach" poured all his heart and soul into baseball, and manager George Leidy’s prediction proved true: "… you will have every boy in America idolizing you. Cobb certainly retired from baseball with no regrets about his effort, which certainly would have made W.H. Cobb proud of his son.

Certainly one aspect of Cobb’s life, his hard work, successful career, determination, dedication, and ability, is remarkably admirable. But the other side of Cobb, his irascible nature, racist attitude, and volatile temper, has created a little doubt as to whether he is in fact a hero. However, looking at Cobb for what he accomplished in baseball, and how he accomplished his goals, through hard work and determination, gives him my vote for the best player to ever grace the great american pastime, “Baseball”