May 15, 1912: Rage

NEW YORK - What anecdote best describes Ty Cobb?

You could stick to the pure numbers: He won 11 American League batting titles, including 3 seasons where he batted above .400, and is still the all-time leader in batting average. He batted over .300 in 23 consecutive seasons. He lead the league in every significant offensive category at some point in his career, and he is one of two players who have won both a home run title and a stolen base title. When he retired, he was the all-time leader in at bats, hits, runs, and batting average.

If numbers aren't your bag, go with what contemporaries thought of him: When the first Hall of Fame class was elected, Ty Cobb received the most votes, more than even Babe Ruth.

Or you could mention his savvy as a business man, how early investments in Coca Cola and GE led Cobb to be a multi-millionaire when he retired. Or that he donated large portions of his fortune to start an education foundation and a healthcare system in his native Georgia, two systems that are thriving to this day.

Or, you could talk about May 15, 1912, when Cobb went into the stands at New York's Highland Park and beat a heckling fan senseless, despite the fact that the fan was missing one hand and three fingers on another. When other fans pointed this out to Cobb, he said "I don't care if he got no feet." See, the fan had been heckling Cobb all game long, then the fan - apparently - called Cobb a half-breed. And to Cobb, accusing him of being part-black, even in jest, was enough to get him to attack you. Cobb was suspended indefinitely for the attach, but after his teammates threatened to strike - only because they had no chance of winning without him, not because they actually liked him - Cobb was back on the field within a week.

Unfortunately, incidents like the one in New York were all too common with Cobb. There was the time he beat up a black groundskeeper during spring training, then beat up the man's wife when she went to defend him. There was the time he slapped a black elevator operator for being "uppity," then stabbed the night watchman who intervened. Or the time he pistol-whipped a man to death. Plus there were innumerous fights with teammates and umpires throughout his career.

At the very least, Cobb had severe anger issues. More likely, though, was that he had a severe personality disorder, bordering on insanity, with an extreme paranoia that everybody was determined to hurt him. And Cobb almost reveled in it, taking pride in his past accomplishments and intimidation tactics, implying that anybody who didn't do those things was a coward

It's possible that Cobb was as brilliant as player as he was in part because of his rage and paranoia - he had to keep striving to be better than everybody else, so nothing he did was good enough. Whether that's true or not, it affected him greatly in his later life. Despite his charitable donations - including him quietly sending checks to former ballplayers who had fallen on hard times - Cobb died alone, with no friends and few family members with him in his final days. And when the greatest ballplayer before Babe Ruth died in 1961, only three former players came to his funeral.