Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1569806 in Books
• Published on: 2004-03-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 464 pages

From Amazon.com
Not long before his death, Ty Cobb, as complex and haunted a human being as ever stepped onto a diamond, tapped a young writer named Al Stump to collaborate with him on his autobiography. The result, My Life in Baseball: The True Record, never came close to reaching first base; with Cobb (holder of the game's highest lifetime batting average and lowest lifetime reputation) calling the signals, it was an antiseptic whitewash, as false as its titular claim would have you believe otherwise. Hidden between the lines was the living hell that Cobb--reclusive, bitter, ravaged with cancer, in great pain, and shunned by the baseball community--put Stump through to make sure his demon-filled story was properly sanitized.

Some 30 years later, Stump brilliantly wrought his revenge with the best tool a writer can wield: absolute honesty. In Cobb, he rectifies his earlier cover-up and paints an unforgettable portrait of an unforgettable character: The Georgia Peach--pits and all. Not only does Stump painstakingly assemble the disparate pieces of Cobb's tangled personality and storied career, he also recounts in scrupulous detail the literal wild ride that comprised his months in the company of the dying baseball legend. It is, from its opening inscription ("To get along with me," Cobb told Stump, "don't increase my tension"), a tour de force, as good a sports biography as exists, and an altogether riveting telling of a riveting life. --Jeff Silverman

From Publishers Weekly
Stump, Ty Cobb's ghostwriter for the 1961 autobiography My Life in Baseball, fleshes out the story in this bare-knuckle, shocking biography. Born in Georgia in 1886, Cobb began his baseball career with the Detroit Tigers in 1905 and stayed in the big leagues until 1928-all the time hated by his rivals and teammates alike because of his meanness and combativeness. The author portrays the highlights of Cobb's career: his first batting championship in 1907; his 96 stolen bases in 1915; and his three .400 seasons in 1911, 1912 and 1922. Stump also looks at Cobb's involvement in game-fixing in 1919, his time as a manager and his activities after retiring. He died in 1961. The most sensational aspects of the book deal with Cobb's personal life: his mother's murder of his father, millionaire Cobb's cheapness (no electricity or telephone in his house), wife beating, alcoholism and racial bigotry. Stump has written a biography of the "Georgia Peach" that will stun readers with its brutal candor. Photos. 25,000 first printing.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Baseball great Ty Cobb was considered a borderline psychopath, both on the field and off. Noted sportswriter Stump collaborated with Cobb in his 1961 autobiography, My Life in Baseball. Here, Stump succeeds in producing the definitive biography of this mercurial man. Most of the details of Cobb's life are familiar to baseball fans, but Stump goes beyond the basic facts and accepted truisms and delves into many areas the ordinary fan may not be aware of. The story of the killing of Cobb's father by his mother remains a mystery, but Stump recounts the incident exhaustively, along with many others. Ultimately, the reader can fathom why Cobb evolved into the most hated man in baseball. It is said that genius is often tinged with madness; in Cobb's case that is certainly true. Reading Cobb's autobiography along with this book presents an interesting contrast. Highly recommended for all libraries.
William O. Scheeren, Hempfield Area H.S. Lib., Greensburg, Pa.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.