Ty Cobb came into the major leagues in 1905 and exited in 1928 with the all-time career batting average along with many other records, but the audience hated Cobb. He would just stand in the field while fans threw garbage and booed in Cobb’s direction, because after all, Ty was purely the best player to ever step foot on a baseball field, and Cobb gladly bragged about it, making him a self-profound legend. There were many great ball players before Cobb’s time, but once Ty entered the league at 18-years-old as a Detroit Tiger, it changed the game. Ty Cobb, the original “Mr. Tiger”, caused millions of fans to flood to the ticket window of any stadium Mr. Tiger was playing at that day. Everyone wanted to see the man who held the highest batting average of all time for the past 86 years play the wonderful game of baseball. However, Ty was no Derek Jeter, as many fans hated Cobb due to a selfish, rude like personality that caused Cobb to be a stuck up jerk. There has even been a story floating around the past 80-some years about Cobb once marching into the stands and beating up a man in a wheel chair; but despite Cobb’s disgusting behavior, he was truly born to be on the “Mount Rushmore of Baseball.”
Ty Cobb finished his 24-year career with a total of 4189 hits (2nd all-time), 724 doubles (4th all-time), 295 triples (2nd all-time), and 1938 RBI’s (top 10 all-time), which was all put down in the books while Cobb put up a “unbreakable” record of a .366 life-time batting average (12/13 years he led the league). He could most certainly hit, but how was his speed and glove? Please, how was his speed and glove???…..Try, insane! Cobb’s career total of 897 stolen bases (4th all-time) gave him the ability to post a career range factor per game in the outfield of 2.30, which was .17 better than the league average during Mr. Tiger’s 24-year career. Speed is not only valuable for steeling bags along with getting to a fly ball, but Cobb’s wheels also allowed him to pick up extra bases, in which his career total of total bases is well over 5000 and 5th on the all time list. Now, Cobb might not have been say, Willie Mays with a glove, but for a number of years Cobb’s fielding percentage was higher than the league average. And his arm wasn’t too bad either as Cobb produced a total of 392 outfield assists (Willie Mays only had 195).
Yes Ty Cobb is arguably the best position player of all time by the numbers, but more importantly, did Ty contribute enough to lead his team to the Series, let alone win it? Detroit never won the Series with Cobb, but they did make it three years in a row from 1907-1909. Baseball is heavily a team sport, where the defense has the ball. Basketball, however, can have a single player like MJ put the team on his back all the way to hoisting the trophy. Baseball shows/claims that in order for there to be a chance of a team having a for say a “MJ” type of leader, it almost always has to be a pitcher in which the man on the mound controls the game. While Cobb was with Detroit, the Tigers never had a lot of great teams, let alone a “Sandy Koufax” or “Bob Gibson” type of pitcher, so Mr. Tiger did all he could, as he led the major leagues in runs created 8 times over his 24-years, 3 of which were between 1907-1909. Overall though Ty Cobb, despite his personality, was a one of a kind player who didn’t try and just put numbers up for the heck of it, but contributed to his team as well, by walking over 1200 times along with pushing his Tigers to 3 pennants in a row, making Cobb a God of America’s past time.
