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| Signing autographs for the kids |
MY
TRAVELS WITH TY COBB
By Norm Coleman
CHAPTER ONE Cobb’s
early life, growing up in Georgia.
“Challenges are what make life interesting
and overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.”
A philosopher, James Allen wrote in one
of his books an entire chapter to beginnings.
He writes, "Most beginnings
are small, and appear trivial and insignificant, but in reality they are the
most important things in life."
Without a beginning you could have the
greatest idea and the greatest plan in the world and you would still fail.
Whereas a modest idea and an incomplete plan often produces success when
accompanied by even an "insignificant"
beginning.
"Beginning" is just another way to describe the most
powerful six-letter word in the vocabulary of achievers: A-C-T-I-O-N.
But, you
say, "I already knew that. I already knew I had to take action to be
successful.”
Thus was the beginning of
what came to be the one-man show I called, “Ty Cobb-The Greatest Player That
Ever Played The Game.” This is the event that
changed my life as I turned seventy. This was the challenge I set out for
myself, the Sisyphus task I created for myself convinced I could reach the
mountaintop successfully.
Let me state at the outset that in
reality, I never met Tyrus Raymond (The Georgia Peach) Cobb, considered by many
baseball experts to be one of the greatest players that ever played baseball
and the greatest hitter of all-time due to his lifetime batting average of 367.
This is still the best in Major League history along with the over 90 records
he established prior to his retirement.
He died in Atlanta, Georgia on July 17th, 1961
at the age of 75.
Ty Cobb’s father, William Herschel Cobb was born on
February 23,1863. His mother, Amanda Chitwood was born on February 15, 1871.
Mr. Cobb, a rural school teacher married Amanda on
February 11, 1886. He was twenty-three, she was fifteen.
Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born on December 18, 1886.
Ty had one brother, John Paul, born on February 23,
1889. Cobb’s sister, Florence Leslie was born October 29, 1892.
Born in the Narrows, Georgia, Ty was raised in Royston,
Georgia.
He became fascinated with baseball at the age of six and
was often seen playing a game called Cat. A player would throw a ball in the
air, the batter would swing and run to first. The fielder would then throw the
ball as hard as he could at the runner. This resulted in many bruises Ty would
occur, but he learned to handle pain, without crying.
As Tom Hanks said, in the film, A League of their
Own; (1) “There’s no crying in
baseball.”
A neighborly carpenter created the black ash bats Ty
took to Augusta and then to Detroit made his first bats for him.
His first glove, like his first uniform was made by his
mother. Ty, with friends were often seen searching for scrap metal that he sold
to buy his first mitt.
Amanda noticed many times Ty throwing rocks in the air
and hitting them with a branch. He would throw a ball against a wall and
practiced fielding for hours.
He joined a local team called the Royston Rompers that
consisted of boys aged from fifteen to twenty. Ty was twelve. At fourteen, he
became the star of that team.
My connection with Cobb
I always did something I was a
little not ready to do. I think that’s how you grow. There’s that moment of
“Wow” I’m not really sure I can do this, but you push threw those moments,
that’s when you have a breakthrough.
That’s what happened to me the day
Ty Cobb came into my life. What I learned from him, and how he changed my life.
I will reveal this as you read further.
I had a long successful career as
an award winning professional photographer, but never acted a day in my life. I
recreated my life at seventy and took to the stage becoming an actor,
playwright and inspirational speaker. I have portrayed Cobb in venues around
the country and Canada over the past nine years.
Cobb and I are at opposite poles of
the universe in life and experience. He was born in Georgia twenty-three
years after The War Between The States. He fell in love with baseball at the
age of six and started playing serious baseball at age 14.
I grew up in mid-depression
America, fell in love with baseball at ten and played stickball on the streets
of Brooklyn, NY. I became an excellent handball player. That was a sport I
excelled at. I wanted to be a sports writer and did so for my High School, Boys
High in Brooklyn. Fifty years went by before I became
a sports writer once again.
Why I related to Ty (The Georgia Peach) Cobb
You may have known some people who
have had success, joy, and triumph, than a tumble into depression, despair or hopelessness.
It was this experience that Cobb and I shared.
It was this interconnection that
drew me to Ty as I had a similar painful experience detailed in the
introduction to this book.
It was mid August 1905. Cobb was
enjoying a successful season with the Augusta Tourists, a minor league team in
Georgia when his contract was sold to the Detroit Tigers for $750.00 He was told
to report to Detroit in a few days.
He was never so happy in his life
as all he worked for and dreamed about was about to come to fruition. He
invited his brother Paul, some of his friends to watch him play his last game
in Georgia before joining the Tigers in Detroit.
He wanted nothing more than to
share this momentous occasion with his daddy whom he worshipped and adored. His
daddy was God as far as Ty was concerned.
“I worshipped the ground he walked
on,” he would say. As fate would have it, this was not meant to be. He went
from the height of happiness, to the depth of depression.
He received the sad news that his
beloved father had been shot, murdered by his mother, driving him into a state
of depression.
Ty reported to Detroit a few days later and got hits in his first two at bats, showing his powerful sense of
concentration.
Seven months after this unfortunate
tragedy, his mother, Amanda Chitwood Cobb went to trial for killing her
husband. She was charged with 2nd degree manslaughter but was found
innocent by a jury of her peers.
In addition to this experience, Ty
experienced a year of hazing and bullying from his teammates. That was common
in those early days of baseball. Ty fought back earning him an undeserved
reputation that he always fought with his teammates. His failure to be accepted
by his mates, and the death of his father caused him to fall into a deep state
of melancholia.
It was during the following season,
1906 that Ty disappeared from Detroit in late July causing him to miss a shade
over 50 games. It was thought at first he suffered from “stomach trouble”. Later, doctors reported it was not a hernia. The
Tigers front office did not communicate to the press leaving the media to
circulate rumors concerning Cobb’s health.
Charles C. Alexander (1) in his
book claimed Cobb suffered from, “some sort of emotional and physical collapse”
but provided no additional information. Ty was on the edge of a nervous
breakdown considering the death of his father and the mental abuse he suffered
from his mates. He was showing signs of instability; his nervous system was
breaking down.
Given his apparent nervous
breakdown, the Tiger media did not report to the public that Ty was sent to a
sanitarium in rural upstate Michigan for a period of rest and relaxation (2) He was given medication and had long
resting periods of sleep, relaxation, and plenty of time to rest his anxious
mind and body. He swam, fished and took long hikes in the nearby forest.
He was not allowed to read
newspapers and the press was forbidden. The sanitarium (3) was located in
Pontiac, Michigan and was leveled in 1972. Reports circulated in the Detroit
Free Press that Cobb was resting at a home in the Northern part of Michigan and
doctors there said he would be released before the end of the season.
Ty returned to the team in early September, his
personality back, his eyes and skin bright thanks to the salubrious air, sun
and rest he had during his period away from the team.
He wound up
the season with a 316 batting average. He never discussed his disappearance
with teammates or the press or in any books he wrote or were written about him.
(4) It was as though the shame of that experience was to difficult for him to
ever discuss.
During the remaining twenty-three years
of his career, he never batted less then 300 and hit over 400 three times. He
was the first player elected into the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York in
1936.
In reading his story, about his
rise, fall and comeback, I related to his experience. Clearly, my story is not
the same, but runs a similar path that I will write about that in the next
chapter.
About the show.
The play takes place in Cobb’s
hotel suite in Atlanta, Georgia on the evening of his death, July
17, 1961. A young reporter from the Atlanta Constitution questions him and
takes notes. The audience is told this fact, though he is never seen.
Cobb reminisces about his life.
Growing up in Georgia, playing baseball as a child, his brief minor league
career and his playing days with the Detroit Tigers (1905-1926) ending with the
Philadelphia Athletics (1927-28). He talks about his post baseball life,
managing the Tigers (1921-26) and his biggest disappointment, never winning a
World Series.
He spins anecdotes about various
players he knew: Babe Ruth, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Shoeless Joe Jackson
and Lefty O’Doul. Also about his friendships with many presidents he knew, how
he became a multi-millionaire, the Educational Foundation he established in Georgia for poor bright, needy
Georgia students. Ty strongly believed young students should have a college
education that he did not have.
(1) America's
stock of athletic young men is depleted during World War II, and a professional
all-female baseball league springs up in the Midwest. Sentimental and light, but still thoroughly charming, A League of Their Own is buoyed
by solid performances from a wonderful cast: Tom Hanks, Geena Davis, Madonna and more.
(2)
Ty Cobb by Charles
Alexander 1984 - page 45
(3)
Peach By Richard
Bak - Ty Cobb – In His Time and Ours – page 41
(4)
Sanitarium in
those days was an establishment for the medical treatment of people who were
convalescing from a chronic illness.
Some
people today refer to it as a “nuthouse”.
(5)
Charles Leerhesen
– Ty Cobb – A terrible Beauty
Cobb quotes: "Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It's no
pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy,
a survival of the fittest."
Quotes about Cobb: "(Ty) Cobb lived off the field as though he wished to live forever. He lived on
the field as though it was his last day." - Branch Rickey, GM, Brooklyn Dodgers
Cobb batting tips: “Don’t grip your bat at the very end; leave
say an inch or two. Also leave about an inch or more between your hands; that gives you balance and control of the bat and also keeps your hands from
interfering with each other during your swing.”
Show Testimonials: “I am glad that I had the
opportunity to assist you in some ways. You have done a great job with your
play and you have always done it with a great deal of passion.” David
Dombrowski, President Baseball Operations Boston Red Sox.
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| Sliding into third |
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| Cobb slides into third - Safe! |
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