
Ty Cobb
A Terrible Beauty
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Narrated by:
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Malcolm Hillgartner
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By:
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Charles Leerhsen
Finally - a fascinating and authoritative biography of perhaps the most controversial player in baseball history, Ty Cobb.
Ty Cobb is baseball royalty, maybe even the greatest player who ever lived. His lifetime batting average is still the highest of all time, and when he retired in 1928, after twenty-one years with the Detroit Tigers and two with the Philadelphia Athletics, he held more than ninety records. But the numbers don't tell half of Cobb's tale. The Georgia Peach was by far the most thrilling player of the era: "Ty Cobb could cause more excitement with a base on balls than Babe Ruth could with a grand slam," one columnist wrote. When the Hall of Fame began in 1936, he was the first player voted in.
But Cobb was also one of the game's most controversial characters. He got in a lot of fights, on and off the field, and was often accused of being overly aggressive. In his day, even his supporters acknowledged that he was a fierce and fiery competitor. Because his philosophy was to "create a mental hazard for the other man," he had his enemies, but he was also widely admired. After his death in 1961, however, something strange happened: his reputation morphed into that of a monster - a virulent racist who also hated children and women, and was in turn hated by his peers.
How did this happen? Who is the real Ty Cobb? Setting the record straight, Charles Leerhsen pushed aside the myths, traveled to Georgia and Detroit, and re-traced Cobb's journey, from the shy son of a professor and state senator who was progressive on race for his time, to America's first true sports celebrity. In the process, he tells of a life overflowing with incident and a man who cut his own path through his times - a man we thought we knew but really didn't.
©2015 Charles Leerhsen (P)2015 Brilliance Audio, all rights reserved.Listeners also enjoyed...




















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Loved the book and Ty.
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Hillgartner's narration is also outstanding, using accents judiciously (including a Georgia drawl for Cobb) and pronouncing all of the names right—something that is all too rare in sports biographies.
A great read for fans of old-time baseball.
First-rate biography, well narrated
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maybe the best sports book I've ever read.
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Would you consider the audio edition of Ty Cobb to be better than the print version?
I listened to audio. Would like to see the print version assuming it contains photos. I did not purchase the print version.What other book might you compare Ty Cobb to and why?
I don't really have a specific book for comparison. I read a Cobb biography when I was a kid, but I don't remember the title or the author.What about Malcolm Hillgartner’s performance did you like?
Hillgartner's performance is easy on the ears. He seemed able to emulate the dialect one would expect of Cobb and others.Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
Very much so. I completed the book mostly over the course of two weekends. I listened for long stretches at a time as the content kept me entertained and interested.Any additional comments?
Leehrsen does Ty Cobb a great service. He deftly rights the wrongs claimed of Cobb that were manufactured by Al Stump and which have persisted for over 50 years. Ever heard the story about Ty Cobb having a pistol and stock certificates by his side on his death bed? Symbols of his ferocity and success? Yeah, I did too. I've believed that for years. Isn't true. Leehrsen definitively discredits this and many other falsehoods you've heard about Cobb.I became interested in Cobb when I was in elementary school living in Georgia, the same state from which Cobb was born in raised. Since then, I understood Cobb to be the fiercest of competitors on the diamond and a terrible person off of it. Leehrsen has confirmed the former and dispelled that latter. The author makes effective use of primary source material and first and second hand accounts to correct the record as to who the man Ty Cobb really was. In doing so, he takes you back in time - - where you can almost see Ty Cobb terrorizing the base paths of the American League. Something that today, one only can dream about as there is no footage of Cobb stealing a base that you can simply look up on YouTube.
Leehrsen eviscerates the myth of Cobb generated by an opportunistic Stump. One cannot come away from a reading/listening of Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty without a new found understanding and appreciation for the man and competitor who was Ty Cobb. I highly recommend this title.
Setting the record straight
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Fantastic book that digs deeper for the truth!
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Beautiful..
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fantastic and well researched
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Let's set the record straight!!
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The one first-rate, fact-based bio of Cobb
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Bravo!
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