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Summary: What Charles Alexander said on Al Stump's later Cobb works.
Review: "For those who preferred to remember Cobb's good qualities and let his faults be buried with his physical remains, Stump's article was at best an exercise in poor taste, and at worst a severe injustice to a man who had done much for his hometown and substantial good otherwise. (Stump mislead readers in implying that he had been Cobb's companion nearly all the time, when in fact he had seen him only a few times during that "wild" ten-month period.")...Stump...made no efforts to check facts. Thus the book included a number of mistaken dates, places, people, and situations...Unable to do much sustained work with Cobb, Stump relied considerably on a seven-part biographical sketch published in 1950 in the Sporting News by H.G. Salsinger, longtime Detroit Baseball writer and one of Cobb's few real freinds, as well as Cobb's 1952 Life articles and a book put together three years later by Cobb and John D. McCallum, combining reminiscences with tips on how to play the game."
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Summary: "Baseball is a red blooded sport for red blooded men." Cobb
Review: "Pink Teas and molleycoddles had best stay out." So says the the best baseball player EVER to play the game. From the blistering red clay of Georgia to the glory that was Tiger Stadium, to the cold moors of Scotland, Ty Cobb tells the story of his life and times. Is it the truth? Al Stump, who cowrote the book, would say no. Ty Cobb would say yes. In the end it doesn't really matter. I'm sure that Cobb was the man somewhere in between. You can argue and debate whether he was a good man or a bad one, but there is no debating that he played the game like it was meant to be played. A competitor the likes of which we have never seen and will likely never see again. This book is a must read simply because of the picture it paints of a man struggling to survive away from home, in a hostile place, surrounded by hostile men, but ever fighting on. "Baseball is a struggle for survival." Ty Cobb
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Summary: Despite Stumps' Revision, This Is One of the Great Basball Books
Review: I bought this book through the Sport (Magazine) Book Club inabout 1962 when I was twelve and learned more about how to playbasball from it than from any other source. You don't have to be a driven old man with a lot of ugly qualities to recognize this book for what it is: magnificent lessons in the art and science of baseball. Ty Cobb succeeded at baseball, he succeeded at making money, and he may have been a failure in many ways as a human being, BUT this book is a fitting remembrance of his approach to baseball.
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Summary: A LOOK AT A LEGEND
Review: Cobb is the 1st man into the hall of fame
you need to read this
No one ever loved playing baseball more than the Peach
love him or hate him
this is a must read for any TRUE baseball fan
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Summary: My Life in Baseball, the greatest baseball autobio ever.
Review: I decided to start reading as many baseball autobiographies as I could. In the book store I stumbled upon this book, hearing so much about it before. I got it right away even though it was a first edition and read it. While many think of Cobb as a horrible bigot, he did have some good excuses for his actions. Everyone is supposed to fluff up their lives when writing and Cobb did just that. However I thought that it was very informative and it gave a real slice of life from baseball when he was playing. He gives his opinions on players and gives tips on what "young men" should do to make the big leagues. I loved the book and it gave me quite a good idea of what the players might have actually been like. So...GO COBB!!!
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Summary: One big story, with a million entertaining substories.
Review: I really enjoyed reading this book. It was the first book about Cobb that I had ever read; before that, he was just a name and statistics to me. The overarcing story of this book is Ty Cobb's career in baseball, with a little bit about his life before and a few flashes into his life after. Now, it would be easy to sum up a career in baseball with several numbers, a few game highlights, etc. But that is not what you'll find in this book. What you'll find is a ton of short, 5-10 paragraph interludes about almost every big name in baseball from the 1905-1928 period... and even big names elsewhere. Ty Cobb was fortunate enough to have interacted with everyone from actors to presidents to business executives, and he has humorous angles on each of them. I actually laughed out loud several times while reading this book at the way he portrayed various people. In a lot of ways, reading this book is almost like listening to your grandfather tell stories of his adventures and his friends in his youth. Except it's not your grandfather, it's Ty Cobb, telling stories of the Golden Age of Baseball, and his friends were legends like Walter Johnson, Christy Mathewson, Connie Mack, Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance, Nap Lajoie, and others who may also simply be names in the Hall of Fame to you. Cobb's stories bring life to long-dead names, color to old black-and-white photos. Most of us have only heard legends of those early parks, players, pennants, pitches, pundits. Cobb was there. And through reading his story, it almost feels like you were there, too. While I've read other reviews that say this book hides the Dark Side of Ty Cobb, I don't think that is entirely true. He definitely talks about some ways he treated people, such as Shoeless Joe Jackson, that makes you realize that at his core he was a man who would stop at nothing to win. It doesn't matter if you like Ty Cobb or hate Ty Cobb. If you want to hear some great baseball stories, read this book.
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Summary: Does he tell the truth?
Review: I think that this book was very well-written. Cobb seems like a smart man who was ahead of his time when it came to baseball. He comes across as a very bitter guy though... of course Ty was in his 70s at the time and oldtimer athletes always seem that way. Complaining about how the game has changed to be horrible and such. Its always cool to get an insider look at pro sports and athletes tho , and while i feel he didn't always tell the whole truth, I think it was a good book overall. Especially if you are a baseball history dork like me. i give it 4 out of 5.
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Summary: If ya like Ty, you'll like his book
Review: I was born in 1951 & read Cobb's autobio around 1961. My 1st baseball biography. I like it now as much as then. It's considered "in" today to cut it & Cobb up & call it "self-serving". Well, I've read hundreds of "autobio's" since & never come across one that isn't self-serving. Isn't that the point of writing your story? I find Cobb's book no more dishonest than any other. It's true value is to get you to think as a ballplayer & offer a window into his times, how they played the game. Whether or not you like his book depends on if you like him. And I do. I think he's the greatest player ever by a long shot. So did all the players from his & Ruth's time. Ruth ONLY wins the nod among those who never saw either one play. Although Ty was emotionally unbalanced, wrapped way too tight & was wired to go off at most anything, he also was the most honest guy, and also generous. He helped dozens of guys on other teams improve their hitting & play. I highly recommend Ty's book & also Stump's later Cobb bio. Together they're something else!!
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Summary: Passionate and excellent.
Review: Of all the books that are out there about Ty Cobb, this one rings the truest. Although ghostwritten by Al Stump (author of "Cobb"), it is written from audio recordings, interviews, and time spent with Cobb while he talked about his fellow players and his life. Its content and wording are glossed over by Stump, but the basic Cobb still comes through. If you want to get a feel for the man, read his book and get it straight from the horse's mouth.
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Summary: Cobb! The greatest who ever lived.
Review: Ty Cobb truly is the greatest baseball player who ever lived. This book talks about his life, and pretty much skips over the childhood parts. I enjoyed that, because I was looking for a great baseball read. This is the second best baseball book I have read, next to Satchel Paige: Maybe I'll Pitch Forever. Cobb shows his sense of humor, like calling Babe Ruth an egg with stilts. This book shows nothing about him being a monster like other biographies have stated. You may say, "Well, he's lying or something." But I don't think he is. For one thing, if he was really a monster and didn't care about other people like other books said, why would he all of a sudden care? Also, why would the other biographies come out once Ty Cobb has already died. It also teaches about baseball, like how to play. I play baseball, and am not very good. I read this book, and my batting average has jumped up to .346. Ty Cobb truly is the greatest to ever where spikes, regardless of wheater or not he used those violently. I don't see how you can argue with a .367 average, and bat .300 or more 23 years in a row. I highly suggest this book to anyone who likes baseball, it is a very good book and enjoyable to read.
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