Cobb, Ty (Tyrus Raymond Cobb), 1886–1961, American baseball player, b. Narrows, Ga. In 1905 he joined the Detroit Tigers as center fielder and in his 24 years in the American League was one of the most spectacular and brilliant players in the history of the game. The hot-tempered Cobb, called the “Georgia Peach” by his admirers, achieved the best lifetime batting average (.367), made 4,189 major-league hits (now second in baseball history), stole 892 bases, and won 12 batting championships. He was (1921–26) manager of the Detroit team, played (1927–28) with the Philadelphia Athletics, and then retired from baseball. He was the first elected (1936) member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
See his autobiography (1961); biographies by C. C. Alexander (1984), A. Stump (1994), and C. Leerhsen (2015).
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