Birthday Tribute to Ty Cobb: His Great Season of 1911

Baseball History Comes Alive Now Ranked #2 by Feedspot Among All Internet Baseball History Websites and Blogs!

Guest Submissions from Our Readers Always Welcome!

Click here for details

Ty Cobb Photo Gallery
Click on any image below to see photos in full size and to start Photo Gallery:

: Classic Cobb slide into Jimmy Austin by Charles Conlon

: Cobb comes into home, spikes high!

: Cobb’s controversial slide inot Frank “Home Run’ Baker

: Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson

: Ty Cobb and John McGraw

: Ty Cobb meets the new commissioner, March 12, 1920

: Christy Mathewson and Ty Cobb

: Classic Conlon photo of Ty Cobb sliding hard into Frank Baker at third

: Joe and Ty Cobb

: Ty Cobb at West Side Grounds, during the 1908 World Series

: Stand Musial and Ty Cobb —

: Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker

: Babe Ruth with George Sisler and Ty Cobb at the 1924 World Series

: Ty Cobb early in his career

: Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb, early in their careers

: Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker on the dugout steps.

: Cy Young, Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper and Ty Cobb pose together prior to Old Timer’s Day on September 28, 1947

: Ty Cobb and Tris Speaker as members of the Athletics

: Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker

: Hall of Fame in Cooperstown in 1959: Home Run’ Baker, Ty Cobb, Zack Wheat, Frankie Frisch, Joe McCarthy, George Sisler, Pie Traynor.

: Ty Cobb with wife and baby

: Ty Cobb Day, May 10, 1924 at Navin Field

: Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth

: Ty Cobb with one of his hunting dogs.

: Babe and Ty Cobb from one of their golf matches

: Ty Cobb with family

: Ty Cobb slides into third in the Dead Ball Era

: Ty Cobb on the left with Babe Ruth, Tris Speaker on right.

: Great Cobb colorization by Graig Kriendler

: Ty Cobb and Joe Jackson

: Four stars: Lou Gehrig, Tris Speaker, Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth (Colorization by Don Stokes)

: Duffy Lewis, Fred Haney, George McBride, Ty Cobb

: Cy Young, Duffy Lewis, Tris Speaker, Harry Hooper, Ty Cobb

Birthday Tribute to Ty Cobb: His Great Season of 1911

Baseball’s most controversial figure, Ty Cobb, was born 130 years ago today, on December 18, 1886. To recognize the occasion, here’s a repost of a short essay I wrote a while back on his great season, 1911:

“I often tried plays that looked recklessly daring, maybe even silly. But I never tried anything foolish when a game was at stake, only when we were far ahead or far behind. I did it to study how the other team reacted, filing away in my mind any observations for future use.”
—Ty Cobb in The New York Times

Ty Cobb had one of the greatest years in baseball history in 1911. He led the American League in most offensive categories, including average (.420), hits (248), runs (147) RBIs (127), stolen bases (83), doubles (47), triples (24), total bases (367), slugging (.621), on-base percentage (.467), and OPS (1.088). In addition, he had a 40-game hitting streak. Cobb hit eight home runs but finished second in that category to Frank Baker’s eleven. He was awarded a second Chalmers car by the Baseball Writers Association of America for being voted the American League MVP.

In the featured photo below, we see the classic Cobb slide into Frank “Home Run” Baker. Be sure to click on the photo to see a much larger version.

“Shoeless” Joe Jackson led him by .009 points in the batting race late in the season. Near the end of the year, Cobb’s Tigers had a long series against Jackson’s Cleveland Naps. As fellow Southerners, Cobb and Jackson were personally friendly on and off the field. The competitive Cobb used that friendship to his advantage. He ignored Jackson when Joe tried to speak to him. When he persisted, Cobb snapped angrily back at him, making him wonder what he could have done to enrage Cobb. The always-scheming Georgia Peach felt that it was these “mind games” that caused Jackson to “fall off” to a final average of .408, twelve points lower than Cobb’s .420. Cobb’s average was a twentieth century record which stood until Rogers Hornsby surpassed it with .424.

Cobb is widely credited with setting 90 MLB records during his career. He still holds several records as of the end of the 2016 season, including the highest career batting average (.366), and most career batting titles (12). He retained many other records for almost a half century or more, including most career hits until 1985 (4,189); most career runs (2,244) until 2001; most career games played (3,035) and at-bats (11,434) until 1974; and the modern record for most career stolen bases (892) until 1977.**

Cobb still holds the career record for stealing home (54), and was the youngest player to compile 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs. Cobb ranks fifth all-time in games played. He committed 271 errors, the most by any American League outfielder.

**All Cobb statistics taken from Baseball Reference. Some of these career numbers are in dispute.

-Gary Livacari

Photo Credits: All from Public Domain
Information: Excerpts edited from the Ty Cobb Wikipedia page

Subscribe to my blog for automatic updates and Free Bonus Reports: “Memorable World Series Moments” and “Gary’s Handy Dandy World Series Reference Guide.”

1 Comment

Andy Castellanos · December 19, 2016 Reply

Gary: Great article, Ty Cobb was the greatest baseball player, from the start of the dead-ball era to the power hitting days of Babe Ruth up to 1919, over 4,000 hits is just remarkable. May the “Georgia Peach Live Forever”