copyWrite by Mark House (2016) and Ty Cobb (1910)
It is not often a novice such as I discovers an opportunity to write a genuine old school baseball article with whom many consider the greatest player to ever live on the face of this sphere we call earth. By random chance of researching a 1910 issue of my hometown newspaper (Lookeba Index) for anything or any name that might be familiar, I just happened upon an original article written by the ole "Georgia Peach" himself Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb.
It is not often a novice such as I discovers an opportunity to write a genuine old school baseball article with whom many consider the greatest player to ever live on the face of this sphere we call earth. By random chance of researching a 1910 issue of my hometown newspaper (Lookeba Index) for anything or any name that might be familiar, I just happened upon an original article written by the ole "Georgia Peach" himself Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb.
Ty Cobb, 1910 Cobb was born in the southern state of Georgia on the 18th day of December back in 1886. His rookie season came about at the age of eighteen in 1905 with the Detroit Tigers. By his personal account of writing in 1910, evidence suggests Cobb had already earned consideration of being the "greatest player" within the game of baseball.
It was quite random to find Cobb's iMage and personal description of the beginning of his baseball career in its original published form. Undoubtedly, my hometown newspaper "proprieter" from this early twentieth century window of time, Mr. George Goodin, must have been a baseball fan himself. I am thrilled we share this commonality and even more thrilled to discover such writings of Ty Cobb that Mr. Goodin chose to share with the readers of his October 6, 1910, edition.
Research indicates some historians believe Cobb's chronicled account of his start in baseball could have been ghostwritten by a professional writer. Either way and anyway, in regard to today, it can be enthusiastically considered quite ghostly and quite interesting information from baseball's historical past.
Mr. Goodin headlined this story with "COBB TELLS OF HIS START." He also included a sub headline that read "One Of Greatest Players Game Has Ever Known Had Hard Time Getting Into Fast Company." From there, the process of typesetting, printing and local distribution of the words recorded by one Tyrus Raymond Cobb was underway.
Utilizing more current and standard net surfing procedures, I have included a few facts (in parenthesis) that I believe will enhance interest and depth as Ty Cobb shares his somewhat brief story of baseball genesis. This while, oddly enough, referencing himself in third person.
"It took me a long time to convince anyone that I was a good ball player. I think the first one who ever thought I was a great player was Cobb himself, and because others refused to believe it he felt bad.
I was born down in Georgia (Narrows) and began playing the game while at school (Franklin County High School of Royston, GA). As I recall it, I always played the same way, took all the chances there were, and ran all the time. Lots of people now think that is good baseball, but the fellows with whom I played refused for a long time to think so. In fact at the finish of the game, our team usually was divided into two factions, with Cobb on one side and all the others on the other. I had ideas regarding how to play the game but none of us ever had seen much baseball, and we had to think it out for ourselves.
One of the big wonders to me is that I was a boy, made plays the same way, and for the same reasons that the star ball players of the big leagues were making, and I never had heard of them. After I got older I commenced to watch the professional team (possibly Atlanta Firemen) in the Southern league play, and although there were a lot of reasons why I shouldn't have left home, I longed to become a professional player. It was not for the money or anything like that, but because I loved the game and loved to be in the midst of it every time there was a game.
Now, it is my advice to all young fellows not to go into baseball or into anything else unless your heart really is in the work and you love it, and then quit it just as soon as your love of it and your enthusiasm for it begin to die out. I left home to show up the league (South Atlantic League), and a few weeks later Jack Grim bought me. The club I was with (Augusta Tourists) sold me to Grim I think for $8.50, the price of the car fare home and my hotel bill. I had been doing the same thing again, and my overzealousness cost me the position. I was slated to go way down into the bushes (minor leagues) and perhaps I would have stayed there and never come out but for the fact that Detroit had some sort of a string to me and Grim could not get me. So I went to Detroit," concluded Cobb.
Author's Note: The iMage of Ty Cobb was included with article published in the October 6, 1910, edition of the Lookeba Index.
It was quite random to find Cobb's iMage and personal description of the beginning of his baseball career in its original published form. Undoubtedly, my hometown newspaper "proprieter" from this early twentieth century window of time, Mr. George Goodin, must have been a baseball fan himself. I am thrilled we share this commonality and even more thrilled to discover such writings of Ty Cobb that Mr. Goodin chose to share with the readers of his October 6, 1910, edition.
Research indicates some historians believe Cobb's chronicled account of his start in baseball could have been ghostwritten by a professional writer. Either way and anyway, in regard to today, it can be enthusiastically considered quite ghostly and quite interesting information from baseball's historical past.
Mr. Goodin headlined this story with "COBB TELLS OF HIS START." He also included a sub headline that read "One Of Greatest Players Game Has Ever Known Had Hard Time Getting Into Fast Company." From there, the process of typesetting, printing and local distribution of the words recorded by one Tyrus Raymond Cobb was underway.
Utilizing more current and standard net surfing procedures, I have included a few facts (in parenthesis) that I believe will enhance interest and depth as Ty Cobb shares his somewhat brief story of baseball genesis. This while, oddly enough, referencing himself in third person.
"It took me a long time to convince anyone that I was a good ball player. I think the first one who ever thought I was a great player was Cobb himself, and because others refused to believe it he felt bad.
I was born down in Georgia (Narrows) and began playing the game while at school (Franklin County High School of Royston, GA). As I recall it, I always played the same way, took all the chances there were, and ran all the time. Lots of people now think that is good baseball, but the fellows with whom I played refused for a long time to think so. In fact at the finish of the game, our team usually was divided into two factions, with Cobb on one side and all the others on the other. I had ideas regarding how to play the game but none of us ever had seen much baseball, and we had to think it out for ourselves.
One of the big wonders to me is that I was a boy, made plays the same way, and for the same reasons that the star ball players of the big leagues were making, and I never had heard of them. After I got older I commenced to watch the professional team (possibly Atlanta Firemen) in the Southern league play, and although there were a lot of reasons why I shouldn't have left home, I longed to become a professional player. It was not for the money or anything like that, but because I loved the game and loved to be in the midst of it every time there was a game.
Now, it is my advice to all young fellows not to go into baseball or into anything else unless your heart really is in the work and you love it, and then quit it just as soon as your love of it and your enthusiasm for it begin to die out. I left home to show up the league (South Atlantic League), and a few weeks later Jack Grim bought me. The club I was with (Augusta Tourists) sold me to Grim I think for $8.50, the price of the car fare home and my hotel bill. I had been doing the same thing again, and my overzealousness cost me the position. I was slated to go way down into the bushes (minor leagues) and perhaps I would have stayed there and never come out but for the fact that Detroit had some sort of a string to me and Grim could not get me. So I went to Detroit," concluded Cobb.
Author's Note: The iMage of Ty Cobb was included with article published in the October 6, 1910, edition of the Lookeba Index.
