Biography Of Tyrus Raymond Cobb

Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born on December 18, 1886 in Banks County, Georgia, near Homer (Cobb, 2002). Cobb was the son of William Howard Cobb and Amanda Cobb (Jacobs, 1994). Tyrus Cobb was named, by his father, after the ancient city of Tyre, whose citizens had stood bravely against the mighty Alexander the Great in the fourth century B.C (Jacobs). Amanda Cobb killed her husband accidently when she was awakened by a frightening noise. The noise turned out to be her husband, which she did not realize until after she reached for a double-barrel shotgun, and fired twice. William Cobb passed away on August 8, 1905. Ty was informed of his father’s bloody death on August 9, 1905 (Jacobs). The death of William Cobb proved to be the most devastating

The others players also locked him out of the team’s bathroom in a hotel, and also threw soggy newspaper at him. He vowed to get even and fought back both on and off the field (Spink, 1947). Cobb decided to announce to his manager that he was leaving the team for a while in early August of the 1908 season. Cobb planned a trip to Georgia to get married. At the age of twenty-one, he traveled to Georgia where he married seventeen year Charlie Marion Lombard (Jacobs, 1994). Cobb and his wife, Charlie had five children: Tyrus Cobb Jr., Herschel Cobb, Shirley Marion Cobb, Beverly Cobb, and Howell Cobb (Jacobs). However, in April of 1913, Charlie began the divorce process. Somehow, Cobb managed to convince Charlie to keep the family together and stay with him. However, their marriage finally ended in divorce in 1947 (Jacobs). The baseball star remarried in 1949, his new wife was forty-four year old Frances Fairburn Cobb. This marriage also ended in divorce in 1956

He used some of his baseball salary to purchase stocks. He bought stock in several companies, one of which was Coca Cola (Jacobs, 1994). Ty became a multi-millionaire between his high baseball salary and profits from stock. He continued purchasing and selling stock after his baseball career ended (Spink, 1947). Cobb also served as captain in the United States Army’s Chemical Warfare Service (Cobb, 2002). His job was to help train soldiers to utilize gas masks in order for them to be prepared in the event of chemical warfare. During one of the training missions, Ty and other soldiers ended up in a locked chamber without gas masks, with gas being released. One of the soldiers died seven years later from tuberculosis (Jacobs, 1994). Ty always felt his death was related to the inhalation of the gas fumes (Jacobs).

Ty Cobb was also known as a very racist individual. He would hit black people with his fists and weapons. He once slashed a black elevator-watchman after he took offense to something the man said to him. During another incident, Ty got into an argument with a black man working in a butcher shop (Will, 1990). Cobb drew his pistol and hit the man’s head repeatedly until he broke his own thumb