Details the life of the legendary, record-holding baseball player, who retired in 1928 and became the first inductee into the Hall of Fame, but who has also been categorized as a belligerent, aggressive player and a racist who hated women and children.

The grandson of the legendary baseball player reveals another side of “a fascinating, severely flawed sports icon” (Booklist). Ty Cobb’s grandson Herschel saw a side of him that very few others did. While baseball fans were familiar with Cobb’s infamously cold, competitive nature—and his relationship with his own children was deeply difficult—Cobb, in his later years, embraced the opportunity to form a loving bond with his grandchildren during their summertime visits. In this moving memoir, Herschel Cobb reveals how his grandfather, after the devastating loss of two sons, shared his gentler side with Herschel and his siblings. Herschel’s own parents, a cruel, abusive father and an adulterous, alcoholic mother, filled his childhood with turmoil. But “Granddaddy” offered the stability, love, and guidance that Herschel desperately needed. “Elegantly written and genuinely moving,” this story of their relationship presents a unique perspective on this larger-than-life man (Publishers Weekly). “An unforgettable story . . . that will alter how you feel about baseball’s most demonized star.” —Tom Stanton, author of Ty and the Babe

Cobb personally wrote the story of his life for a newspaper syndicate after his 20 record-setting years in baseball. This illustrated edition is the first commercial publication of his words in book form.

"Highly successful in knitting together this story of the life of a most remarkable and dedicated player--perhaps the most spirited baseball player ever to have graced the diamond."--Library Journal. "I find little comfort in the popular picture of Cobb as a spike-slashing demon of the diamond with a wide streak of cruelty in his nature. The fights and feuds I was in have been steadily slanted to put me in the wrong. . . . My critics have had their innings. I will have mine now."--Ty Cobb "Frank, bitter, trend-setting autobiography."--USA Today Baseball Weekly "One of the most remarkable sports books ever written."--Los Angeles Daily News "The old Tiger still spits and snarls off the pages."--Cooperstown Review "Of Ty Cobb let it be said simply that he was the world's greatest ballplayer."--New York Herald Tribune (1961 editorial on Cobb's death) This Bison Book edition of My Life in Baseball is introduced by Charles C. Alexander, a professor of history at Ohio University, Athens, and the author of a biogrpahy of Ty Cobb.

A New York Times Notable Book; Spitball Award for Best Baseball Book of 1994; Basis for a major Hollywood motion picture. Now in paperback, the biography that baseball fans all across the country have been talking about. Al Stump redefined America's perception of one of its most famous sports heroes with this gripping look at a man who walked the line between greatness and psychosis. Based on Stump's interviews with Ty Cobb while ghostwriting the Hall-of-Famer's 1961 autobiography, this award-winning new account of Cobb's life and times reveals both the darkness and the brilliance of the "Georgia Peach." "The most powerful baseball biography I have read."--Roger Kahn, author of THE BOYS OF SUMMER