Editing Ty Cobb (section)

==Post-playing career==
[[File:Ty Cobb HOF plaque.jpg|thumb|upright|right|Cobb's plaque in the [[Baseball Hall of Fame]]]]

Cobb retired a wealthy and successful man.<ref name=Time1937>{{cite magazine |date=May 10, 1937 |title=Champion |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757792,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930231051/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,757792,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> He toured Europe with his family, went to [[Scotland]] for some time and then returned to his farm in [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]].<ref name=Time1937/> He spent his retirement pursuing his off-season avocations of hunting, golfing, polo, and fishing.<ref name=Time1937/> His other pastime was trading stocks and [[bond (finance)|bonds]], increasing his immense personal wealth.<ref name=TyCobbMuseumPhilanthropy>{{cite web | url=http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/philanthropy.shtml.htm | title=Cobb's philanthropy | publisher=The Ty Cobb Museum | access-date=February 10, 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070516162007/http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/philanthropy.shtml.htm | archive-date=May 16, 2007 | df=mdy-all }}</ref> He was a major stockholder in the [[Coca-Cola Corporation]], which by itself would have made him wealthy.

In the winter of 1930, Cobb moved into a Spanish ranch estate on Spencer Lane in the affluent town of [[Atherton, California|Atherton]] located south of [[San Francisco, California]], on the [[San Francisco Peninsula]]. At the same time, his wife Charlie filed the first of several divorce suits<ref name=Time04271931>{{cite magazine |date=April 27, 1931 |title=Milestones |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741506-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018010325/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741506-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=October 18, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> but withdrew the suit shortly thereafter.<ref name=Time05111931>{{cite magazine |date=May 11, 1931 |title=Milestones |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741673-1,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930041649/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,741673-1,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> The couple eventually divorced in 1947<ref name=Time063019347>{{cite magazine |date=June 30, 1947 |title=Milestones |magazine=Time |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854767,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930063754/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,854767,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=September 30, 2007 |access-date=February 27, 2007 }}</ref> after 39 years of marriage, the last few years of which Cobb's wife lived in nearby [[Menlo Park, California|Menlo Park]]. The couple had three sons and two daughters: Tyrus Raymond Jr, Shirley Marion, Herschel Roswell, James Howell, and Beverly.<ref name="NYTWoolf"/><ref name=Price1996/><ref name=CobbIMDB>{{cite web | url=https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0167821/bio |title= Biography for Ty Cobb |access-date=February 10, 2007 |publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]]}}</ref>

Cobb's children found him to be demanding, yet also capable of kindness and extreme warmth. He expected his sons to be exceptional athletes in general and baseball players in particular. Tyrus Raymond, Jr. flunked out of [[Princeton University|Princeton]]<ref name=NYTIMES12021994>{{cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/12/02/movies/film-review-a-hero-who-was-a-heel-or-what-price-glory.html |title=FILM REVIEW; A Hero Who Was a Heel, Or, What Price Glory? |access-date=September 29, 2019|newspaper=The New York Times |last=Maslin |first=Janet |date=December 2, 1994 }}</ref> (where he had played on the varsity tennis team), much to his father's dismay.<ref name=KossuthCobbHangsemup>{{cite web |last=Kossuth |first=James | url=http://wso.williams.edu/~jkossuth/cobb/race.htm |title=Cobb Hangs 'em Up ...eventually |access-date=February 6, 2007}}</ref> The elder Cobb traveled to the Princeton campus and beat his son with a [[whip]] to ensure against future academic failure. Tyrus Raymond, Jr. then entered [[Yale University]] and became captain of the tennis team while improving his academics, but was then arrested twice in 1930 for drunkenness and left Yale without graduating. Cobb helped his son deal with his pending legal problems, but then permanently broke off with him. Even though Tyrus Raymond, Jr. finally reformed and eventually earned an [[Doctor of Medicine|M.D.]] from the [[Medical College of South Carolina]] and practiced [[obstetrics]] and [[gynecology]] in [[Dublin, Georgia]], until his death at 42 on September 9, 1952, from a [[brain tumor]], his father remained distant.<ref name=NYTJrObit>{{cite news |title=Ty Cobb's Son Dies at 42 |newspaper=The New York Times|page=29 |date=September 10, 1952 }}</ref>

In February 1936, when the first [[Baseball Hall of Fame]] election results were announced, Cobb had been named on 222 of 226 ballots, outdistancing [[Babe Ruth]], [[Honus Wagner]], [[Christy Mathewson]], and [[Walter Johnson]], the only others to earn the necessary 75% of votes to be elected that first year.<ref name=HallofFameVote1936>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1936 |title=Hall of Fame Voting: Baseball Writers Elections 1936 |access-date=October 26, 2007 |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829205105/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/hofers/voting_year.jsp?year=1936 |archive-date=August 29, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> His 98.2% stood as the record until [[Tom Seaver]] received 98.8% of the vote in 1992. Those results show that although many people disliked him personally, they respected the way he had played and what he had accomplished. In 1998, ''[[Sporting News]]'' ranked him as third on the list of 100 Greatest Baseball Players.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/legendary/lisn100.shtml|title=100 Greatest Baseball Players|publisher=Baseball Almanac|access-date=March 22, 2012}}</ref>

Of major league stars of the 1940s and 1950s, Cobb had positive things to say about [[Stan Musial]], [[Phil Rizzuto]], and [[Jackie Robinson]], but few others.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://wso.williams.edu/~jkossuth/cobb/retirement.htm |title=Cobb Hangs 'em Up |access-date=April 18, 2008 |last=Kossuth |first=James }}</ref>  Even so, he was known to help out young players. He was instrumental in helping [[Joe DiMaggio]] negotiate his rookie contract with the [[New York Yankees]].

According to sportswriter [[Grantland Rice]], he and Cobb were returning from the [[Masters Tournament|Masters]] golf tournament in the late 1940s and stopped at a [[Greenville, South Carolina]], liquor store. Cobb noticed that the man behind the counter was [[Shoeless Joe Jackson|"Shoeless" Joe Jackson]], who had been banned from baseball almost 30 years earlier following the [[Black Sox scandal]]. Jackson did not appear to recognize him, and after making his purchase an incredulous Cobb asked, "Don't you know me, Joe?" "Sure, I know you, Ty" replied Jackson, "but I wasn't sure you wanted to know me. A lot of them don't."<ref name=Frommer>
{{cite book |last=Frommer |first=Harvey |page=1|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B_FXGNCmieAC&q=I+know+you|access-date=March 26, 2016|year=1992|publisher=University of Nevada Press|title=Shoeless Joe and Ragtime Baseball |isbn=9780803218628 }}</ref><!-- Leaving other flags in this ref in case anyone with access to this book can provide info -->

Cobb was mentioned in the poem "[[Line-Up for Yesterday]]" by [[Ogden Nash]]:

{{quote box |width= 18em |border= 4px |align= center |bgcolor= #FAF0E6 |qalign= center | title=''Line-Up for Yesterday''|quote=C is for Cobb,<br/>Who grew spikes and not corn,<br/>And made all the basemen<br/>Wish they weren't born.
|source= —[[Ogden Nash]], [[Sport (US magazine)|''Sport'' magazine]] (January 1949)<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/poetry/po_line.shtml |title=Line-Up For Yesterday|last=Nash|first=Odgen|work= Baseball Almanac |access-date=October 8, 2010 }}</ref> }}

===Later life===
[[File:Ty Cobb 1951 (1).jpg|thumb|Cobb in 1951]]
In 1949, at the age of 62, Cobb married a second time, to 40-year-old Frances Fairbairn Cass, a [[divorcée]] from [[Buffalo, New York]].<ref name=TimeCobb>{{cite magazine | date=September 26, 1949 | url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800761-1,00.html | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071018010340/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,800761-1,00.html | url-status=dead | archive-date=October 18, 2007 |title=The Old Gang |magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=February 10, 2007}}</ref> Their childless marriage ending with a divorce in 1956.<ref name=Time05211956>{{cite magazine | date=May 21, 1956 |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808526,00.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061205135053/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,808526,00.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 5, 2006 |title=Milestones|magazine= [[Time (magazine)|Time]]|access-date=February 10, 2007}}</ref> At this time, Cobb became generous with his wealth, donating $100,000 in his parents' name for his hometown to build a modern 24-bed hospital, [[Cobb Memorial Hospital]], which is now part of the [[Ty Cobb Healthcare System]]. He also established the Cobb Educational Fund, which awarded scholarships to needy Georgia students bound for college, by endowing it with a $100,000 donation in 1953 (equivalent to approximately ${{formatnum:{{Inflation|US|100000|1953|r=0}}}} in current year dollars {{inflation-fn|US}}).<ref name=TyCobbMuseumPhilanthropy/>

Cobb knew that another way he could share his wealth was by having biographies written that would both set the record straight on him and teach young players how to play.{{clarify|reason=How's he sharing his wealth by having biographies written? If it's immaterial wealth (of knowledge), this should be phrased differently. Also, a statement about how Cobb "knew" anything shouldn't be unsourced.|date=December 2023}} [[John McCallum (author)|John McCallum]] spent some time with Cobb to write a combination how-to and biography titled ''The Tiger Wore Spikes: An Informal Biography of Ty Cobb'' that was published in 1956.<ref name=TigerWoreSpikes>{{cite book |first=John |last=McCallum |author-link= John McCallum (author)|title=The Tiger Wore Spikes: An Informal Biography of Ty Cobb |pages=240 pages |publisher=A. S. Barnes |location=New York |year=1956 }}</ref><ref name=BaseballWithBrains>{{cite news |first=Arthur |last=Daley |title=Baseball with Brains|page=231|newspaper=The New York Times Book Review |date=June 17, 1956 }}</ref> In December 1959, he was diagnosed with [[prostate cancer]], [[diabetes mellitus|diabetes]], [[hypertension|high blood pressure]], and [[Bright's disease]].<ref name=NGECobb/><ref name=TyCobbMuseumDYK>{{cite web | url=http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/didyouknow.shtml.htm | title=Did You Know? | publisher=The Ty Cobb Museum | access-date=February 26, 2007 | url-status=dead | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061230070900/http://www.tycobbmuseum.org/didyouknow.shtml.htm | archive-date=December 30, 2006 | df=mdy-all }}</ref>

It was also during his final years that Cobb began work on his autobiography, ''My Life in Baseball: The True Record'', with writer [[Al Stump]]. Cobb retained editorial control over the book and the published version presented him in a positive light. Stump said that the collaboration was contentious, and after Cobb's death Stump published two more books and a short story giving what he said was the "true story." One of these later books was used as the basis for the 1994 film ''[[Cobb (film)|Cobb]]'' (a box office flop starring [[Tommy Lee Jones]] as Cobb and directed by [[Ron Shelton]]). In 2010, an article by William R. "Ron" Cobb (no relation) in the peer-reviewed ''The National Pastime'' (the official publication of the [[Society for American Baseball Research]]) accused Stump of extensive forgeries of Cobb-related documents and diaries. The article further accused Stump of numerous false statements about Cobb in his last years, most of which were sensationalistic in nature and intended to cast Cobb in an unflattering light.<ref name="Gilbert"/>

===Death===
In his last days, Cobb spent some time with the old movie comedian [[Joe E. Brown]], talking about the choices he had made in his life. According to Brown, Cobb said he felt that he had made mistakes and that he would do things differently if he could. He had played hard and lived hard all his life, had no friends to show for it at the end, and regretted it. Publicly, however, he claimed to have no regrets: "I've been lucky. I have no right to be regretful of what I did."<ref name=NewsweekJuly1961>{{cite journal |date=July 31, 1961 |title= How to Dominate the Diamond|journal=[[Newsweek]] |volume=LVIII |page=54  }}</ref>

He was taken to [[Emory University Hospital]] for the last time in June 1961 after falling into a diabetic coma.<ref>{{cite magazine |last1=Montville |first1=Leigh |title=The Last Remains of a Legend |magazine=Sports Illustrated |url=https://vault.si.com/vault/1992/10/27/the-last-remains-of-a-legend-ty-cobb-baseballs-eccentric-genius-died-in-rural-georgia-more-than-30-years-ago-very-wealthy-and-virtually-alone-the-author-recently-paid-him-a-visit |language=en-us |date=October 27, 1992}}</ref>  His first wife Charlie, his son Jimmy, and other family members came to be with him for his final days. He died there on July 17, 1961, at age 74.<ref name=NGECobb/><ref>[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 22.</ref>

{{quote box|width=25%|align=left|quote=...the most sensational player of all the players I have seen in all my life...|source=—[[Casey Stengel]], ''[[The New York Times]]'', July 18, 1961<ref name=NYT07181961>{{cite news |title=Cobb, Hailed as Greatest Player in History, Mourned by Baseball World: Passing of Area is Noted by Frick|newspaper=The New York Times|page=21 (Food Fashions Family Furnishings section) |date=July 18, 1961 }}</ref> regarding Ty Cobb shortly after Cobb's death}}

Approximately 150 friends and relatives attended a brief service in [[Cornelia, Georgia]], and drove to the Cobb family [[mausoleum]] in Royston for the burial. Cobb's family kept the event private, not trusting the media to report accurately on it.<ref name="Russo 21"/> Baseball's only representatives at his funeral were three old-time players, [[Ray Schalk]], [[Mickey Cochrane]], and [[Nap Rucker]], and Sid Keener, the director of the Baseball Hall of Fame, but messages of condolence numbered in the hundreds and included notes from [[Joe DiMaggio]] and [[Ted Williams]].<ref>{{cite book|title=Ty Cobb|author=Alexander, C.|page=235|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t47E6tEKCKIC&q=ty+cobb+funeral+cochrane+schalk&pg=PA235|year=1985|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=0-19-503598-4}}</ref><ref name=NYTFuneral>{{cite news |title=Funeral Service Held for Ty Cobb|newspaper=The New York Times|page=20 |date=July 20, 1961 }}</ref><ref name="Russo 21">[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 21.</ref> Family in attendance included Cobb's former wife Charlie, his two daughters, his surviving son Jimmy, his two sons-in-law, his daughter-in-law Mary Dunn Cobb and her two children.

At the time of his death, Cobb's estate was reported to be worth at least $11.78 million (equivalent to ${{formatprice|{{Inflation|US|11780000|1961|r=4}}}} today){{Inflation-fn|US}}, including $10 million worth of [[General Motors]] stock and $1.78 million in [[The Coca-Cola Company]] stock.<ref name=NYT09031951>{{cite news |title=Cobb Said to Have Left At Least $11,780,000|newspaper=The New York Times|page=S3 (Sports section) |date=September 3, 1951 }}</ref>  His [[Will and testament|will]] left a quarter of his estate to the Cobb Educational Fund, and distributed the rest among his children and grandchildren. Cobb is interred in the Rose Hill Cemetery in [[Royston, Georgia]]. As of April 2021, the Ty Cobb Educational Foundation has distributed $19.2 million in college [[scholarship]]s to needy college bound Georgia students.<ref name=TyCobbEdFound>{{cite web | url=http://www.tycobbfoundation.com |title=Ty Cobb Educational Foundation |access-date=January 30, 2007}}</ref>