Editing Ty Cobb (section)

===Early years===
Three weeks after his mother killed his father, Cobb debuted in [[Center fielder|center field]] for the Detroit Tigers. On August 30, 1905, in his first major league at bat, he doubled off [[Jack Chesbro]] of the [[New York Highlanders]]. Chesbro had won 41 games the previous season. Cobb was 18 years old at the time, the youngest player in the league by almost a year.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leagues/AL/1905-other-leaders.shtml |title=1905 American League Awards, All-Stars, & More Leaders|work= Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=October 8, 2010 }}</ref> Although he hit only .240 in 41 games, he signed a $1,500 contract to play for the Tigers in 1905.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://blogs.lib.msu.edu/red-tape/2017/aug/august-30-1905-ty-cobb-plays-his-first-game-detroit-tiger|title=August 30, 1905 : Ty Cobb Plays His First Game As Detroit Tiger {{!}} MSU Libraries|website=blogs.lib.msu.edu|access-date=January 28, 2020}}</ref>

As a rookie, Cobb was subject to severe hazing by his veteran teammates, who were jealous of the young prospect. The players smashed his homemade bats, nailed his cleats in the clubhouse, doused his clothes before tying knots in them, and verbally abused him.<ref>Russo, p. 17</ref> Cobb later attributed his hostile temperament to this experience: "These old-timers turned me into a snarling wildcat."<ref name=NGECobb>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733 |title=Ty Cobb (1886–1961) |access-date=January 30, 2007 |last=Hill |first=John Paul |date=November 18, 2002 |encyclopedia=[[New Georgia Encyclopedia]] |archive-date=August 5, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805214326/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Tigers manager [[Hughie Jennings]] later acknowledged that Cobb was targeted for abuse by veteran players, some of whom sought to force him off the team. "I let this go for a while because I wanted to satisfy myself that Cobb has as much guts as I thought in the very beginning," Jennings recalled. "Well, he proved it to me, and I told the other players to let him alone. He is going to be a great baseball player and I won't allow him to be driven off this club."<ref name="kashatus72-73">Kashatus (2002), pp. 72–73.</ref>

[[File:Cobbsign.jpg|thumb|Cobb signs a $5,000 contract in 1908 (equivalent to ${{formatnum:{{inflation|US|5,000|1908|r=-1}}}} today) after a holdout]]
The following year, 1906, Cobb became the Tigers' full-time center fielder and hit .316 in 98 games, setting a record for the highest batting average (minimum 310 plate appearances) for a 19-year-old (later bested by [[Mel Ott]]'s .322 average in 124 games for the 1928 [[New York Giants (NL)|New York Giants]]).<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_19_bat.shtml |title=Batting Leaders Before, During and After Age 19 |work=Baseball-Reference.com |access-date=October 8, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110930031332/http://www.baseball-reference.com/leaders/leaders_19_bat.shtml |archive-date=September 30, 2011 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> He never hit below that mark again. After being moved to right field, he led the Tigers to three consecutive [[List of American League pennant winners|American League pennants]] in 1907, 1908 and 1909. Detroit would lose each [[World Series]] (to the Cubs twice and then the Pirates); however, Cobb's [[World Series|postseason]] numbers were far below his career standard. Cobb did not get another opportunity to play on a pennant-winning team.

In 1907, Cobb reached first and then stole second, third and home. He accomplished the feat four times during his career, still an MLB record as of 2022.<ref name=GeorgiaEncyc>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Ty Cobb|encyclopedia=The New Georgia Encyclopedia|url=http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733|access-date=January 25, 2009|archive-date=August 5, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130805214326/http://www.georgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-733|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Ty Cobb – Baseball Legend|publisher=BBC|date=July 22, 2003|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A1118648|access-date=January 25, 2009}}</ref> He finished the 1907 season with a league-leading .350 batting average, 212 hits, 49 steals and 119 [[run batted in|runs batted in]] (RBI).<ref name="BaseballRefCobbCareerStats"/> At age 20, he was the youngest player to win a [[list of Major League Baseball batting champions|batting championship]] and held this record until 1955, when fellow Detroit Tiger [[Al Kaline]] won the batting title while twelve days younger than Cobb had been.<ref name=GeorgiaEncyc/><ref name=BaseballDigest>{{cite web|url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_11_59/ai_66010628 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080803081922/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCI/is_11_59/ai_66010628 |url-status=dead |archive-date=August 3, 2008 |title=Facts and Figures – Baseball batting champions |access-date=January 25, 2009 |publisher=Baseball Digest |date=November 2000 }}</ref> Reflecting on his career in 1930, two years after retiring, he told [[Grantland Rice]], "The biggest thrill I ever got came in a game against the Athletics in 1907 [on September 30]... The Athletics had us beaten, with [[Rube Waddell]] pitching.  They were two runs ahead in the 9th inning, when I happened to hit a home run that tied the score. This game went 17 innings to a tie, and a few days later, we clinched our first pennant. You can understand what it meant for a 20-year-old country boy to hit a home run off the great Rube, in a pennant-winning game with two outs in the ninth."<ref name="baseballspast.com">{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballspast.com/film/cobb.html |title=Film from Baseball's Past |publisher=Baseballspast.com |date=March 19, 1930 |access-date=November 8, 2013}}</ref>

[[File:1909 Ty Cobb Honus Wagner.jpg|thumb|left|170px|Cobb (left) and [[Honus Wagner]] during a World Series game between Detroit and Pittsburgh, 1909]]

Despite great success on the field, Cobb was no stranger to controversy off it. As described in ''[[Smithsonian (magazine)|Smithsonian]]'', "In 1907 during spring training in Augusta, Georgia, a black groundskeeper named Bungy Cummings, whom Cobb had known for years, attempted to shake Cobb's hand or pat him on the shoulder."<ref name="Gilbert"/> The "overly familiar greeting infuriated" Cobb, who attacked Cummings. When Cummings' wife tried to defend him, Cobb allegedly choked her. The assault was only stopped when catcher [[Boss Schmidt|Charles "Boss" Schmidt]] knocked Cobb out.<ref>''When Cobb Met Wagner: The Seven-Game World Series of 1909'' by David Finoli, McFarland, 2010, page 230.</ref> However, aside from Schmidt's statement to the press, no other corroborating witnesses to the assault on Cummings ever came forward and Cummings himself never made a public comment about it. Author Charles Leerhsen speculates that the assault on Cummings and his wife never occurred and that it was a total fabrication by Schmidt. Cobb had spent the previous year defending himself on several occasions from assaults by Schmidt, with Schmidt often coming out of nowhere to blindside Cobb. On that day, several reporters did see Cummings, who appeared to be "partially under the influence of liquor," approach Cobb and shout "Hello, Carrie!" (the meaning of which is unknown) and go in for a hug. Cobb then pushed him away, which was the last interaction that anyone saw between Cobb and Cummings. Shortly thereafter, hearing a fight, several reporters came running and found Cobb and Schmidt wrestling on the ground. When the fight was broken up and Cobb had walked away, Schmidt remained behind and told the reporters that he saw Cobb assaulting Cummings and his wife and had intervened. Leerhsen speculates that this was just another one of Schmidt's assaults on Cobb and that once discovered, Schmidt made up a story that made him sound like he had assaulted Cobb for a noble purpose.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], pp. 151–152.</ref> In 1908, Cobb attacked a black laborer in Detroit who complained when Cobb stepped into freshly poured asphalt; Cobb was found guilty of battery, but the sentence was suspended.<ref name="Gilbert"/>

In September 1907, Cobb began a relationship with [[The Coca-Cola Company]] that lasted the remainder of his life. By the time he died, he held over 20,000 shares of stock and owned [[Bottling company|bottling plants]] in [[Santa Maria, California]], [[Twin Falls, Idaho]], and [[Bend, Oregon]]. He was also a celebrity spokesman for the product.<ref name=HallofFameCoke>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/2002/021218_cobb_ty.htm |title=Ty Cobb Sold Me a Soda Pop: Hall of Fame Outfielder Ty Cobb and Coca-Cola |access-date=January 30, 2007 |last=Holmes |first=Dan |publisher=National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20061206111050/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/2002/021218_cobb_ty.htm |archive-date=December 6, 2006 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> In the offseason between 1907 and 1908, Cobb negotiated with [[Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina]], offering to coach baseball there "for $250 a month, provided that he did not sign with Detroit that season." This did not come to pass, however.<ref>Bryan, Wright, "Clemson: An Informal History of the University 1889–1979," The R. L. Bryan Company, Columbia, South Carolina, 1979, Library of Congress card number 79-56231, {{ISBN|0-934870-01-2}}, page 214.</ref>

The following season, the Tigers finished ahead of the [[Chicago White Sox]] for the pennant. Cobb again won the batting title with a .324 average, but Detroit suffered another loss in the World Series. In August 1908, Cobb married Charlotte ("Charlie") Marion Lombard, the daughter of prominent [[Augusta, Georgia|Augustan]] Roswell Lombard. In the offseason, the couple lived on her father's Augusta estate, ''The Oaks'', until they moved into their own house on Williams Street in November 1913.<ref name=Price1996>{{cite news|url=http://chronicle.augusta.com/history/cobb.html |title=Aggressive play defined Ty Cobb |access-date=February 7, 2007 |last=Price |first=Ed |date=June 21, 1996 |newspaper=[[The Augusta Chronicle]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070209235657/http://chronicle.augusta.com/history/cobb.html |archive-date=February 9, 2007 |url-status=dead  }}</ref>

[[File:Cobb_slide_into_third.jpg|thumb|[[Charles M. Conlon]]'s famous picture of Cobb stealing third base during the 1909 season]]
The Tigers won the AL pennant again in 1909. During that World Series, Cobb's last, he stole home in the second game, igniting a three-run rally, but that was the high point for him, finishing with a lowly .231, as the Tigers lost to Honus Wagner and the powerful Pirates in seven games. Although he performed poorly in the postseason, he won the [[Major League Baseball Triple Crown|Triple Crown]] by hitting .377 with 107 RBI and nine home runs, all [[inside-the-park home run|inside the park]], thus becoming the only player of the modern era to lead his league in home runs in a season without hitting a ball over the fence.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1909a.shtml|title=Year in Review: 1909 American League|access-date=May 28, 2007|publisher=Baseball Almanac}}</ref>

In the same season, [[Charles M. Conlon]] snapped the famous photograph of a grimacing Cobb sliding into third base amid a cloud of dirt, which visually captured the grit and ferocity of his playing style.<ref name=conlon>{{cite web |url=http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/conlon/cobb/photo2.html |title=Ty Cobb |publisher=Times Mirror Co. |year=1998 |access-date=February 25, 2007 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070129000518/http://www.sportingnews.com/archives/conlon/cobb/photo2.html |archive-date=January 29, 2007  }}</ref>