Editing Ty Cobb (section)

===1911–1914===
[[File:Cobb jackson.jpg|upright|thumb|right|Cobb and [[Joe Jackson (baseball player)|"Shoeless" Joe Jackson]] in Cleveland]]
{{further|1912 suspension of Ty Cobb}}
Cobb regarded baseball as "something like a war," future Tiger second baseman [[Charlie Gehringer]] said. "Every time at bat for him was a crusade."<ref>{{cite book|last=Honig|first=Donald|title=Baseball When the Grass Was Real|publisher=[[University of Nebraska Press]]|year=1975|page=42|isbn=0-8032-7267-7}}</ref> Baseball historian [[John Thorn]] said in the book ''Legends of the Fall'', "He is testament to how far you can get simply through will. ... Cobb was pursued by demons."

Cobb was having a tremendous year in 1911, which included a 40-game [[hitting streak]]. Still, [[Shoeless Joe Jackson|"Shoeless" Joe Jackson]] led him by .009 points in the batting race late in the season. Near the end of the season, Cobb's Tigers had a long series against Jackson's [[Cleveland Naps]]. Fellow Southerners Cobb and Jackson were personally friendly both on and off the field.<ref name="Russo 20">[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 20.</ref> Cobb used that friendship to his advantage. Cobb ignored Jackson when Jackson tried to say anything to him. When Jackson persisted, Cobb snapped angrily back at him, making him wonder what he could have done to enrage Cobb. Cobb felt that it was these mind games that caused Jackson to "fall off" to a final average of .408, twelve points lower than Cobb's .420, a 20th-century record which stood until [[George Sisler]] tied it and [[Rogers Hornsby]] surpassed it with .424, the record since then (until 2024) except for Hugh Duffy's .438 in the 19th century.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb />

{{quote box|width=30%|align=left|quote=I often tried plays that looked recklessly daring, maybe even silly. But I never tried anything foolish when a game was at stake, only when we were far ahead or far behind. I did it to study how the other team reacted, filing away in my mind any observations for future use.|source=—Ty Cobb in ''[[The New York Times]]''<ref name=NYTDaleyTribute>{{cite news |first=Arthur |last=Daley |author-link=Arthur Daley (sportswriter) |title=Sports of The Times: In Belated Tribute |page=32 (food fashions family furnishings section)|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|date=August 15, 1961 }}</ref>}}

Cobb led the AL that year in numerous other categories, including 248 hits, 147 runs scored, 127 RBI, 83 stolen bases, 47 doubles, 24 triples and a .621 [[slugging percentage]]. Cobb hit eight home runs but finished second in that category to [[Home Run Baker|Frank Baker]], who hit eleven. He was awarded another Chalmers car, this time for being voted the AL MVP by the [[Baseball Writers' Association of America]].

[[File:Outing (1885) (14753422496).jpg|thumb|left|upright|Cobb in 1911]]
On May 12, 1911, playing against the [[New York Highlanders]], he scored from first base on a single to right field, then scored another run from second base on a wild pitch. In the seventh inning, he tied the game with a two-run double. The Highlanders catcher vehemently argued the safe call at second base with the [[umpire (baseball)|umpire]] in question, going on at such length that the other Highlanders infielders gathered nearby to watch. Realizing that no one on the Highlanders had called time, Cobb strolled unobserved to third base and then casually walked towards home plate as if to get a better view of the argument. He then suddenly broke into a run and slid into home plate for the eventual winning run.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTyCobb /> It was performances like this that led [[Branch Rickey]] to say later that Cobb "had brains in his feet."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/first5/default.htm |title=First Five: The Original Members of the Hall of Fame |last=Holmes |first=Dan |access-date=June 15, 2007 |publisher=[[National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070608145751/http://www.baseballhalloffame.org/history/first5/default.htm |archive-date=June 8, 2007 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Describing his gameplay strategy in 1930, he said, "My system was all offense. I believed in putting up a mental hazard for the other fellow. If we were five or six runs ahead, I'd try some wild play, such as going from first to home on a single. This helped to make the other side hurry the play in a close game later on. I worked out all the angles I could think of, to keep them guessing and hurrying."<ref name="baseballspast.com" /> In the same interview, Cobb talked about having noticed a throwing tendency of first baseman [[Hal Chase]] but having to wait two full years until the opportunity came to exploit it. By unexpectedly altering his own [[baserunning]] tendencies, he was able to surprise Chase and score the winning run of the game in question.

On May 15, 1912, Cobb assaulted a heckler, Claude Lucker (often misspelled as Lueker), in the stands in New York's [[Hilltop Park]] where the Tigers were playing the Highlanders. Lucker, described by baseball historian Frank Russo as "a [[Tammany Hall]] lackey and two-bit punk," often berated Cobb when Detroit visited New York.<ref name="Russo 19">[[#Russo|Russo (2014)]], p. 19.</ref> In this game, the two traded insults through the first couple of innings. Cobb at one point went to the Highlander dugout to look for the Highlanders' owner to try to have Lucker ejected from the game, but his search was in vain.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 259.</ref> He also asked for the police to intervene, but they refused.<ref name="Russo 19"/> The situation climaxed when Lucker allegedly called Cobb a "half-nigger."<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8Dm3hqzbyYkC|first=Dan |last=Holmes|title=Ty Cobb: A Biography |year=2004 |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |location=Westport, Connecticut |page=58|isbn=978-0-313-32869-5}}</ref> Cobb, in his discussion of the incident in the Holmes biography,<ref>[[#Cobb|Cobb & Stump (1993)]], pp. 131–135.</ref> avoided such explicit words but alluded to Lucker's epithet by saying he was "reflecting on my mother's color and morals." He went on to state that he warned Highlander manager [[Harry Wolverton]] that if something was not done about that man, there would be trouble. No action was taken. At the end of the sixth inning, after being challenged by teammates [[Sam Crawford]] and [[Jim Delahanty]] to do something about it, Cobb climbed into the stands and attacked Lucker, who it turned out was handicapped (he had lost all of one hand and three fingers on his other hand in an industrial accident). Some onlookers shouted at him to stop because the man had no hands, to which Cobb reportedly retorted, "I don't care if he got no feet!"<ref>{{cite web |title=ESPN.com's 10 infamous moments |url=https://www.espn.com/endofcentury/s/other/infamous.html |access-date=August 26, 2007}}</ref> According to Russo, the crowd cheered Cobb on in the fight.<ref name="Russo 19"/> Though extremely rare in the 21st century, attacking fans was not so unusual an activity in the early years of baseball. Other notable baseball stars who assaulted heckling fans include [[Babe Ruth]], [[Cy Young]], [[Rube Waddell]], [[Kid Gleason]], [[Sherry Magee]], and [[Fred Clarke]].<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 258.</ref>

[[File:Ty Cobb 1916-restore.jpeg|thumb|150px|Cobb in 1916]]
The league [[1912 suspension of Ty Cobb|suspended him]]. His teammates, though not fond of Cobb, went on strike to protest the suspension, and the lack of protection of players from abusive fans, before the May 18 game in Philadelphia. For that one game, Detroit fielded a [[List of Major League Baseball replacement players#1912 Detroit Tigers strike|replacement team]] made up of hastily recruited college and sandlot players plus two Tiger coaches and lost 24–2, thereby setting some of Major League Baseball's modern-era (post-1900) negative records, notably the 26 hits in a nine-inning game allowed by [[Allan Travers]], who pitched one of the sport's most unlikely [[complete game]]s.<ref name=BaseballLibraryTravers>{{cite web|url=http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Al_Travers_1892&page=chronology|title=Al Travers from the Chronology|last=Charlton|first=James|access-date=June 15, 2007|publisher=BaseballLibrary.com|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923182449/http://www.baseballlibrary.com/ballplayers/player.php?name=Al_Travers_1892&page=chronology|archive-date=September 23, 2015}}</ref> The pre-1901 record for the most hits and runs given up in a game is held by the [[Cleveland Blues (NL)|Cleveland Blues]]' [[Dave Rowe (baseball)|Dave Rowe]]. Primarily an outfielder, Rowe pitched a complete game on July 24, 1882, giving up 35 runs on 29 hits.<ref>{{cite web|title=1882 Year in Review|url=http://www.baseball-almanac.com/yearly/yr1882n.shtml|website=Baseball Reference}}</ref> The current post-1900 record for most hits in a nine-inning game is 31, set in 1992 by the Milwaukee Brewers against Toronto; however, the Blue Jays used six pitchers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Milwaukee gets 31 hits|url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/TOR/TOR199208280.shtml|website=Baseball Reference}}</ref>

The strike ended when Cobb urged his teammates to return to the field. According to him, this incident led to the formation of a players' union, the "Ballplayers' Fraternity" (formally, the Fraternity of Professional Baseball Players of America), an early version of what is now called the [[Major League Baseball Players Association]], which garnered some concessions from the owners.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Baseball Players' Fraternity|encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica|url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/54781/Baseball-Players-Fraternity|access-date=January 25, 2009}}</ref>

During his career, Cobb was involved in numerous other fights, both on and off the field, and several profanity-laced shouting matches. For example, Cobb and umpire [[Billy Evans]] arranged to settle their in-game differences through fisticuffs under the grandstand after the game. Members of both teams were spectators, and broke up the scuffle after Cobb had knocked Evans down, pinned him and began choking him. In 1909, Cobb was arrested for assault for an incident that occurred in a Cleveland hotel. Cobb got into an argument with the elevator operator around 2:15&nbsp;a.m. when the man refused to take him to the floor where some of his teammates were having a card game. The elevator operator stated that he could only take Cobb to the floor where his room was. As the argument escalated, a night watchman approached and he and Cobb eventually got into a physical confrontation. During the fight, Cobb produced a penknife and slashed the watchman across the hand. Cobb later claimed that the watchman, who had the upper hand in the fight, had his finger in Cobb's left eye and that Cobb was worried he was going to have his sight ruined. The fight finally ended when the watchman produced a gun and struck Cobb several times in the head, knocking him out.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], p. 218.</ref> Cobb would later plead guilty to simple assault and pay a $100 fine. This incident has often been retold with the elevator operator and the watchman both being black. However, recent scholarship has shown that all parties involved were white.<ref>[[#Leerhsen|Leerhsen (2015)]], pp. 219–220.</ref>

On August 13, 1912, the same day the Tigers were to play the [[New York Highlanders]] at [[Hilltop Park]], Cobb and his wife were driving to a train station in [[Syracuse, New York|Syracuse]] that was to transport him to the game when three intoxicated men had stopped him on the way. When Cobb had gotten out of the car to confront the men, they had asked for money and instigated a physical fight, with Cobb defending himself from one of the men by punching him in the chin as another had fled the scene. After being grabbed by the neck by another man, the man had pulled a knife and stabbed him in the back before he forced him away and returned to his car to continue driving to the station for the game. Cobb refused to speak any further of the issue. He would go on to hit 2–3 with two singles and a run scored, as well as batting .418. The Tigers lost 2–3.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Press Democrat 13 August 1912 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=SRPD19120813.2.9&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Ty+Cobb%22------- |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Detroit Tigers vs New York Highlanders Box Score: August 13, 1912 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA191208130.shtml |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref>

In 1913, Cobb signed a contract worth $12,000 for the six-month season ({{Inflation|US|12000|1913|fmt=eq}}), making him likely the first baseball player in history to be paid a five-figure salary.<ref name="salary milestones">{{cite news |last1=Haupert |first1=Michael |title=Baseball's Major Salary Milestones |url=https://sabr.org/research/baseball-s-major-salary-milestones |access-date=October 21, 2019 |work=The Baseball Research Journal |publisher=[[Society for American Baseball Research]] |date=Fall 2011}}</ref> This occurred in the same year where Cobb had allegedly grown pessimistic and was quoted as saying: "It seems I am a burden to the Detroit club, as a trespasser of its rules. If that be the case, let [[Frank Navin|Mr. Navin]] put a price on me and I'll take a chance on being able to negotiate my own release. I don't think I shall ever play ball again. This is positively my last statement in this matter." This attributed statement was first published on an April 19, 1913, edition of the [[Los Angeles Herald]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Los Angeles Herald 19 April 1913 — California Digital Newspaper Collection |url=https://cdnc.ucr.edu/cgi-bin/cdnc?a=d&d=LAH19130419.2.101&e=-------en--20--1--txt-txIN-%22Ty+Cobb%22------- |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=cdnc.ucr.edu}}</ref> Cobb did not play that day as the Tigers won 4–0 against the [[St. Louis Browns]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=St. Louis Browns vs Detroit Tigers Box Score: April 19, 1913 |url=https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/DET/DET191304190.shtml |access-date=May 1, 2023 |website=Baseball-Reference.com |language=en}}</ref>

In June 1914, Cobb pleaded guilty to disturbing the peace after pulling a revolver during an argument at a Detroit butcher shop. He was fined $50 ({{Inflation|US|50|1914|fmt=eq}}).<ref>{{cite news |title=Ty Cobb Fined $50 |url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/94500942/ty-cobb-fined-50/ |access-date=February 9, 2022 |work=[[The York Dispatch]] |date=June 25, 1914 |pages=1}}</ref>