Ty Cobb and the hobby

[abothebear]

This is not presented as an argument against others' comments. All make good points. This is just another factor to consider.

The rise of major league baseball in national prominence coincides with Cobb's career (and others' careers). But those two things also coincide with the rise of Ford Motors and the rise of the city of Detroit, where Cobb played essentially the entirety of his career. Automobiles and Detroit were the hottest things going, and Cobb was their mega-star in the hottest sport going. During Cobb's career, Detroit's population went from 250k to 1.6 million people, a 600% increase. And the city was well on its way to becoming the richest city in the world. Additionally, a great many of these new Detroit residents were immigrants or transplants from other parts of the U.S. One might argue that Cobb's serendipitous Detroit connection also provided him a human network to national and global fame. If Detroit hadn't crashed like it did, perhaps Cobb would be an even bigger name in the hobby today.

Potentially related... have you ever noticed the disproportionately high representation of Michigan folks in the hobby? Even if very few are pre-war aficionados, I'm sure they all know of Cobb and think of him as their representative old-timer.

As a youngster, I'd play hockey in the gym with my friends after school. We had a habit of "calling" who we were going to be in any sport we played. With hockey, none of us had cable or could stay up late enough to watch hockey on TV anyway. We had no idea who played in the NHL - except for Gretzky, Lemieux, and Yzerman. They were the only ones we knew, and we didn't even really know them. Cobb is like that for the average baseball fan. He has a great name, notoriety, memorable stat accomplishments, and played for a classic franchise. In a pick-up game where you'd be restricted to "calling" pre-war players only, I bet you'd get Cobb, Ruth, maybe Gehrig, DiMaggio because of the song, maybe Cy Young because of the award, possibly Honus Wagner because of the card (not because people knew if he was a great player or not), and that's about it. Baseball fans and hobbiest outside of pre-war, if they dip their toes or dive into it, this is what they start with. At least that was my experience.

This is, I think, the second ever pre-war card I was able to acquire, I hope it is Cobb, because that is who I keep saying it is...


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