Ty Cobb ..Separating Fact from Fiction

[mighty bombjack]

Here is my Cobb auto, made out to a caretaker near the end of his life



A close up of the inscription. Hope it's legible.



The auction listing for this said that Cobb was sending the clear message that he wasn't guilty, but it certainly seems more tongue-in-cheek than that to me. Either way, I love it!

[JimStinson]

I love that photo....Baker is 100 miles away from the bag and Cobb's foot is so high it looks like he's trying to spear the hot dog vendor in the 2nd row...
___________________
jim@stinsonsports.com

[thenavarro]

I came to an agreement to purchase this one last night, so it should be on the way to me soon. It's not signed, but I thought it was neat and worthy of picking up to go along with my other letter.

In this one, you can read where young Harold O'Neal, Jr. writes to Cobb and tells him about his grandpa playing with Cobb, mentions writing to Cobb before without getting a response, mentions how Cobb's suggestions have helped him in his ball playing abilities, but evidently makes the mistake of questioning why Cobb wrote his Life articles a certain way.

Ty doesn't even bother wasting a piece of his stationary on young Harold and proceeds to ignore most of his letter, concentrating on a defense of his Life series, and ending by basically telling Harold the reason he didn't get a previous reply was because he didn't follow autograph etiquette by enclosing a self addressed and stamped envelope. To add insult to injury, Ty didn't even sign his reply, LOL.

Here's the text of Ty's response in case you don't want to twist and strain to read his reply:

"Dear Harold,
I note the fault you found in my Life stories, not mentioning certain players. I had only 12000 words allotted to me to use, the subject was selected as given to me by “Life”. I did not choose. If you were a very careful reader of story before you formed and expressed an opinion, you would have seen and realized-I said Musial and Rizzuto were type and example of ball players of moderns who could have played on old timer teams. I had to use only 12000 words, of course Reese & many others Yes Feller is a real or was a fine pitcher not because he is your favorite, he with any other modern pitcher cannot be placed on an all time pitching staff you have to go to the old timers see records, that counts – How would you place any modern pitcher on all time – Johnson, Mathewson, Alexander, Walsh, Plank, Grove, old Cy Young many others- lets be right in all this Records

You to be right, as I was, should have enclosed for convenience an addressed and stamped envelope. I receive an average of 4 requests for autographs alone






Here's the envelope this was sent in, postmarked from Menlo Park. It's not even initialed front or back like Cobb sometimes did. Evidently young Harold wasn't getting anything resembling a signature

[Big Dave]

That is funny.

[Runscott]

As Hank pointed out, many men who played alongside and against Cobb support the facts that we seem to be trying to turn into fiction. I collect Cobb stuff because I admire a great many things about him, especially the way he responded to letters and autograph-seekers, but other things about him were not so great.

[Runscott]

Originally Posted by thenavarro

I came to an agreement to purchase this one last night, so it should be on the way to me soon. It's not signed, but I thought it was neat and worthy of picking up to go along with my other letter.

In this one, you can read where young Harold O'Neal, Jr. writes to Cobb and tells him about his grandpa playing with Cobb, mentions writing to Cobb before without getting a response, mentions how Cobb's suggestions have helped him in his ball playing abilities, but evidently makes the mistake of questioning why Cobb wrote his Life articles a certain way.

Ty doesn't even bother wasting a piece of his stationary on young Harold and proceeds to ignore most of his letter, concentrating on a defense of his Life series, and ending by basically telling Harold the reason he didn't get a previous reply was because he didn't follow autograph etiquette by enclosing a self addressed and stamped envelope. To add insult to injury, Ty didn't even sign his reply, LOL.

Here's the text of Ty's response in case you don't want to twist and strain to read his reply:

"Dear Harold,
I note the fault you found in my Life stories, not mentioning certain players. I had only 12000 words allotted to me to use, the subject was selected as given to me by “Life”. I did not choose. If you were a very careful reader of story before you formed and expressed an opinion, you would have seen and realized-I said Musial and Rizzuto were type and example of ball players of moderns who could have played on old timer teams. I had to use only 12000 words, of course Reese & many others Yes Feller is a real or was a fine pitcher not because he is your favorite, he with any other modern pitcher cannot be placed on an all time pitching staff you have to go to the old timers see records, that counts – How would you place any modern pitcher on all time – Johnson, Mathewson, Alexander, Walsh, Plank, Grove, old Cy Young many others- lets be right in all this Records

You to be right, as I was, should have enclosed for convenience an addressed and stamped envelope. I receive an average of 4 requests for autographs alone

...

Here's the envelope this was sent in, postmarked from Menlo Park. It's not even initialed front or back like Cobb sometimes did. Evidently young Harold wasn't getting anything resembling a signature

Mike, that's a great letter - I remember reading it previously. I ended up buying a 1-pager where Cobb was helping someone out who wanted information on a player. Cobb was very, very helpful - definitely above and beyond.

Curious - it's been mentioned here that Al Stump forged Cobb letters. Does anyone have any examples they can post?

[Mr. Zipper]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Curious - it's been mentioned here that Al Stump forged Cobb letters. Does anyone have any examples they can post?

Here is a great signature study by Ron Keurajian with Stump examples:

http://www.autograph-club.org/autogr...utographs.html

[Runscott]

Thanks, Steve - that really clears up a lot. Another forum member had led me to believe that Stump forged actual hand-written letters, but that signature is so horrible that I'm sure they must have all been typed. Interesting content as well, and it makes sense that it came from Stump's head, rather than Cobb's.

[Mr. Zipper]

Originally Posted by Runscott

Thanks, Steve - that really clears up a lot. Another forum member had led me to believe that Stump forged actual hand-written letters, but that signature is so horrible that I'm sure they must have all been typed. Interesting content as well, and it makes sense that it came from Stump's head, rather than Cobb's.

If I recall correctly, there are Stump hand-written letters as well.