My
Life in Baseball : The True Record
by Ty Cobb, et al
One of sports literature's great whitewashes and cover-ups, Ty Cobb's
autobiography is anything but the "true record" of its titular claim. Cobb
was as haunted and complex a man as has ever sharpened a pair of spikes,
and, in his 70s, when he sat down to tell his story, he simply didn't want
the whole of his truth revealed; he preferred to perpetuate his legend.
What results, then, is a flawed fairy tale filled with colorful anecdotes
and reminiscences that duck the demons that fueled Cobb's inspired play
like a pitcher trying to hide from a line drive smashed in the direction
of his eyeballs.
Interestingly, the story behind the book is far more raucous and compelling
than the book itself. Cobb, as violent and demanding at the end of his
life as he was in his playing heyday, virtually kidnapped Stump (one of
the most honored sports writers of the late '50s and early '60s), subjecting
almost every word and observation to Cobb's approval. Stump finally exacted
his literary pound of flesh years later when he slid spikes high into Cobb's
ghost with the publication of his marvelously rich--and real--accounting
of Cobb's life in Cobb: A Biography. Stump not only nicked the fuzz
off the Georgia Peach in that second effort, he recounted the harrowing
circumstances behind the first. Together, the two books provide a fascinating
prism into a man's life and legacy, the first volume bending the light
to diffuse the truth, the second straightening it out to preserve it. Amazon.com--Jeff
Silverman
(Paperback - March 1993) |
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