But I soon found that there was a second story that was just as fascinating. If Cobb was not quite the monster that was in the movie and if he was not the man who was featured in the previous biography, how did we swallow this myth? Why did we believe it?
The book does tell about Cobb's life, especially his baseball career, but it also lets us in on a secret that has been kept for decades - Al Stump, the previous biographer was a liar.
He lied in many ways throughout his life and as Leershsen tries to fact check the Stump story he finds that one lie leads to another and then another. Stump saw gold in the lies he told and he also got fame. His follow up article in True Magazine got him his biggest pay day and added layers of lies to what he had already written.
The difficult and well handled truth of this biography is that Ty Cobb was not particularly lovable. He was complex and he did have a hair trigger temper, but he was not the racist, killer, spike sharpening ghoul that many of us had been taught.
His popularity was up and down with the fans and the other players like Barry Bonds and Alex Rodriguez, but his play on the field was always intense and it was a style that no one else has had, except maybe Rickey Henderson. It was a psychological style of intimidation on the bases. Henderson had this too and unnerved many pitcher and player, but he could not get on base like Cobb, a .366 lifetime average.
Cobb played against Ruth and lived to see the long ball take over. It was hard for him to accept the change, but that is true of many of us "old-timers".
Through the biography you will meet many of the stars and characters of the early stage of modern baseball and it is a fascinating and well written journey.
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