Tyrus Raymond Cobb (December 18, 1886 – July 17, 1961), nicknamed "the Georgia Peach," was an American professional baseball center fielder. He was born in Narrows, Georgia, and played 24 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent 22 years with the Detroit Tigers and was the team's player-manager for the last six seasons. He ended his career with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936, Cobb received the most votes of any player on the first ballot for the National Baseball Hall of Fame, with 222 out of 226 possible votes (98.2%). No other player received a higher percentage of votes until Tom Seaver in 1992. In 1999, the Sporting News ranked Cobb third on its list of "Baseball's 100 Greatest Players."
Cobb is credited with setting 90 MLB records during his career. He won more batting titles than any other player, with 12 total. Over his 24-year career, he hit .300 in a record 23 consecutive seasons, except for his rookie season. He also hit .400 in three different seasons, a record he shares with three other players. Cobb has more five-hit games (14) than any other player in major league history. He holds the career record for stealing home (54 times) and for stealing second base, third base, and home in succession (4 times). He is the only player ever to compile 4,000 hits and score 2,000 runs. His combined total of 4,065 runs scored and runs batted in (after adjusting for home runs) is still the highest ever by a major league player. Cobb also ranks first in games played by an outfielder in major league history (2,934). He held many other records for almost 50 years or more, including most career games played (3,035) and at-bats (11,429 or 11,434, depending on the source) until 1974, as well as the modern record for most career stolen bases (892) until 1977. He also had the most career hits until 1985 (4,189 or 4,191, depending on the source) and most career runs until 2001. His .366 or .367 (depending on the source) career batting average was the highest ever recorded until 2024, when MLB included statistics from the Negro Leagues.
Cobb's reputation, which includes a large college scholarship fund for Georgia residents funded by his early investments in Coca-Cola and General Motors, has been affected by claims of racism and violence. These claims mostly come from biographies published after his death, which have been proven unreliable. Cobb's reputation as a violent person was exaggerated by his first biographer, sportswriter Al Stump, whose stories about Cobb have been shown to be exaggerated and mostly fictional. While Cobb was known for having many violent conflicts, he supported black players joining Major League Baseball and was known for helping others.
Early life
Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born on December 18, 1886, in Narrows, Georgia, a small farming area that was not officially a town. He was the first of three children born to William Herschel Cobb (1863–1905) and Amanda Chitwood Cobb (1871–1936). Cobb’s father was a member of the state legislature.
When Cobb was very young, his family moved to the nearby town of Royston, where he lived. Many people say he became interested in baseball as a child and wanted to play professionally. His father strongly disagreed with this idea, but by his teenage years, Cobb was trying out for local teams. He played his first organized baseball games for the Royston Rompers, the semi-pro Royston Reds, and the Augusta Tourists of the South Atlantic League. The Tourists released him after only two days. He then joined the Anniston Steelers of the Tennessee–Alabama League in Alabama. His father gave him a strict warning: "Don’t come home a failure!" After joining the Steelers for a monthly salary of $50, Cobb promoted himself by sending postcards about his skills under different names to Grantland Rice, a sports editor for the Atlanta Journal. Eventually, Rice wrote in the newspaper that a "young man named Cobb seems to be showing unusual talent." After about three months, Cobb returned to the Tourists and finished the season with a batting average of .237 in 35 games. While with the Tourists, he was coached by George Leidy, who taught him to hit the ball precisely and be aggressive on the bases. In August 1905, the Tourists sold Cobb to the Detroit Tigers of the American League for $750 (worth about $26,875 in today’s money).
On August 8, 1905, Cobb’s mother, Amanda, shot and killed his father, William, with a gun William had bought for her. Court records say William suspected Amanda of being unfaithful and was sneaking out of their bedroom to catch her. Amanda saw what she thought was an intruder and, believing she was protecting herself, shot and killed her husband. Amanda was charged with murder but was released on a $7,000 bond. She was found not guilty on March 31, 1906. Cobb later said his intense playing style was partly because of his father, stating, "I did it for my father. He never got to see me play… but I knew he was watching me, and I never let him down."
Cobb joined a group called Freemasonry in 1907 and was part of the Scottish Rite. He completed a high level of membership in 1912.
In 1911, Cobb moved to the Woodbridge neighborhood in Detroit, a historically protected area known for its important buildings. He lived in a Victorian-style house that still stands today. Before games, he would walk with his dogs to the ballpark.
Professional career
Three weeks after his mother killed his father, Cobb made his debut in center field for the Detroit Tigers. On August 30, 1905, in his first major league at-bat, he hit a double off Jack Chesbro of the New York Highlanders. Chesbro had won 41 games the previous season. Cobb was 18 years old at the time, the youngest player in the league by almost a year. Although he hit only .240 in 41 games, he signed a $1,500 contract to play for the Tigers in 1906.
As a rookie, Cobb faced harsh treatment from veteran teammates who were jealous of his talent. The players broke his homemade bats, nailed his cleats in the clubhouse, soaked his clothes and tied them in knots, and verbally insulted him. Cobb later said this experience made him angry and difficult to work with: "These old-timers turned me into a snarling wildcat." Tigers manager Hughie Jennings, who became manager in 1907, later said Cobb was targeted by older players who tried to force him off the team. Jennings admitted he let the abuse continue for a while to see if Cobb was as strong-willed as he thought. After observing Cobb’s determination, Jennings told the other players to stop harassing him and said Cobb would become a great player.
Within a year, Cobb became the Tigers’ regular center fielder and hit .316 in 98 games in 1906, setting a record for the highest batting average (minimum 310 plate appearances) for a 19-year-old. This record was later surpassed by Mel Ott’s .322 average in 124 games for the 1928 New York Giants. Cobb never hit below .316 again. After being moved to right field, he helped the Tigers win three consecutive American League pennants in 1907, 1908, and 1909. Detroit lost each World Series (to the Cubs twice and then the Pirates), and Cobb’s postseason numbers were much lower than his regular-season performance. Cobb later said his youth at the time may have affected his play. In his remaining nineteen seasons, Cobb never played on a pennant-winning team or in a World Series.
In a 1907 game, Cobb reached first base and then stole second, third, and home—a feat he accomplished four times during his career, still an MLB record. He finished the 1907 season with a league-leading .350 batting average, 212 hits, 49 steals, and 119 runs batted in (RBI). At age 20, he was the youngest player to win a batting championship and held this record until 1955, when fellow Detroit Tiger Al Kaline won the batting title at twelve days younger than Cobb had been. In 1930, two years after retiring, Cobb told Grantland Rice, "The biggest thrill I ever got came in a game against the Athletics in 1907… The Athletics had us beaten, with Rube Waddell pitching. They were two runs ahead in the 9th inning, when I hit a home run that tied the score. This game went 17 innings to a tie, and a few days later, we clinched our first pennant. You can understand what it meant for a 20-year-old country boy to hit a home run off the great Rube, in a pennant-winning game with two outs in the ninth." In the 1907 World Series, after a suspended tie in Game One, the Tigers were defeated and swept by the Chicago Cubs, with Cobb hitting only .200.
Despite his success on the field, Cobb faced controversy off it. In 1907, during spring training in Augusta, Georgia, a black groundskeeper named Bungy Cummings tried to shake Cobb’s hand or pat him on the shoulder. Cobb was angry and attacked Cummings. When Cummings’ wife tried to help him, Cobb allegedly choked her. The fight was stopped when catcher Charles "Boss" Schmidt knocked Cobb out. Schmidt told reporters he saw Cobb attack Cummings and his wife and intervened. However, no other witnesses confirmed the attack, and Cummings never publicly commented on the incident. Author Charles Leerhsen suggested the story might have been made up by Schmidt, who had previously attacked Cobb multiple times. On that day, reporters saw Cummings, who seemed drunk, approach Cobb and shout "Hello, Carrie!" (the meaning is unknown) and try to hug him. Cobb pushed him away, and that was the last interaction. Later, reporters saw Cobb and Schmidt wrestling on the ground. After the fight, Schmidt told reporters he had stopped Cobb from attacking Cummings and his wife. Leerhsen believed Schmidt may have fabricated the story to make himself look heroic. In 1908, Cobb attacked a black laborer in Detroit who complained when Cobb stepped into freshly poured asphalt. Cobb was found guilty of battery, but the sentence was suspended.
In September 1907, Cobb began a lifelong relationship with The Coca-Cola Company. By the time he died, he owned over 20,000 shares of stock and operated bottling plants in Santa Maria, California; Twin Falls, Idaho; and Bend, Oregon. He was also a celebrity spokesperson for the product. In the offseason between 1907 and 1908, Cobb offered to coach baseball at Clemson Agricultural College of South Carolina for $250 a month, provided he did not sign with Detroit that season. This did not happen.
The following season, the Tigers finished one game ahead of the Chicago White Sox for the pennant. Cobb won the batting title with a .324 average. In the World Series, he batted .368 and played a key role in a Game 3 win. However, Detroit lost the series to the Cubs again. In August 1908, Cobb married Charlotte ("Charlie") Marion Lombard, the daughter of prominent Augustan Roswell Lombard. The couple lived on her father’s estate, The Oaks, in Augusta until they moved into their own home on Williams Street in November 1913.
The Tigers won the AL pennant again in 1909. During the World Series, Cobb stole home in the second game, sparking a three-run rally, and had a team-high five RBIs for the series. Despite these highlights, he finished with a .231 batting average as the Tigers lost to the Pittsburgh Pirates in seven games. Although the postseason was a setback, Cobb won the Major League Baseball Triple Crown that year by hitting .377 with 107 RBI and nine home runs, all inside the park. This made him the only player of the modern era to lead his league in home runs in a season without hitting a ball over the fence.
In the same season, Charles M. Conlon took a famous photograph of Cobb grimacing as he slid into third base amid a cloud of dirt. The image captured the intensity and determination of Cobb’s playing style.
Going into the final days of the 1910 season, Cobb had a .004 lead over Nap Lajoie for the American League batting title. The prize for winning was a Chalmers automobile. Cobb sat out the final two games to protect his average. Lajoie hit safely eight times in a doubleheader, but six of those hits were bunt singles. Later, it was rumored that the opposing manager had instructed his third baseman to play extra deep
Player-manager career
Frank Navin, the owner of the Tigers, chose Ty Cobb to become the manager for the 1921 season, replacing Hughie Jennings. Navin signed Cobb on his 34th birthday for $32,500, which is about $586,637 in today’s money. This decision surprised many people in baseball. Although Cobb was a famous player, he was not well-liked by others in the baseball community, even by his own teammates.
The closest Cobb came to winning another championship was in 1924, when the Tigers finished third, six games behind the Washington Senators, who won the pennant. The Tigers had also finished third in 1922, but 16 games behind the Yankees, and second in 1923. Cobb said his record as a manager (479 wins and 444 losses) was affected by Navin, who was very careful with money and refused to add players Cobb wanted. Navin had even saved money by hiring Cobb to both play and manage.
In 1922, Cobb matched a batting record set by Wee Willie Keeler, hitting five times in four separate games in a season. This record has since been matched by Stan Musial, Tony Gwynn, and Ichiro Suzuki. On May 10, 1924, Cobb was honored before a game in Washington, D.C., by more than 100 important people. He received 21 books, one for each year of his professional baseball career.
At the end of 1925, Cobb was in a batting title race with his teammate Harry Heilmann. During a doubleheader against the St. Louis Browns on October 4, 1925, Heilmann got six hits, helping the Tigers win both games and take the batting title with a .393 average compared to Cobb’s .389. Both Cobb and Browns player-manager George Sisler pitched in the final game, with Cobb throwing a perfect inning.
Cobb retired as a player in November 1926 after 22 years with the Tigers, returning to Augusta, Georgia. Around the same time, Tris Speaker also retired as player-manager of the Cleveland Indians. Their retirements sparked interest because both men were forced to leave baseball due to accusations of fixing games, brought up by Dutch Leonard, a former pitcher managed by Cobb.
Leonard claimed Cobb and former player Smoky Joe Wood bet on a Tigers–Indians game on September 25, 1919, and tried to make the Tigers win to win the bet. He said he had proof in letters written by Cobb and Wood. Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis held secret meetings with Cobb, Speaker, and Wood. After these meetings, Cobb and Speaker resigned without public explanation. However, rumors about the scandal led to more hearings, which Leonard refused to attend. Cobb and Wood admitted to writing the letters but said the bet was about horse racing and that Leonard’s accusations were revenge for Cobb releasing him from the Tigers. Speaker denied any wrongdoing.
On January 27, 1927, Judge Landis cleared Cobb and Speaker of wrongdoing because Leonard did not appear at the hearings. Landis allowed both men to return to their teams, but neither was offered a job. Speaker joined the Washington Senators in 1927, and Cobb signed with the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1928, Speaker and Cobb reunited in Philadelphia. Cobb said he returned to prove he left baseball on his own terms.
In 1927, Cobb played regularly for the Philadelphia Athletics, who finished second to the New York Yankees (110–44). He returned to Detroit on May 10 and doubled in his first plate appearance. On July 18, Cobb became the first player to reach 4,000 career hits, doubling off former teammate Sam Gibson at Navin Field.
Cobb returned for the 1928 season but played less often because of his age and the strong performance of younger players on the A’s, who were competing for a pennant with the Yankees. On September 3, Cobb pinch-hit in the ninth inning of a game against the Senators and doubled off Bump Hadley for his final career hit. His last at-bats were on September 11 against the Yankees, when he popped out to Hank Johnson and grounded out to shortstop Mark Koenig.
Retirement
On September 11, 1928, Cobb announced his retirement, which took effect at the end of the season. He batted .300 or higher for 23 straight seasons (his only season under .300 was his rookie season), a major league record that is unlikely to be broken. He won a record 12 batting titles in 13 years and had three seasons with a batting average over .400 (with a high of .420). Despite not being known as a slugger, he led the American League in RBI four times, hit 295 triples, won the 1909 American League Triple Crown, and led the AL in slugging percentage eight times during his 11 seasons from 1907 to 1917. He was the only player besides Babe Ruth ever to lead the AL in slugging percentage for six consecutive years.
Cobb led the American League in stolen bases six times, retiring with a modern record of 897 stolen bases, which was 256 more than his closest competitor. This record remained unbroken for 49 years.
As an aggressive fielder, Cobb committed 271 errors as an outfielder, ranking 14th on the all-time list as of 2025. This number stands as a record for 20th-century players.
Post-playing career
Cobb retired as a wealthy and successful man. He traveled to Europe with his family, spent time in Scotland, and later returned to his farm in Georgia. During his retirement, he enjoyed activities such as hunting, golfing, polo, and fishing. He also traded stocks and bonds, which helped increase his wealth. Cobb was a major owner in the Coca-Cola Corporation, which made him very wealthy.
In the winter of 1930, Cobb moved into a Spanish-style house on Spencer Lane in Atherton, a town near San Francisco, California. Around the same time, his wife Charlie filed for divorce but later withdrew the request. The couple eventually divorced in 1947 after 39 years of marriage. During the final years of their marriage, Cobb’s wife lived in Menlo Park. Together, they had three sons and two daughters: Tyrus Raymond Jr., Shirley Marion, Herschel Roswell, James Howell, and Beverly.
Cobb’s children described him as strict but also kind and warm. He expected his sons to be excellent athletes, especially in baseball. Tyrus Raymond Jr. failed out of Princeton University, where he had played tennis. His father was upset and used a whip to discipline him. Tyrus later attended Yale University, became a tennis team captain, and improved his grades, but was arrested twice in 1930 for drunkenness and left Yale without graduating. Cobb helped his son with legal issues but later stopped speaking to him. Tyrus eventually earned a medical degree and practiced medicine until his death in 1952. Despite this, Cobb remained distant from him.
In 1936, when the first Baseball Hall of Fame election results were announced, Cobb was named on 222 of 226 ballots, more than Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner, Christy Mathewson, and Walter Johnson. His 98.2% vote share was the highest until 1992. These results showed that even though many people disliked him personally, baseball writers respected his achievements. In 1998, Sporting News ranked Cobb as the third greatest baseball player of all time.
Cobb had positive things to say about players like Stan Musial, Phil Rizzuto, and Jackie Robinson. He also helped young players, such as Joe DiMaggio, negotiate his first contract with the New York Yankees.
In the late 1940s, sportswriter Grantland Rice and Cobb visited a liquor store in Greenville, South Carolina. There, Cobb recognized "Shoeless" Joe Jackson, a former baseball player banned for life after the Black Sox scandal. Jackson did not recognize Cobb at first, but after Cobb asked, "Don’t you know me, Joe?" Jackson replied, "Sure, I know you, Ty, but I wasn’t sure you wanted to know me."
Cobb was mentioned in a poem by Ogden Nash:
"C is for Cobb, who grew spikes and not corn, and made all the basemen wish they weren’t born."
In 1949, at age 62, Cobb married Frances Fairbairn Cass, a 40-year-old woman from Buffalo, New York. Their marriage ended in divorce in 1956. Around this time, Cobb donated $100,000 to build a hospital in his hometown, now part of the Ty Cobb Healthcare System. He also created the Cobb Educational Fund to provide scholarships to Georgia students.
Cobb wanted to share his life story and teach young athletes. He worked with John McCallum to write The Tiger Wore Spikes: An Informal Biography of Ty Cobb, published in 1956. In 1959, he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, diabetes, high blood pressure, and Bright’s disease.
Cobb also wrote his autobiography, My Life in Baseball: The True Record, with writer Al Stump. He controlled the book’s content, which portrayed him positively. After Cobb’s death, Stump published other works that claimed to reveal the "true story" of Cobb. Some of these claims were later questioned, including accusations that Stump forged documents.
In his final years, Cobb spent time with comedian Joe E. Brown, reflecting on his life. Brown said Cobb admitted to making mistakes and wished he could change some choices. However, Cobb publicly claimed he had no regrets, saying, "I’ve been lucky. I have no right to be regretful of what I did."
Cobb died on July 17, 1961, at age 74, after being taken to Emory University Hospital for a diabetic coma. His first wife, Charlie, his son Jimmy, and other family members were with him during his final days. A small funeral was held in Cornelia, Georgia, with only family and a few baseball players in attendance. Hundreds of people sent messages of condolence, including notes from Joe DiMaggio and Ted Williams.
At the time of his death, Cobb’s estate was worth at least $11.78 million (equivalent to $127 million today). His will left a quarter of his wealth to the Cobb Educational Fund, with the rest shared among his children and grandchildren. Cobb is buried in Rose Hill Cemetery in Royston, Georgia. As of 2021, the Ty Cobb Educational Foundation had given $19.2 million in scholarships to Georgia students.
Legacy
Ty Cobb was so great that people who saw him play never forgot him. Historian Steven Elliott Tripp studied how the public viewed Cobb as a pioneer in sports and a player who fans both admired and disliked. Tripp explains that Cobb represented a type of manhood that encouraged male fans to join in by shouting at opposing players. Tripp says Cobb’s sense of manhood came from his Southern upbringing, which valued individualism, excitement, and family honor. Writer Russo said, "There is no denying that Cobb ranks as one of baseball's greatest players, if not the game's fiercest competitor." Many of baseball's greatest players were friends with Cobb, including Mathewson, Walter Johnson, Joe DiMaggio, Ted Williams, Home Run Baker, and Eddie Collins. After retiring, Cobb even became friends with Babe Ruth, whose wife, Claire, was from Georgia.
Some historians and journalists say Cobb was the best player of the dead-ball era and one of the greatest players of all time. Historians like Wesley Fricks, Dan Holmes, and Charles Leerhsen have defended Cobb against unfair portrayals in popular culture after his death. A book written by sportswriter Al Stump after Cobb died in 1961 was later discredited because Stump stole items from Cobb and betrayed his trust. A movie about Cobb, starring Tommy Lee Jones, led to myths about his life, including the claim that he sharpened his spikes to hurt opponents. This accusation was common for many years before the movie was made.
In 1989, playwright Lee Blessing wrote a play called Cobb, featuring three actors who played Cobb at different times in his life. The play also included a character named Oscar Charleston, called "the Black Cobb." Blessing based the play on a biography of Cobb written in 1984. Theater critic Frank Rich said the play showed Cobb as a controversial figure, similar to John D. Rockefeller or Andrew Carnegie.
In The Journal of American Culture, Hunter M. Hampton wrote that Charles Leerhsen helped correct myths created by Stump but created new myths by linking Stump’s mistakes to portray Cobb as an egalitarian.
In 1977, a statue of Ty Cobb, made by sculptor Felix de Weldon, was placed outside Atlanta–Fulton County Stadium. It was later moved to the front of the public library in Cobb’s hometown, Royston, in 2017.
Five years after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball, Cobb publicly supported black and white players playing together. He said, "Certainly it is okay for them to play. I see no reason in the world why we shouldn't compete with colored athletes as long as they conduct themselves with politeness and gentility." In 1952, Cobb told The Sporting News, "the Negro should be accepted and not grudgingly but wholeheartedly."
In 1953, black newspapers reported Cobb praised Brooklyn Dodgers’ catcher Roy Campanella, calling him "among the all-time best catchers." After Campanella was paralyzed in an accident, the Dodgers held a tribute game where thousands of fans lit matches and held them up silently. Cobb wrote to the Dodgers’ owner to thank them for honoring Campanella. Cobb also said Willie Mays was "the only player I'd pay money to see." Black newspapers praised Cobb in his obituaries for supporting racial freedom in baseball.
Charles Leerhsen also noted Cobb was the main supporter of Ulysses Simon Harrison, an African-American youth who was the Tigers’ mascot from 1908 to 1910 under the name "L'il Rastus." At the time, "Rastus" was a stereotype for a foolish or ignorant black man. Unlike most players, Cobb did not rub Harrison’s head for luck. Cobb protected Harrison during travel in racially segregated areas and hired him at his automobile dealership during the off-season. As an adult, Harrison became a chauffeur for a construction executive, a job he may have gotten with Cobb’s help.
Teammates
Sam Crawford and Ty Cobb played together for parts of thirteen seasons. They played in right and center field, and Crawford always batted after Cobb in the lineup. Even though they played close to each other on the field, their relationship was difficult.
At first, they had a mentoring relationship. Crawford was already a famous player when Cobb joined the team, and Cobb often asked for Crawford’s advice. Over time, their relationship changed to one of competition. Cobb was not liked by many teammates, and as Cobb became the most famous player on the team, Crawford was upset that Cobb received special treatment. Cobb was allowed to arrive late for spring training and was given private rooms during road trips—benefits that Crawford did not receive. Their competition was very strong. Crawford said that if he had a good day at bat and Cobb had no hits, Cobb would get angry and sometimes leave the field before the game ended. When Nap Lajoie won the batting title, it was said that Crawford and other Tigers sent a telegram to Lajoie to congratulate him on beating Cobb.
After retiring, Cobb wrote a letter to a reporter in The Sporting News, accusing Crawford of not helping in the outfield and of intentionally letting balls hit the ground when Cobb was trying to steal a base. Crawford learned about the letter in 1946 and said Cobb was a "cheapskate" who never supported his teammates. Crawford claimed Cobb was not a good fielder and that Cobb made up the story about him.
When asked about their conflict, Cobb said it was caused by jealousy. He believed Crawford was a great player but felt he was second-best on the team and disliked being overshadowed. A writer named Richard Bak, who studied Cobb’s life, said the two barely respected each other and agreed with Cobb that Crawford’s behavior was because Cobb had taken away Crawford’s attention.
Although they may not have spoken to each other, Cobb and Crawford learned to communicate without words during games. They used eye contact and signals to work together on the bases. They became one of the most successful teams in baseball history for stealing bases together.
Regular season statistics
When Ty Cobb retired, and for most of the next 70 years after that, he was officially listed as having the highest batting average in major league history at .367. This was based on the best statistics available at the time. However, careful modern research that checked each game’s box scores found a small error of .001, which lowered Cobb’s average to .366 according to many trusted sources.
Major League Baseball is not certain whether to keep Cobb’s traditional average (.367, based on 4,191 hits in 11,429 at-bats) or accept the revised number. Longtime baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn, who led MLB from 1969 to 1984, said the league would continue to report the traditional value because it was allowed to stay as it was. In 1981, he explained, “The passage of 70 years, in our judgment, creates a time limit for making changes.”
Many other reliable sources now list Cobb’s average as .366. Some of these sources, like SABR (the Society for American Baseball Research), the Baseball Almanac, and ESPN, show slightly different numbers for hits and at-bats, such as 4,189 hits in 11,434 at-bats. Retrosheet records the same number of hits but adds five more at-bats (11,439), while Baseball Reference and the Baseball Hall of Fame add one more at-bat (11,440).
Major League Baseball does not stop its own sources from sharing updated information. For example, in 2016, an article about Cobb’s revised average (.366) was published on MLB’s website, mlb.com, even though the league still uses the traditional number.
Other career statistics from Retrosheet show Cobb had 1 game with six hits, 13 games with five hits, and 82 games with four hits during his career.
Career totals from Baseball Reference include numbers that may differ slightly from other sources. The stat “Caught Stealing” is not fully listed because it was not regularly recorded until 1920.
Major League Baseball Enterprises, Inc. also published Cobb’s career totals, which are shown below.