Author: Julie Xu
Tyrus Raymond Cobb, born on Dec. 18, 1886 in Narrows, Georgia, is known as one of American Major League Baseball’s best players of all time. During his career, he set 90 records, including most career hits, most career runs and most career games played. Cobb’s record for the highest career batting average and the most career batting titles still holds today. Cobb played 22 seasons with the Detroit Tigers, spent six as the team manager and closed out his career playing for the Philadelphia Athletics. In 1936, he was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame, winning 222 votes out of the 226 total votes possible—the minimum number of votes to be inducted was 170.
With baseball royalty in his blood, Ty Charles Brogan Cobb is walking among the students today at Occidental College. Currently a first-year on the men’s basketball team, Cobb Jr. is the great-grandson of the legendary Tyrus Raymond Cobb.
Many people ask Cobb Jr. why he did not follow through with baseball since his family has such a rich history in that sport. “Similar to how baseball was Ty Raymond Cobb’s sport, basketball is my sport,” Cobb Jr. said.
As a child, Cobb Jr. immersed himself in old baseball, a term referring to the beginning of the modern era of the sport which occurred between 1900-1930. Baseball began to take its shape as a form of popular culture during the old baseball age. “I was fascinated by baseball,” Cobb Jr. said. “I looked up pictures and information about the oldest players that my great-grandfather played with.”
At the age of four, Cobb Jr. picked up the sport of baseball and began to follow his great-grandfather’s footsteps. Although Tyrus Raymond Cobb was one of Ty’s great influences as well as his motivation to begin playing baseball, it was not the reason why he stuck with it. “The initial kick was from my grandfather,” Cobb Jr. said. Cobb Jr.’s talent for baseball was undeniable as he realized at a young age that he wanted to continue to play ball because he enjoyed it.
Although Cobb Jr.’s interest in baseball sparked at the age of four, his first sport was basketball. The first time Cobb Jr. held a basketball was at the age of two. “My dad told me I would dribble the ball up and down the driveway and all through the house,” he said.
Throughout his early childhood and teenage years, Cobb Jr. continued to excel in basketball and baseball. When deciding which sport to play for Occidental, he ended up choosing the sport he loved most: basketball. Now a member of the Varsity Basketball team at Oxy, Cobb Jr. is collaborating with the rest of his team, hoping to win the third consecutive game in a row. The legacy that Tyrus Raymond Cobb left for his grandson was not that he had to follow in his footsteps as a MLB player, but rather that hard work and determination will result in success.
Having never met his great-grandfather, Cobb Jr. only hears stories about the baseball legend and memories that his father recollects. Most of what his father tells him is about Ty Raymond Cobb as a father, not as the outfielder who was nicknamed “The Georgia Peach.” “I was born being Ty Cobb’s great-grandson. It is a part of me,” Cobb Jr. said.
Known as one of the most aggressive baseball players in MLB, Ty Raymond Cobb is often criticized for how he played. Born and raised in Alabama during the late 1800s, Ty was heavily influenced by the segregation that dominated the south. “I would constantly hear people telling me that Ty was a dirty player on the field,” Cobb Jr. said. Defending his great-grandfather, Cobb Jr. has always felt an intimate connection with Cobb Sr.
Contrary to popular belief, Ty Cobb Jr. was not named directly after Ty Cobb Sr. The name was chosen for Cobb Jr. because his father simply liked how the name sounded.
“Even though it wasn’t intentional, I feel like I symbolize a part of history [because my name is Ty Cobb],” says Cobb Jr. Proud to be related to a part of history, Cobb Jr. is working hard in all aspects of his life to uphold his family name.
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