Ty Cobb

Early 20th-century baseball great Ty Cobb set dozens of records and earned the highest percentage of votes in the first Hall of Fame election.
Synopsis
Born in Georgia in 1886, Ty Cobb overcame family tragedy to forge one of the greatest careers in big-league baseball history. He established records with his 12 batting titles and .366 career average, but also developed a reputation for his fierce play and terrible temper. Voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in the inaugural election of 1936, he died in 1961 in Atlanta.

Early Years
Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born on December 18, 1886, in Narrows, Georgia, and grew up in nearby Royston. The eldest of three children of dad William Herschel Cobb, an educator and politician, and mom Amanda Chitwood, Cobb developed a love for baseball at a young age.

Cobb played for the Royston Rompers and the semipro Royston Reds, and in 1904 he joined the minor league Augusta Tourists over the objections of his father. In August 1905, William Cobb was shot at home by his wife, who claimed to have mistaken him for a burglar. Less than a month later, the Tourists sold Cobb to the Detroit Tigers of the American League.