Charles Leerhsen talks about changing people’s minds about Ty Cobb in his bestselling biography of the Tigers legend.
1:12 how the book has made an impact in changing how people see Ty Cobb
3:00 how showing a different Cobb was a hard sell
7:52 why the opening scene of Cobb as an actor in a theater cast doubts on the conventional narrative about him
11:36 how Cobb used his split-hands grip to make last-second decisions about how to hit the ball
14:55 why Cobb’s primary goal on the basepaths was evasion of the fielder
18:59 Cobb’s resentment of the emergence of Babe Ruth and baseball’s embrace of the home run
21:39 getting to the bottom of Cobb’s confrontation with a groundskeeper in Augusta, Georgia
24:20 what was behind Cobb’s various off-field scuffles
25:55 re-examining the usual story about Cobb’s run-in with hotel management in Cleveland in 1909
30:05 Cobb’s alleged role in a game-fixing agreement in 1919
32:55 piecing together murky accounts of allegations of an attack on a housekeeper
39:58 reconciling the complications and contradictions of Cobb’s character
43:32 why Al Stump’s partially fictional portrayal of Cobb was so influential
51:59 recollections of co-authoring a book with Donald Trump