Cobb Page #8

No base runner has ever approached

these records.

- Stealing home there.

- Yeah, I saw that-

The first celebrity athlete

in American history.

Movie stars and presidents...

- What the hell is that?

- There you are with your buddy, Babe.

Here, Cobb poses with his great archrival,

the legendary Babe Ruth.

You and the Babe.

However, Cobb's public posturing

as a family man...

was just that, posturing.

Here, he discovers that his wife has hidden

some of his precious liquor...

and she pays the price.

The allegations of wife-beating were legion.

Her attempts to divorce Cobb were met

with more beatings...

until, after years of brutal marriage...

she was granted divorce

due to extreme mental cruelty.

With Cobb's vast fortunes and influence...

he was able to keep this private part

of his brutal nature completely quiet...

building, instead, a heroic public image

as a fierce warrior.

Get your ass on up here,

you half-assed n*gger!

Get up here! Come on!

In a famous incident in 1912,

Cobb attacked a heckler...

who turned out to have no hands.

He was briefly suspended for the incident.

In a shocking development in 1926...

Cobb and Tris Speaker

were accused of fixing games...

by pitcher Dutch Leonard.

Is that the fix?

Credence to these charges was given

by Cobb's notorious friendship...

with numerous unsavory gamblers.

And even though Judge Landis

curiously acquitted Cobb...

questions still remained about his guilt.

Cobb later told friends

that he had enough damaging information...

on other players involved in fixes...

that Landis acquitted Cobb

in order to keep him quiet.

Cobb and his friends were well known

for booze and sex parties...

they had in the off-season.

Parties called "smokers"...

which took place

in various hunting cabins...

they filled with hookers...

many of whom

were his guests at the ballpark.

And in one

of the most disturbing incidents...

Cobb chased a man he said

had accosted him...

and pistol-whipped him to death,

leaving him to die in an alley.

Though Cobb bragged about this

among friends...

the incident was hushed up and forgotten.

Stumpy, he tried to rob me.

He tried to take the money out of my pocket.

What? It's just you

in your Philadelphia uniform.

Playing for Mr. Mack now.

Near the end of his career,

Cobb joined the Philadelphia Athletics...

and at the age of 41...

What do you see now?

You in your Philadelphia uniform.

You look good.

"If a man can't hit better than that,

he ought to quit. "

Whether hitting a home run,

as shown here...

See, he can hit home runs

with the best of them.

...to all fields or running the bases...

I hit them home runs if I had to.

Ty Cobb dominated the game

as no man ever had.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen,

what a ballplayer!

Let's all stand up for the Peach.

You're the best.

- You sure you're up for this?

-203, I used to hunt and fish...

with Rogers Hornsby all over north Georgia,

lower Alabama, everywhere he'd think of.

I appreciate loyalty in a friend.

- You sure you're up for this?

- I've never been readier in my life!

- Rogers!

- You ain't coming in here.

- It's me and Stump!

- You bastard, you ain't coming in.

- Who's in there?

- Me, Mickey, some broads.

Let me talk to Mickey. Let me see Mickey.

How are you doing, Mick?

You look good in that tuxedo.

I can't let you in. This is Rogers' party.

I'm just an invited guest.

God damn it, let me in! Wait a minute!

Open the goddamn door!

Let me in. Open up the goddamn door!

- It's okay, let's just

go back to the motel.

- To hell with you!

I invented the goddamn game of baseball!

Open the door!

You sons of b*tches!

You sons of b*tches!

I fought for players' rights...

when you motherfuckers were crawling

on your hands and knees...

begging the master for a job!

Begging master for breadcrumbs

and you can't hear me now!

- Let's go home.

- Let me in there!

A ballplayer can make big money...

but you motherfuckers are too stupid!

You're all too stupid!

Open the goddamn door!

- You're okay?

- Take me back to the Hall!

- You sure?

- You know where the Hall is?

Sure.

This way.

- I appreciate your coming.

- For Mr. Cobb, no problem.

Stumpy, what did you see

on that film there tonight?

- I saw Ty Cobb playing baseball.

- Is that all?

Is that all?

You were the best.

Save the romance for the book.

Carry me home to Georgia.

The book, like Cobb, was almost Finished.

But he was dying slower than I was writing.

And like everything else, he viewed it

as a competition he was not going to lose.

To me, we weren't riding to Georgia

in a limo...

we were riding in a hearse.

"One of my first clear-cut memories

is of a buggy...

"bumping along a red clay road between

Commerce and Carnesville, Georgia...

"with my legs dangling over the tailgate.

"I was busy winding yarn

around a small core ball.

"It was slow work.

"And the new kid in town

who owned a hittable ball...

"could overcome social obstacles faster

than the boy who didn't. "

- That's damn good.

- I put that in there.

Long time ago, Stumpy.

- Anything you want me to change?

- No, I wouldn't change a word.

It's the greatest biography

ever written, Stump.

The greatest.

James, pull over here to the right.

Look here, Stump.

Right up there, James.

We're here. The f***ing sign needs paint.

My little girl lives right

down this way here.

James, go right down this street.

Sure this was the street?

Down there about a block, James.

The houses all look alike.

- When was the last time you saw her?

- About 15 years ago. She understands me.

Right there. There it is, right there.

No, wait. Damn it!

Maybe she moved.

No, she didn't move.

It's that one right there, James.

Right there, number 150,

over here on the right.

There's somebody in the window.

Is that her?

Maybe she didn't recognize you.

Just wait here.

You can go.

- Well?

- No, it wasn't her. It's...

Your daughter moved.

She used to live there-

You cocksucking liar.

My daughter don't want to see me...

and you're lying about it.

Of course I'm lying about it.

That's what I'm paid to do, isn't it?

Lie about the great Ty Cobb?

You didn't like the job,

why didn't you quit?

Who else is going to take care of you?

Don't give me the sob-sister routine. Jesus!

I listen to your bullshit,

I interpret, I find words...

I give shape, I give life to your bullshit,

and you give me nothing!

Nothing...

but grief!

You have never been this close to greatness

in your short life.

And you love it.

Stop the car.

Stop the car! Now!

Stop the car, James.

Stumpy, you are acting

like a 6-year-old child.

I'll be a striped-ass ape.

Where are you going?

Wait here, James.

- Get back in the car.

- Just go on without me.

- Get back in the damn car-

- Go on without me, I don't need you.

I'd run you down if I was

10, 15, 20 years younger.

- Come here.

- I wish you'd die.

I will, Stumpy.

- And go to hell.

- I'll do that, too.

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