Jerry Summers
Some readers will be offended by the pairing of two of the greatest baseball players of the history of the “national pastime” (not soccer) but a comparison of their paths to athletic greatness cannot be ignored because they are important parts of the story that has mesmerized and created dreams of being a “big league” ball player by any youngster who ever picked up a bat or put a glove on their hands.
The public broadcasting system (PBSJ) series by Ken Burns, “Baseball” and narrated by John Chancellor, included detailed segments on the lives of both Ty Cobb and Henry Aaron, and each’s Georgia connection to the National Pastime.
Ty Cobb in 2024 still has the highest career batting average of .367, and in light of changes in the baseball game it may never be surpassed.
Henry Aaron was the first player to break Babe Ruth's lifetime home run record of 714 and he ended his career with a total of 755 homers.
Ty Cobb (1886 - 1961) had a turbulent life that may have partially been caused from the traumatic events of his mother shooting Cobb’s father out of suspicion of marital infidelity and the defense of mistaken identity that resulted in a Not Guilty verdict.
Cobb has alternatively been called a racist towards blacks as well as a benefactor to all students in the Georgia education system with the creation of the Ty Cobb Educational Fund 29 years ago that had been awarded to thousands of both black and white students
An early investor in little companies known as Coca-Cola and General Motors, he would eventually become the owner of three bottling plants, and become wealthy. Cobb was alternatively hated and admired by his teammates fans in the baseball nation. He was often depicted as a drunk, and a wife beater.
He backed off from no one, but engaged in fights and brawls throughout his career. He ran into and attempted to run over opposing players often with his steel cleats directed toward their bodies.
His complicated life was made into a movie “Cobb” (1994), starring Tommy Lee Jones as the ball player and Robert Wuhl as his biographer. It has been both discredited and credited with being basically correct.
Cobb in his old age is alleged to have said that “black ball player Willie Mays was the only player he'd pay to see” and that Brooklyn dodger catcher Roy Campanella was “the player who most reminded him of himself.”
Henry Lois Aaron (1934 -2021) had a more difficult path to becoming a baseball great having been born in Mobile, Alabama and the segregated South.
Hank Aaron, like many young black players, would start his career in the Negro Baseball League, minors that would include performing at historic Engle Stadium in Chattanooga for the Mobile Black Bears.
Although the number of talented, black ball players continued to grow after Jackie Robinson became a member of the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947, Hank would still have to endure the racial slurs of some opposing players and fans prior to the US Supreme Court ruling on integration in the 1960s.
From 1954 to 1976 he would play for the Milwaukee Brewers and the Atlanta Braves where broke Babe Ruth’s home run record
His pursuit of the Bambino’s lifetime home runs statistics was not without controversy prior to the historic date of April 8, 1974. Aaron would receive hate mail and death threats throughout his baseball career. He would speak out against racism in the major leagues and will continue that role when Braves owner Ted Turner appointed him Vice President of player development.
With the creation of Hank Aaron’s Chasing the Dream Foundation in 1994 he aimed to empower young people to pursue and achieve their dreams. Through education and involvement in their community was created. A documentary, “Hank Aaron: Chasing the Dream” in 1995 and won an Academy award. The designation of Ty Cobb as the “Georgia Peach” made during his baseball career is controversial as Hank Aaron has not been described with that term.
The real truth about both Cobb and Aaron's lives may have been both over or understated by their fans and critics, but several facts remain:
1. They were two of the greatest baseball players of all time;
2. They were both raised, played, and lived in the developing and diverse periods of segregation and integration;
3. Critics of both Cobb and Aaron attempt to further their own interests to continue the discord and conflict in our nation; and
4. In addition to their athletic records, they leave behind ongoing legacies of providing financial support to young people of all races, and limited financial means.
The youth of Georgia have substantially benefited from the lives, and overall contributions of Ty Cobb and Hank, Aaron.
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You can reach Jerry Summers at jsummers@summersfirm.com