Ty Cobb fires me up

Whether it's his personality or his gritty and relentless style of play, Ty Cobb has got to fire you up. If he doesn't then you aren't American and you certainly aren't a baseball fan. A couple of weeks ago Church of Baseball had a nice post about what past players readers would like to have seen play in their prime. Ty Cobb was one of my top choices.

In the early 1900s, Cobb was an angry southerner playing a northern game. Not only was he the greatest player of his era, and arguably of all time, but Cobb was a self-made man. He clawed and kicked for everything that he achieved. Cobb saw baseball as less of a game and more like a war.

Here are some of my favorite Ty Cobb quotes:

"I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me... but I beat them and left them in the ditch."

"I have observed that baseball is not unlike a war, and when you come right down to it, we batters are the heavy artillery."

"The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me the right. I always went into a bag full of speed, feet first. I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his own fault."

"When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch."

"Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded man. It's no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out. It's a struggle for supremacy, survival of the fittest."

Detroit Athletic Co. writes,

Cobb, in my opinion, is the embodiment of the city of Detroit itself. His style of play was gritty and tough; his appearance was objectionable; his disposition was even worse. But he — like the city in which he played — achieved greatness. For all his faults, Detroit could use a little of the fiery determination that its most memorable sports figure possessed. A mental toughness that took on the entire world — and won.

Detroit Athletic Co.'s post also features a nice little video that I recommend watching.

We already know that Cobb was a hard-core Blue Collar Baseball player. I mean, heck, you've got to be pretty hard-core if Soundgarden writes a song about you, right? If you're not convinced, check out the video below. Man I'm fired up for baseball season!