This book is obviously the work of a man who has a passion for the subject. Unfortunately, it is less a biography of Ty Cobb than it is an at times tedious laying out ot the research techniques and critiques of other biographies of Cobb, with much of the criticism on minor issues. It was a struggle making it through this book.

I honestly cannot recommend this book for anyone looking for a biography on Ty Cobb. It has spurred me to consider reading other biographies that he constantly attacks in this volume.

I received a free Kindle copy of Ty Cobb Unleashed by Howard W. Rosenberg courtesy of Net Galley  and Tile Books, the publisher. It was with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my fiction book review blog. I also posted it to my Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Google Plus pages.

I requested this book as the description sounded interesting and it was a subject that I had not read about. This is the first book by the author that I have read.

I was asked by the writer through Netgalley if I would like to read his book about Ty Cobb. This book though goes into really about dispelling the myth about him being racist through articles that were written about him at the time. These same articles were not always referred to with accuracy in the different books about Ty Cobb. One the author really talks about is a book published by Simon and Shuster. What I have found over the years in reading many different books about former players and the history of the game, is that many people just go on and print what has been printed over the years and act like that is fact. One story about Cobb fighting a man outside with a knife, I have read it many different ways and the author here shows you an article saying he stabbed the man with a pen knife. Remember back then newspapers were the main form of news so if you could make it larger than the other papers in town why not. Plus it has been proven over the years that the Hearst Papers were not on the up and up when Anne Oakley sued them for defamation and won 54 of the 55 cases against Hears and he paid 20,000 which would be $545,630 in today’s money. So most people did not like him and especially when he got older and would say things like the only way they could go after Ruth is make the Parks smaller, this is true the fences are much smaller when those men played. Another man reported he and Aaron never met, yet there is a photo with Cobb shaking Aaron’s hand when he played for the Milwaukee braves. He was also a supporter for women’s suffrage back when it was not popular. So you can see not everything that is written about someone is factual. This book goes into dispelling those myths and the author does a good job at it. I am just afraid not many people will read this book and that is a shame for he put a lot of time and effort into researching all off the material that went into this book. For the average fan they may not enjoy this book, but for me growing up around the game hearing stories about Ruth, Shoeless Joe Jackson, even Satchel Paige from my father I actual enjoyed this book.

Ty Cobb is the man everyone loves to hate, and I went into this thinking my mind was firmly made up. I’ve read a few biographies of Cobb and truly wondered what could possibly be new. Rosenberg has turned over new stones and presents a very different view of the man. I’ve found myself looking for more so I can fully develop a new opinion.

This is a generous rating, only because it is clear the author did his homework, but it read more like a very long negative review of other books on Cobb, especially Charles Lehrseen's book. While the author's dislike of that book was described and defended quite well, I was hoping for more and I didn't have that feeling.