I am torn on this book - I was curious about an alternate view on Cobb, but I felt that the author was too personally invested and it took me out of the story. I also felt like the author would hand-wave away some of Cobb's behavior and give multiple excuses for things. Maybe Cobb wasn't as bad as they say, but it was hard for me to believe it based upon Leerhsen's writing style.

I did come away with much more appreciation for Cobb as a player, and I'm at least willing to reconsider Cobb the person. I just wish that Leerhsen had let the story do the talking instead of inserting himself.

In Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty, Charles Leerhsen takes an in-depth look at one of the best and most controversial players to set foot on a baseball diamond. Ty Cobb’s lifetime batting average is the highest in the history of the game and is likely to remain so. Yet, this ferocious competitor has a reputation as a racist malcontent who fought anyone who crossed him. But is it true? With eye-opening historical evidence, Leerhsen attempts to separate fact from fiction and give a complete picture of one of baseball’s more colorful characters.

Ty Cobb is an engaging, well-written narrative that paints a complicated portrait of one of the first stars in baseball history. Leerhsen gives readers a full, fair account of Cobb in the context of his times and painstakingly pieces together a well-researched story using original source material that casts doubt on what have become accepted versions of history. Cobb was a life-long student of the game and strove to make himself a better player. This made him popular with the vast majority of his teammates and respected by his rivals. Did he spike his competitors intentionally? Witnesses say no. Historical records also show that he was not the joyless racist that hated kids but, rather, smuggled his African-American bat boy into his hotel room so that the boy had a roof over his head. Ty also cheered the integration of baseball and willingly gave kids free autographs. Did Cobb have a hair-trigger temper and engage in fist fights with umpires? Yes, but he was not the only one. Was he even close to perfect? Hardly. It is a gross exaggeration to say that Cobb was the bigoted monster that has been portrayed in print and on screen.

As a life-long baseball fan, it saddens and angers me that so many in the media, and even in the sport of baseball itself, would perpetuate a myth rather than doing their due diligence and checking the facts. Ty Cobb deserves a second look. Thanks to Charles Leerhsen and his ground-breaking work, we now have an unbiased perspective on one of the greatest stars baseball has ever known. Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty is a must-read for any baseball enthusiasts who consider themselves students of America’s Pastime.