Cobb: A Biography by Al Stump; Unabridged MP3 Audio Book; Narrator Ian Esmo

As a boy in the 1890s, he went looking for thrills in a rural Georgia that still burned with the humiliation of the Civil War. As an old man in the 1960s, he dared death, picked fights, refused to take his medicine, and drove off all his friends and admirers. He went to his deathbed alone, clutching a loaded pistol and a bag containing millions of dollars’ worth of cash and securities. During the years in between, he was, according to Al Stump, “the most shrewd, inventive, lurid, detested, mysterious, and superb of all baseball players.” He was Ty Cobb.

Al Stump tells how the dying Cobb hired him in 1960 to ghostwrite his autobiography, giving him a fascinating window into the life and times of the Georgia Peach.

“Cobb is a big, raw, rough-cut diamond of a book and the most powerful baseball biography I have read. More than a baseball story, it is an account of life and death. Strong as the baseball scenes are, it is Cobb in his last days—defiant, angry, drunken, prayerful, brave, and desperate to be remembered—that is so haunting and so memorable and so terrifying.”—Roger Kahn, New York Times bestselling author of The Boys of Summer

“The most revealing account we are ever likely to get of a man who is on every sports historian’s short list of baseball’s greatest players.”—New York Times Book Review

“The most gripping, appalling biography of an athlete I have ever read.”—Washington Times

"Stump has resurrected Cobb in all his terrifying malevolence…spellbinding."—Washington Post

“An excellently horrible book, as though Field of Dreams had been ghostwritten by Stephen King.”—Oregonian

“An alternately chilling and oddly moving tale of athletic excellence and personal chaos…Ranks as one of the best baseball biographies of recent years.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Will stun readers with its brutal candor.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

An astounding portrait…Stump's wonderfully descriptive writing, yeoman historical research, and personal knowledge of Cobb make this an extraordinary achievement in sport biography.”—Kirkus Reviews

“The definitive biography of this mercurial man…delves into many areas the ordinary fan may not be aware of. Highly recommended for all libraries.”—Library Journal

"An unforgettable portrait of an unforgettable character: The Georgia Peach--pits and all. Not only does Stump painstakingly assemble the disparate pieces of Cobb's tangled personality and storied career, he also recounts in scrupulous detail the literal wild ride that comprised his months in the company of the dying baseball legend. It is, from its opening inscription, a tour de force, as good a sports biography as exists, and an altogether riveting telling of a riveting life."—Amazon.com Review

AL STUMP (1916-1995) was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado. During World War II, he was a war correspondent, and afterward he worked as a sportswriter for national and regional publications, including Esquire, The Saturday Evening Post, True Magazine, American Heritage, Los Angeles Magazine, and Sports Illustrated. He wrote—both independently and in collaboration with famous athletes—six books, including Ty Cobb's My Life in Baseball, Sam Snead's Education of a Golfer, Champions Against Odds, and The Champion Breed. His article, "Ty Cobb's Wild 10-Month Fight to Live," written for True Magazine, won the Best American Sport Story award of 1962. It was the basis for the 1994 motion picture Cobb, directed by Ron Shelton.