Ty Cobb
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Why is this player NOT in this game? Outside of Bonds (numerous reason he’s not in) he is the most outstanding player (records and history wise) omitted. It’s not even close. They mention his name throughout the game in Storylines. He’s immortal. SDS, put him in the game. It’s not right.
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@NWOStunna_PSN
He was in the game for several years. Unfortunately, they lost the rights to him, along with a few other Legends (i.e. Rogers Hornsby). Thankfully they got Ted Williams back and I hope they continue adding more Legends going forward. -
Cobb will be back in the future. They rotate guys in & out.
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Some families who retained the licensing for their forefather baseball greats decided not to sell those rights to the MLBPA offshoot that wanted to buy up all those rights. Cobb's family was one that refused to sell. The Cobb family still has to deal with the horrible lies that Al Stump told of their grandfather and now great-grandfather, and so they have a very jaundiced view of people wanting to use Ty's likeness for profit.
To this day a lot of the lies Stump told remain as considered fact, including making it almost without question in the script of the horribly bad Cobb movie. Perhaps the worst lie of them all is the one that Ty Cobb was a virulent racist, when in fact, he was among the most egalitarian people of his generation, who openly worked with AL Commissioner Happy Chandler to integrate baseball. This effort was blocked by MLB Commissioner Kennesaw Landis and it wasn't until Landis died and Chandler became the MLB Commissioner that Jackie Robinson was allowed to break the color line.
Cobb went out of his way to endorse Robinson in baseball.
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@PriorFir4383355_XBL said in Ty Cobb:
Some families who retained the licensing for their forefather baseball greats decided not to sell those rights to the MLBPA offshoot that wanted to buy up all those rights. Cobb's family was one that refused to sell. The Cobb family still has to deal with the horrible lies that Al Stump told of their grandfather and now great-grandfather, and so they have a very jaundiced view of people wanting to use Ty's likeness for profit.
To this day a lot of the lies Stump told remain as considered fact, including making it almost without question in the script of the horribly bad Cobb movie. Perhaps the worst lie of them all is the one that Ty Cobb was a virulent racist, when in fact, he was among the most egalitarian people of his generation, who openly worked with AL Commissioner Happy Chandler to integrate baseball. This effort was blocked by MLB Commissioner Kennesaw Landis and it wasn't until Landis died and Chandler became the MLB Commissioner that Jackie Robinson was allowed to break the color line.
Cobb went out of his way to endorse Robinson in baseball.
Exactly
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I'm going to post below an extended quotation provided by Ty Cobb to journalist Jack McDonald for the Sporting News for an article dated 6 Feb 1952. On the subject of blacks in MLB, Cobb said:
"Anyone who qualifies as a gentleman is qualified anywhere, regardless of his color, and the Negro should be accepted and not grudgingly but wholeheartedly. The Negro has a right to compete in sports and who is to say they have not? They have been competing notably in football, track, and baseball and I think they are to be complimented for their gentle conduct both on the field, and, as far as I know, off the field.
"I think the Negro has the right to compete in sports in every section of the country as long as his deportment is genteel and unchallengeable. All Negroes in baseball, which is of course the game I notice the most have up to date qualified not only as to their deportment but their ability. No trouble has been encountered.
"I think it is also an obligation Negro fans in the stands to conduct themselves in such a manner as not to place the participation of colored athletes in a controversial position. They can help considerably to the process of absorbing Negro athletes in sports."
Now, I realize some living in 2025 might find those comments a bit paternalistic, and ignoring the wholesale racist vitriol that so many white fans heaved out all the time at games. But, Cobb was trying to advance the acceptance of blacks in baseball, and he knew if he lashed out at white fans it would have the opposite effect. Cobb was not saying these things to make himself look good, but to help integrate the game he loved most.
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The fact the Negro League Storyline coincided with his removal from the game doesn’t help. Maybe I was the only one who noticed that. I’m sure it was just coincidental. But yes, Stump ruined his reputation. It’s not fair. He is one of the fathers of MLB. First class Hall of Famer and I really wish SDS and MLB THE Show would celebrate him. But if his family won’t give the rights….
