Ty Cobb in my opinion is the greatest baseball player of all time. He set many records in the twenty-four years he played. Many believe him to be a bad man, but you can't deny him of his ability to play baseball.
William Herschel Cobb was a college graduate and schoolteacher who moved from town to town in northern Georgia until settling in Royston in the early 1890s. W.H. was well respected by the townspeople and aspired for the U.S. Congress, having held seat in the Georgia State Senate. .
In 1883, at age twenty, he married 12-year-old Amanda Chitwood. Due to her young age, she did not bear a child until December 18, 1886, when Tyrus Raymond was born. W.H. was to father two more children with Amanda "John Paul in 1888 and Florence Leslie in 1892.
Ty's mother never played a major role in his life. Although he respected her as anyone would respect his own mother, they were never very close. She was the daughter of Caleb Chitwood, a well respected man I one of the first communities where W.H. Cobb taught. She married W.H. when she was only 12, and was perhaps a pupil of his. Cale Chitwood apparently was reluctant to betroth his 12-year-old daughter, but did anyway in 1883. Three years later, on December 18, 1886, she gave birth to Ty. Amanda was the first person whom Ty told about his plans to go to Augusta to try out for a minor league team, and she gave her blessing but did nothing else.
It was in the summer of 1905 that her life changed forever, when she apparently killed her husband, of more than 20 years, W.H. She was tried for voluntary manslaughter, but acquitted by an all-male jury. The prosecutor never broached the subject of her alleged infidelity at the trial, which might have prevented him from convicting her. After the trial, she never remarried, and some point to that as proof of her innocence of adultery. She lived until 1936, dying shortly after Ty's election to the Hall of Fame.
