Biggest asshole in MLB history

[VikingFan2k2]

billy martin

"It's MY team! And I'll manage how I wanna manage!"

 

[Mebert]

You are not kidding. I had never heard of Stump and even just with a quick read, he is a complete FRAUD. That's trash journalism and fake news before anyone ever did that.

Stump spent 3 weeks with Cobb in a year towards the end of his life and basically claimed to be the foremost expert on him.

Even the guy that wrote about Cobb after did not bother to verify anything. He just decided the 3 people Cobb fought had been black and it was because of racism. All 3 had been white guys that hurt his fragile ego.

Then Ken Burns used those to pieces of fiction to do the documentary on him.

Cobb was an asshole with a fragile ego, but he was not the monster people think.

 

[redskinsfan1963]

as big of an asshole cobb was,he is one of the best ever players.

 

[Cedrique]

The biggest asshole in MLB history is
RANDY JOHNSON!!!
I was batboy for the West Palm Beach EXPOS, they were the Single A Team for the Montreal Expos. I was a 13 yr old with extra baby fat and he made sure to point that out. The whole season all he called me was FatBoy, FatAss, LardAss mainly FATBOY. He’s such an asshole that when I received my Brand New Nike Cleats with Metal Spikes . My first pair , I was the happiest kid until i look up and RANDY JOHNSON took scissors and cut my shoe laces in half and laughed and told me Fat Kids don’t deserve metal cleats. I was so upset when Brian Holman, Norm Charltin and Kent Bachman to name a few told me to get him back. So I did. I went around the clubhouse and collected all the Chewing Tobacco Spit Cups , poured them into 1 cup . I waited until he wasn’t in the clubhouse and I poured all the Spit into ALL His SHOES , ALL his Shoes. When he put his foot into his Dress Shoe, the look on his face as his toes and foot slid into the Spit was Priceless. The previously mentioned players and others made it clear, he was to not treat me and the other batboys like shit anymore.

cool story, Fatboy

 

[chillerdab]

To be fair, a quick google does turn up a lot of discussion about that rep of Cobb's being inaccurate, and from many sources not just the usual white lament ones.

Cant say I cross checked my sources before posting. Cant say that most people do.

Also, even if Cobb wasnt racist, he was still an asshole, so probably not worth correcting anyway.

For me personally, I always thought ARoid was an asshole, though “the biggest asshole in MLB history,” is hard to quantify.

 

[msgkings322]

Cant say I cross checked my sources before posting. Cant say that most people do.

Also, even if Cobb wasnt racist, he was still an asshole, so probably not worth correcting anyway.

For me personally, I always thought ARoid was an asshole, though “the biggest asshole in MLB history,” is hard to quantify.

Oh Cobb was no doubt racist in the way everyone was back then, and maybe even a little moreso. But the rep of him being a hood-wearing KKK level racist seems exaggerated.

 

[chillerdab]

Oh Cobb was no doubt racist in the way everyone was back then, and maybe even a little moreso. But the rep of him being a hood-wearing KKK level racist seems exaggerated.

Ok, so then he was a racist and an asshole, just like I said.

Either way, really.

 

[msgkings322]

Ok, so then he was a racist and an asshole, just like I said.

Either way, really.

Fair enough. I just try to remember that times change and what we now call out as being beyond the pale racism was once just how almost everyone thought. It's why I don't condemn the slave-owning Founding Fathers as much as others do, they were products of their time.

Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson and all of Cobb's contemporaries were probably more or less racists too.

 

[chillerdab]

Fair enough. I just try to remember that times change and what we now call out as being beyond the pale racism was once just how almost everyone thought. It's why I don't condemn the slave-owning Founding Fathers as much as others do, they were products of their time.

Honus Wagner and Christy Mathewson and all of Cobb's contemporaries were probably more or less racists too.

Very true, though beating up black dudes for not getting off the sidewalk is a bad look any way you slice it.

 

[msgkings322]

Very true, though beating up black dudes for not getting off the sidewalk is a bad look any way you slice it.

Is that a verified thing Cobb did? I've never looked into his stuff closely.

 

[Cedrique]

Roger Clemons
Kurt Shilling
Nyjer Morgan

I know this is literally 10 years later but since we're revisiting this thread all I can say is after seeing the spelling of Clemens and Curt Schilling, Thank God you managed to spell Morgan's first name right.

 

[catman]

I'm surprised Ted Williams hasn't been listed yet.

He wasn't as bad a Bonds, but he was a bit self centered, hated the media, and never acknowledged the fans (until his amazing cart ride at the Fenway All Star Game - which still gives me the chills)...

I met Ted Williams a few years back at Bob Feller's museum. A mom brough her son to get his autograph and they both started crying when they found out it would cost $50. Ted heard about it and said, in his typical loud voice, "Bring the kid here." His mom brought him over and Ted signed his "Teddy Ballgame" book and gave the mom a hug. He told Bob Feller that if it cost the museum anything, he would cover it.

 

[Cedrique]

I met Ted Williams a few years back at Bob Feller's museum. A mom brough her son to get his autograph and they both started crying when they found out it would cost $50. Ted heard about it and said, in his typical loud voice, "Bring the kid here." His mom brought him over and Ted signed his "Teddy Ballgame" book and gave the mom a hug. He told Bob Feller that if it cost the museum anything, he would cover it.

I knew Ted for many years. Although he was a stand up guy, he often had a short fuse. I remember several times where he'd go off and I'd just say "Teddy, don't lose your head" .

 

[catman]

Is that a verified thing Cobb did? I've never looked into his stuff closely.

Yes it was. Cobb was terribly racist, but it may have been a sign of the culture back then. The movie "Cobb" portrayed him pretty well.

 

[msgkings322]

Yes it was. Cobb was terribly racist, but it may have been a sign of the culture back then. The movie "Cobb" portrayed him pretty well.

I'm getting mixed messages when I google it. A lot of the links say that rep was exaggerated, he was surely racist because everyone was back then, but was he truly much worse than normal? I guess if that story happened it's a sign that yes he was.

 

[msgkings322]

I knew Ted for many years. Although he was a stand up guy, he often had a short fuse. I remember several times where he'd go off and I'd just say "Teddy, don't lose your head" .

 

[Cyder]

He wasn't' a player but ole George Steinbrenner was a colossal asshole. If you change managers 19 times in 21 years (Granted 5 of those were Billy Martin....another genuine asshole, especially when drunk) there's something desperately wrong there.

 

[Draft Crazy]

Just to name a few of mine:
Albert Belle
Ryan Braun
Barry Bonds
Mike Piazza
Maury Wills
Milton Bradley
Darryl Strawberry (but i give him a bit of a pass because he was battling substance abuse problems)
AJ Pierzynski
Reggie Jackson

Notice Ty Cobb isn't on the list. Even though i hate the guy, I do admire his drive and passion to play the game, even if he was a little fixated on individual statistics versus his team play. I wish we had more players with his passion on the Phillies today.

Puig?

 

[Mebert]

Yes it was. Cobb was terribly racist, but it may have been a sign of the culture back then. The movie "Cobb" portrayed him pretty well.

Is that a verified thing Cobb did? I've never looked into his stuff closely.

No it didn't, the movie Cobb used the biography written by a guy whose was unable to get any work at the end because his habit of lies and making up sources. And a second one by a guy that used the first for reference. The second one is where the part about him beating up African Americans was just the author assigning race to fit his narrative. In fact all 3 fights detailed as proof of racism when someone actually researched found out that it was white people he fought...including the waiter that he stabbed. And that guy did not die like reported.

The biography states he would steam stamps off of fan letters and never respond, but we have dozens of letters from him to fans where he is genuinely excited to hear from them.

Part of the reason people believe that he is racist is the time he lived and being a poor kid from Georgia....only he came from a pretty well off family that has a long history of being abolitionist. His great-grandfather was chased out of his home for speaking vocally against slavery, his grandfather refused to join the confederate army because he objected to slavery, his dad was a senator that political career ended early because he spoke for his black constituents and broke up a lynch mob. You think a guy from that background is likely the most racist player of all time?

In fact he never spoke publicly on race at all until 1952 where he came out in support of integration in baseball, and before that he was seen throwing out the first pitch in ***** league games and spending time with the players in the dugout.

He did not sharpen his cleats, and the picture of him kicking the catcher at home plate? Lets see what the catcher said:

"In a way, it was really my fault. I was standing in front of the plate, instead of on the side, where I could tag Ty as he slid in. But out of that mix-up I learned one thing: never stand directly in front of the plate when Cobb was roaring for home. If you did, it was at your own risk."

Cobb in fact did not kick him in the groin, he kicked the ball free of the catcher.


Al Stump is an all time piece of shit, and everyone runs with the known liar as the proof about Cobb, not even after nearly every wild claim has been completely debunked, no amount of fact is going to outpace the story. If you want an actual telling of Cobb look into Charles Leehsen, a guy that bothered to research the actual facts when he wrote his book.

 

[Mebert]

Cobb was an asshole though, that is verified.