Faded Memories and Shreds Of History Remain In Cobb’s Hometown of Royston

Ty Cobb was a teen-ager when he left this little town in the Appalachian foothills to play baseball. He never returned but considered it his hometown through a 24-year career. Today, faded memories of the famed “Georgia Peach” and shreds of his past linger.

The water tower just off U.S. 29, the main highway into the town of 2,500 people, proclaims Royston the “Home of Ty Cobb,” and a tiny blue sign along the highway reads the same.

But the museum that once honored Cobb was closed in 1975. City Hall now occupies part of the building.

Cobb, born in Banks County on Dec. 18, 1886, died of cancer July 17, 1961, in an Atlanta hospital at age 74. His family moved to Royston when he was 6.

Cobb played for the Detroit Tigers for 22 of his 24 major league seasons, 1905 to 1928, and had a lifetime batting average of .367. He won 12 American League batting titles, stole 892 bases and hit above .400 three times. In his last season, he batted .323. He was inducted into baseball’s Hall of Fame in 1936.

Cobb was 41 when he retired, and his colossal hitting record has endured until this year, when another brash and aging slugger is expected to tally his 4,192nd hit and shove Cobb into second place in the record books.

Pete Rose, the 44-year-old player-manager of the Cincinnati Reds, has predicted he will break Cobb’s record by the end of August.

There are some faded photos of Cobb at Royston’s Cobb Memorial Hospital, at the library and at City Hall, where a sign, “Ty Cobb Memorial,” is a reminder of the building’s past.

At City Hall a display case holds two bats--a Ty Cobb Louisville Slugger model that he never used and a blue bat signed by the members of the 1968 World Champion Tigers. A plaque with Cobb’s records hangs above the case.

There are some drawings of Cobb done by art students at the University of Georgia years ago. “There was to be a bronze statue made of Cobb to be placed outside City Hall. The students drew the pictures, but we never got the funds for it,” said City Clerk Jane McGarity.

Some ornamental peach trees grow outside City Hall, but Mrs. Garrity said there was no connection with the Cobb’s nickname.

“We were just looking for some nice ornamental trees and they happened to be peach,” she said.

In another wing of City Hall, inside an unmarked 6-foot-by-4-foot glass case in a corner are three statues, likenesses of Cobb in hitting, fielding and throwing positions. One of the statues is cracked, another chipped.

“It’s really a shame we don’t have a display room,” said Tom Brown, administrator at the Cobb Memorial Hospital, which was opened in 1950 with the help of a $100,000 donation from Cobb. “There’s been talk by the Chamber of Commerce, but nobody got behind it.”

The museum, opened and financed by the state in 1972, closed in 1975 because of a budget cutback. It was sold to the city for $1 for use as City Hall.

“It’s sad. We had it but lost it, what little there was,” said Collette Johnson, 67, a first cousin of Cobb, who remembers him when she was a young girl and he was already retired from baseball.

“At one time we used to have four big billboards entering town. But they were taken down about five years ago to be repaired, but nothing was ever done with them and they were never put back up. Nobody looked after them,” she said.

In contrast, Babe Ruth, who along with Cobb is considered one of the greatest men ever to play the game, has a museum in Baltimore that is visited by about 100 people a day, said volunteer worker Frank Arthur. It’s in a complex of four houses and includes the room where Ruth was born. It is owned by the city and run by a non-profit foundation.

Arthur said it was no wonder Cobb was virtually forgotten in Royston. “Everybody hated him, but everybody loved Babe Ruth,” he said.

Cobb was sometimes called the meanest man in the history of baseball because of his aggressive, intimidating play and his frequent fights with teammates.

“I talked to my daddy about him and he was very fond of Ty,” said Susie Bond, whose father played sandlot ball with Cobb and was considered his best friend.

But, she said, Cobb was tough to get to know and was not very well liked, although he mellowed in his later years.

But he was not an ungenerous man.

Cobb, who was married twice, left a reported $6 million to his five children when he died. He also established a Ty Cobb Educational Fund in 1953. More than $2.4 million in college scholarships have been awarded to approximately 1,900 students since.

One Royston resident who admired Cobb didn’t even meet him--Sandra Fitzpatrick, curator of the short-lived museum.

She said the museum was starting to flourish just when the state closed it.

“It’s sad. It’s a gross injustice to Ty Cobb ... considering what he had done for the town,” she said. “People in Royston seem like they have forgotten him, but not all the people. I haven’t forgotten Ty. I still love him.”