Cobb Sported It All

The Movie: “Cobb.”

The Setup: Baseball great Tyrus Raymond Cobb (Tommy Lee Jones, pictured) reflects on his career as his personally anointed biographer (Robert Wuhl) listens.

The Costume Designer: Ruth Carter, whose credits include “What’s Love Got to Do With It,” “Malcom X,” “Do the Right Thing” and “School Daze.”

The Look: Cobb’s sporting nature shines through long after his baseball days are over. Seen here near the end of his life in 1960, he is a hunter and a gambler. At his Nevada mountain lodge, the well-to-do Cobb, who had a personal valet, surfaces in beige gabardine riding pants, knee-high lace-up hunting boots and a snappy outdoorsman’s oilcloth coat. His glen plaid pajamas feature flying ducks. Reno gambling scenes show him in a black three-piece pin-striped suit and foulard tie. “He had a great tie collection,” Carter says. “He always wore the fashionable ties of the day.”

Trivia: For a good portion of the film, as Cobb makes the trip from Nevada to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., his clothing options are limited to what would have fit into a couple of suitcases. That included two cardigans, several cotton shirts, a few pairs of trousers, a houndstooth sport jacket, one suit, a dressing gown, slippers, the duck pajamas and a tuxedo (plus all the correct furnishings) for a black-tie dinner.

You Should Know: Jones was so involved in wardrobe details, Carter says, that “every time I walked into his dressing room, I felt like I had to be prepared for a pop quiz.” The actor insisted that his character’s dressing gown be made of burgundy cashmere with black faille lapels and gold braid trim and that his tuxedo shoes be velvet slippers adorned with fire-breathing dragons. He also insisted on aging, or breaking in, the hunting boots and outdoor jacket by wearing them himself.

Inspiration: Images of baseball uniforms from 1909 to 1924 came from books at the Baseball Hall of Fame; Mitchell & Ness, a sports-memorabilia store in Philadelphia, provided original patterns for uniforms and small-billed caps.

Sources: Cobb’s costumes were custom-made at Sony Pictures’ wardrobe department, his shoes and boots at Willie’s Shoe Repair in Hollywood. His outdoor jacket by Filson is from American Rag & Cie in Los Angeles.