2026 Baseball Hall of Fame Voting

[Moriarty]

@BlankSlate

There’s a famous quote attributed to Cobb by sportswriter Fred Lieb about the possibility of sharing a hunting cabin with Babe Ruth:

I have never slept under the same roof with a n****r, and I’m not going to start here in my own native state of Georgia.

While I agree that Lieb made this claim, I’m skeptical that it was accurate.

It’s is undoubtedly true that Cobb was an aggressive player, and wasn’t the most popular, but talk of his virulent racism is almost certainly untrue.

He actually supported allowing black ball players in the league. And by the end of his life, he was a big fan of Willie Mays.

@RickJay

His most prominent baseball opinion in retirement was his limitless admiration of Roy Campanella.

That, too.

He was a Southerner, born in Georgia in 1886, and it has become easy to equate that upbringing to a racist bent. But Cobb’s great-grandfather preached against slavery. His father was an advocate for the public education of black Americans. And Cobb himself was a vocal supporter of integration in baseball when asked about Jackie Robinson in 1952.
“The Negro should be accepted wholeheartedly, and not grudgingly,” he said. “The Negro has the right to play professional baseball and whose [sic] to say he has not?”

Author says Cobb's reputation built on tales

Also, Cobb and Ruth were rivals, but eventually became friendly, and played together in a charity golf match after they had retired.

Sport: Cobb v. Ruth