Among Detroit Tiger fans he most certainly was extremely popular. I’m also sure many of them were aware of this reputation as “a mean and vicious son-of-a-bitch” but were okay with it because he was their “mean and vicious son-of-a-bitch.” The “home team factor” will often make people tolerate behavior that they’d normally condemn.
Okay, among Detroit Tiger fans Ty Cobb most certainly was extremely popular. But nationwide, arguably worldwide*, the Babe was a true phenomenon. There really is no comparison.
- Worldwide in the sense that people knew baseball, through newsreels and such. Probably not in, say, rural Nepal.
From odd things I’ve seen and read, I’m under the impression that European royalty have gotten the celebrity treatment for centuries. A PBS documentary described pre-revolution France being awash in anonymous, often vulgar pamphlets attacking Marie Antoinette.