25 Ty Cobb Quotes from the Baseball Great

Baseball fans will love these Ty Cobb Quotes from one of the all-time greats!

Tyrus Raymond Cobb was born in Narrows, Georgia, in 1886 and died in Atlanta, Georgia, in 1961.

He was known as one of the greatest baseball players in history.

He was inducted into the Hall of Fame on his first ballot with an incredible 98.2% vote, the highest percentage until Tom Seaver in 1992.

Cobb played for the Detroit Tigers for 22 seasons.

His last six seasons with the team were spent as the Tiger’s manager-player.

He spent his last two seasons playing for the Philadelphia Athletics.

Ty Cobb played Center Field, batted left-handed, and threw right-handed.

In 1999 Cobb was voted third on the list of the 100 greatest players by Sporting News.

Look at these Ty Cobb Quotes to learn more about the Hall of Famer.

Best Ty Cobb Quotes from the Baseball Legend

Baseball fans will enjoy these quotes from the sporting legend.

1. “Don’t come home a failure.” — Ty Cobb

2. “I’ve got to be first. All the time.” — Ty Cobb

3. “The crowd makes the ballgame.” — Ty Cobb

4. “A ball bat is a wondrous weapon.” — Ty Cobb

5. “Baseball was one hundred percent my life.” — Ty Cobb

6. “Baseball is a game played by fools for fools.” — Ty Cobb

7. “To get along with me don’t increase my tension.” — Ty Cobb

8. “The man who has no imagination has no wings.” — Ty Cobb

9. “I may have been fierce, but never low or underhand.” — Ty Cobb

10. “I never could stand losing. Second place didn’t interest me.” — Ty Cobb

Ty Cobb Quotes about Baseball

As you’ll see in these quotes, Cobb took the game seriously.

11. “Every great batter works on the theory that the pitcher is more afraid of him than he is of the pitcher.” — Ty Cobb

12. “When I began playing the game, baseball was about as gentlemanly as a kick in the crotch.” — Ty Cobb

13. “The best thing in baseball is winning the World Series. The second best thing is losing the World Series.” — Ty Cobb

14. “Baseball is a red-blooded sport for red-blooded men. It’s no pink tea, and mollycoddles had better stay out.” — Ty Cobb

15. “I have observed that baseball is not unlike war, and when you get right down to it, we batters are the heavy artillery.” — Ty Cobb

16. “The great trouble with baseball today is that most of the players are in the game for the money, and that’s it, not for the love of it, the excitement of it, the thrill of it.” — Ty Cobb

17. “I always went into a bag full speed, feet first; I had sharp spikes on my shoes. If the baseman stood where he had no business to be and got hurt, that was his fault.” — Ty Cobb

You will also enjoy our article on Ted Williams quotes. 

Ty Cobb Quotes About Life and Sport

These quotes will shed light on opinions and ideas of Cobb about sports and other parts of life.

18.“The great American game should be an unrelenting war of nerves.” — Ty Cobb

19. “The base paths belonged to me, the runner. The rules gave me that right.” — Ty Cobb

20. “I regret to this day that I never went to college. I feel I should have been a doctor.” — Ty Cobb

21. “It’s a contest and everything that implies, a struggle for supremacy, a survival of the fittest.” — Ty Cobb

22. “A man who is a pessimist before 48 knows too much; if he is an optimist after it, he knows too little.” — Ty Cobb

23. “A true professional does not complain about his tools, nor does he compromise his standards.” — Ty Cobb

24. “Speed is a great asset, but it’s greater when it’s combined with quickness—and there’s a big difference.” — Ty Cobb

25. “I had to fight all my life to survive. They were all against me, but I beat the bastards and left them in the ditch.” — Ty Cobb

Ty Cobb’s Legacy

While Ty Cobb is unquestionably one of the best baseball players ever, mostly sensationalized stories tarnished his legacy.

Upon his retirement, biographers Al Stump and Charles Alexander falsified and embellished some stories that made Cobb seem racist, but most of those stories have been proven fictional.

Although Cobb was a gruff man, he supported the integration of baseball.

He was a philanthropist in his later years.

Please share these Ty Cobb Quotes with your friends and family and post any comments about Ty Cobb in the comment section below.

Also check out these Casey Stengel quotes from another influential baseball icon.