Who is the best MLB player from each state?

Georgia: Ty Cobb

Ty Cobb goes down in baseball lore as one of the most vicious and controversial players to play the game. He is, for better or worse, the Georgia Peach. Cobb was born in rural Georgia, and took the field with a vengeance, allegedly citing the loss of his father before he reached the professional ranks as the reason for his no-holds-barred style of play.

There are so many infamous stories floating around about Cobb to this day that tend to pain him as a spikes-sharpening monster who once rushed into the crowd to beat up a handicapped heckler. Make no mistake, baseball players in the early 1900s were a rougher breed, and Cobb was one of the roughest, though there have been more attempts in recent years to humanize him.

Cobb is the greatest contact hitter in the history of baseball. He retired with a .366 batting average which remains the highest to this day. Cobb won 12 batting titles — another record — and retired with 4,189 hits, a record that was broken by Pete Rose in 1985. He also retired with the record for most career runs, set a record for stealing home 54 times, and stole second, third, and home in succession five times.

Much of the negativity that continues to stick with Cobb’s legacy was later proven to be sensationalized. Granted, many of the things he did on a diamond in the early 1900s would be frowned upon today, to say the least, but the game has gone through a complete overhaul. Cobb’s views on race also mellowed later in life.