Best all-time player for each MLB team
Detrot Tigers: Ty Cobb
Dating back to the beginning of the 20th Century, the Tigers boast a long history with many great players. Ty Cobb, the greatest batsman of the Dead Ball Era stands out as their most iconic player. No one will ever unseat Cobb when it comes to Tigers lore.
The Georgia Peach made his debut with the Tigers at the age of 18. He batted .240 in 41 games as a rookie in 1905 and then went on a run of 23 straight years with a batting average over .300, including three seasons with an average better than .400. Cobb won 12 of 13 league batting titles from 1907 to 1919. Over that span, he batted .377/.441/.527. His career batting average of .366 is the all-time record for MLB and will likely never be broken.
The enduring image many have of Cobb is of a player sliding into second with his spikes pointed all the way up. There was an old myth that Cobb sharpened his spikes in order to inflict pain and fear into opposing players, but the story has no legs. Cobb was an aggressive, hot-tempered, self-centered man, make no mistake about it, but his reputation as an awful human being has been blown way out of proportion.
Much of his bad reputation comes from biographies written by sportswriter Al Stump. Stump sensationalized many of his stories about Cobb in an effort to sell more books. It’s unfortunate that many remember Cobb as a violent, racist bigot thanks to the work of a writer with an agenda. He wasn’t perfect, but he also wasn’t a monster.