Cobb

Production

Warner Bros. released Cobb in December 1994. Ron Shelton wrote and directed the film, freely adapting the sportswriter Al Stump’s 1961 magazine reporting and 1994 book about ghostwriting Cobb’s autobiography. Tommy Lee Jones starred as Cobb, with Robert Wuhl as Stump.

Story

In 1960, the aged and ill Ty Cobb invites the journalist Al Stump to his Lake Tahoe hideaway to ghostwrite his memoir. Stump quickly discovers that the man whose career batting average remains the highest in major league history is also a bigot, an alcoholic, and a danger to those around him.

Reception

Cobb underperformed at the box office but received attention for Tommy Lee Jones’s lead performance and for raising debates about how American sports figures are mythologized. The film became a touchstone in subsequent reappraisals of the early-20th-century professional baseball era.