Tourist to Tiger: Ty Cobb's Augusta connection

Thursday, January 12, 2017

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) -- In the late 1800s, one of baseball's greatest hitters was born in North Georgia.

Julie Ridgway, Director & Manager of the Ty Cobb Museum, says, "He is the first baseball player to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He holds or ties more records than any other player in the history of Major League Baseball."

Ty Cobb spent most of his childhood in Royston, Georgia, but the first time anyone paid him to play baseball was in Augusta. Ridgway says, "Ty Cobb started his semi-Major League Baseball career with the Tourists, which are now the GreenJackets."

Cobb played 140 games for the tourists between 1904 and 1905. In 1905 the Detroit Tigers bought his contract. Still, Cobb kept this home in Augusta for three decades. "That's where Ty Cobb and his wife started their family, there in Augusta. That was home to them for a number of years," Ridgway says.

Cobb's influence never left Augusta. Shortly after the Ty Cobb Museum opened in Royston an elderly couple from Augusta brought in a piece of framed embroidery. The embroidery celebrates the Tigers pennants in 1907, 08, and 09. Each thread connects one of baseball's greatest hitters to Augusta. "They bought the house from the Cobbs back when they were a young couple. Miss Charlie, Ty's wife said she wanted them to have it, and it was something Miss Charlie had made," Ridgway says.

Now the reminder of Cobb's lifetime batting average on the GreenJackets outfield wall won't be the only reminder of Cobb's Garden City connection.

A historical marker will be unveiled at the old Cobb family house at 2425 Williams Street in Augusta at 1 p.m. Saturday, January 14.