My Twenty Years in Baseball - Ty Cobb - Courier Corporation, 2009 - Biography & Autobiography - 131 pages
It is easy enough to be considered good-natured and magnanimous if a fellow is willing to let the other fellow take advantage of him and get away with it. I am not that kind. From my early boyhood I have fought back with weapons just as strong as those used against me
For example, Kid Elberfeld did not hesitate to give me the knee and drive my face into the ground so that all the skin was peeled off. He did that because I was green and didn't know how to go into a base. Also, he was determined to block me. The whole incentive behind all rough plays is a desire to win. It is rarely malicious.
When I had learned the hook and slide and could go in feet forward, I made up my mind to pay Elberfeld back in his own medicine for having roughed me up. Mind you, I did not complain or holler. I realized that I had paid the penalty for being green.
The first time I had a chance to go into second after that and knew that Elberfeld would cover the bag I threw myself in the air and went after him just as hard as I could. I felt myself a big leaguer now.
My feet collided with his leg and Elberfeld was knocked four or five feet. He failed to touch. That boy was a sportsman. He got up, rubbed himself, looked at me calmly and went back to his position without saying a word.
"Well, you've learned something," his look implied. "You beat me to it that time and I've got nothing to say."
We had many run-ins after that, but both of us took the attitude that if the other tried something and got away with it everything was all right, and there would be no holler coming. After that Elberfeld knew that he could take no easy advantage of me and I knew that I could take none of him. We both understood it and neither ever complained. In fact, I think we had more respect for each other. I know I had every respect for him.
For example, Kid Elberfeld did not hesitate to give me the knee and drive my face into the ground so that all the skin was peeled off. He did that because I was green and didn't know how to go into a base. Also, he was determined to block me. The whole incentive behind all rough plays is a desire to win. It is rarely malicious.
When I had learned the hook and slide and could go in feet forward, I made up my mind to pay Elberfeld back in his own medicine for having roughed me up. Mind you, I did not complain or holler. I realized that I had paid the penalty for being green.
The first time I had a chance to go into second after that and knew that Elberfeld would cover the bag I threw myself in the air and went after him just as hard as I could. I felt myself a big leaguer now.
My feet collided with his leg and Elberfeld was knocked four or five feet. He failed to touch. That boy was a sportsman. He got up, rubbed himself, looked at me calmly and went back to his position without saying a word.
"Well, you've learned something," his look implied. "You beat me to it that time and I've got nothing to say."
We had many run-ins after that, but both of us took the attitude that if the other tried something and got away with it everything was all right, and there would be no holler coming. After that Elberfeld knew that he could take no easy advantage of me and I knew that I could take none of him. We both understood it and neither ever complained. In fact, I think we had more respect for each other. I know I had every respect for him.
