Don Rhodes - Ty Cobb: Safe at Home

February 23, 1863, Ty Cobbs father, William Herschel Cobb, is born.

January 15, 1871, Ty Cobbs mother, Amanda Chitwood, is born.

February 11, 1886, William Herschel Cobb, a rural schoolteacher, marries Amanda Chitwood in Banks County, Georgia. He is twenty-three. She is fifteen.

December 18, 1886, Tyrus Raymond Cobb is born in Banks County, Georgia, on his mothers parents farm in the Narrows community near Cornelia.

February 23, 1889, Cobbs brother, John Paul, is born.

July 3, 1890, Cobbs future wife, Charlie Marion Lombard, is born in Richmond County, Georgia.

October 29, 1892, Cobbs sister, Florence Leslie, is born.

November 24, 1903, The South Atlantic Baseball Leaguelater known as the SALLY Leagueis organized in Savannah with William Henry Sherman representing Augusta.

H. H. Cabaniss, business manager and part owner of the Augusta Chronicle, steps up to form a stock company to finance the Augusta team.

January 1, 1904, Con Strouthers arrives in Augusta to become the Augusta Tourists first manager and later part owner.

April 26, 1904, Cobb plays in his first professional baseball game at Warren Park with the Augusta Tourists playing the Columbia (SC) Skyscrapers.

April 27, 1904, after his second game with the Tourists, manager Strouthers drops Cobb from the roster, and Cobb goes with Fred Hays to play for the Anniston (Alabama) Steelers team.

July 25, 1904, Augusta Tourists new owner and manager Harlan W. (Harry) Wingard sends Cobb a telegram ordering him to join the team at once in Augusta.

August 9, 1904, Cobb rejoins the Tourists playing a doubleheader against the Columbia Skycrapers at Warren Park with the first game starting at 3:00 p.m.

January 29, 1905, the Chronicle reports that Tourists Club president John B. Carter and manager Andy Roth have signed eighteen men to a new contract, of which fourteen would be kept for the new season, including Ty Cobb.

March 7, 1905, The Detroit Tigers, led by manager Bill Armour, arrive in Augusta for spring training, giving Armour a close-up look at Cobbs playing skills.

March 28, 1905, Augusta Tourists minor league team surprisingly beat Detroit Tigers major-league team at Augustas Warren Park, 87, with Cobb playing for the Tourists against the team he would be playing for by the end of the year.

August 8, 1905, Cobbs mother shoots his forty-two-year-old father to death thinking he is a prowler. She contends it is accidental but will be put on trial for murder.

August 19, 1905, Augusta Tourists president C. D. Carr confirms reports outfielder Tyrus Cobb has been sold to the Detroit Tigers of the American League for $500.

August 25, 1905, Cobb plays his last game with Augusta Tourists as a member of the team. He will join the Tourists for spring practice games several times in later years.

August 30, 1905, Cobb makes his debut with the Detroit Tigers.

March 31, 1906, Amanda Chitwood Cobb is found not guilty of deliberately killing her husband. She immediately returns to her home in Royston.

August 6, 1908, Tyrus Raymond Cobb marries Charlie Marion Lombard at The Oaks, the Victorian mansion home of her parents, Roswell and Nancy Lombard, in rural Richmond County, nine miles from downtown Augusta. He is twenty-one. She is eighteen.

January 30, 1910, Ty and Charlies first child, Tyrus Raymond Cobb Jr., is born in Augusta.

October 9, 1910, Cobb sits out the final day of season to keep his lead in the American Leagues batting average race over Nap Lajoie, who almost beats him.

June 2, 1911, Ty and Charlies first daughter, Shirley Marion Cobb, is born in Detroit.

July 4, 1911, Chicago White Sox pitcher Ed Walsh stops Cobbs forty-game hitting streak.

October 11, 1911, Cobb wins the first Most Valuable Player award for the American League.

November 18, 1911, Former Augusta resident Woodrow Wilson, then governor of New Jersey and future U.S. president, sees Cobb act as a football hero in the comedy, The College Widow, in Augustas Grand Opera House.

May 15, 1912, Cobb takes insults from Claude Lueker, a New York Highlanders fan, until he finally charges into the stands and beats the man. Lueker, it turns out, had lost a hand in an industrial accident and could not defend himself. Ban Johnson, president of the American League, suspends Cobb immediately. The Detroit Tigers subsequently stage a strike in support of Cobb. Other players and managers also contend something needs to be done about fans unreasonably insulting players.

March 24, 1913, an Augusta team of players rounded up by Cobb plays the Brooklyn Superbas (later known as the Dodgers) at Warren Park in Augusta. The next day several of the Brooklyn players including Casey Stengel take up a challenge to play basketball against the local YMCA team with the YMCA team winning.

1916, Cobb becomes first athlete to star in a commercial motion picture. The movie, Somewhere in Georgia, is filmed in New York.

September 29, 1917, Ty and Charlies second son, Roswell Herschel Cobb, is born in Augusta.

September 30, 1918, Cobb says good-bye to friends before catching the afternoon train for Washington, D.C., to report for military service as a captain in the armys chemical warfare division.

December 18, 1918, Cobb, after service in France, is back in Augusta on his thirty-second birthday.

April 8, 1919, Cobb leaves Augusta to join the Detroit Tigers in Columbia, South Carolina, en route to Rock Hill, South Carolina, for an exhibition game against a team from Boston.

September 19, 1919, Ty and Charlies second daughter, Beverly Cobb, is born in Augusta.

December 18, 1920, Detroit Tigers president/owner Frank J. Navin announces the Georgia Peach will be the manager of the Tigers for the 1921 season.

February 1, 1921, Cobb is honored at a banquet in Detroit in recognition of his becoming the Tigers new manager.

July 24, 1921, Ty and Charlies last child and third son, James Howell Cobb, is born in Augusta.

August 19, 1921, Cobb makes his 3,000th hit.

May 5, 1925, Cobb has the best game in his career while playing against the St. Louis Browns in St. Louis. He hits 3 home runs, 1 double, and 2 singles. The next day he hits 2 more home runs.

August 29, 1925, Detroit fans of Cobb host a huge banquet in honor of Cobbs twentieth anniversary playing for the Tigers.

November 3, 1926, Cobb confirms an announcement by Detroit Tigers owner Frank Navin that Cobb has resigned as manager and player with the Tigers and is quitting baseball.

November 29, 1926, Tris Speaker resigns as player and manager of the Cleveland Indians.

December 21, 1926, Three days after Cobbs fortieth birthday, the Augusta Herald reports Cobb and Speaker are being investigated for an alleged irregularity involving a game played in Detroit between the Tigers and the Cleveland Indians on September 25, 1919.

January 27, 1927, Commissioner Landis clears Cobb and Speaker of any impropriety and orders them reinstated by their clubs.

February 8, 1927, Cobb accepts an offer to play for Connie Macks Philadelphia Athletics at the then staggering salary of $60,000 per year.

July 18, 1927, As a member of the Athletics, Cobb gets his 4,000th career hit with a double in the first inning, while playing against the Detroit Tigers.

May 24, 1928, Cobb plays in a game between the Philadelphia Athletics and the New York Yankees. The game features thirteen future members of the Baseball Hall of Fame including Cobb.