Hall of Fame centerfielder Ty Cobb handwrote this illuminating six-page letter on March 27th, 1960. Cobb, 73 at the time, was in failing health and would succumb to illness just over a year later in July of 1961. Cobb wrote this letter on six pages of Ramada Inn of Scottsdale, Arizona letterhead, in his familiar green ink. Cobb addresses the letter to a woman named “Marie, and in the beginning describes his failing health by noting how he gets “a swimming of the head” and “a peculiar appetite”, likely due to the cobalt treatments he undertook for his diagnosis of prostate cancer. Living under the whims of chronic illness was a shock to a man as competitive and athletically talented as Cobb, who describes himself as “rather puzzled by [his] condition” on the second page of the letter. Despite his condition, Cobb writes about his desire to catch a few ballgames in San Francisco before spending several days in Lake Tahoe.

Later in the letter, Cobb states that he “will have Muddy Ruel down to visit” him. Ruel, a former catcher for the Washington Senators, among other teams, was a frequent guest of Cobb and a great admirer for both his business acumen and how Cobb treated other Major League veterans who did not experience the same financial success as “The Georgia Peach”. After the slight digression regarding Ruel, Cobb pivoted in this letter to offering “Marie” a job with him, stating that she would be “in no way a servant at any time, though [she would] take care of everything”. Cobb finishes the letter by signing “Sincerely, Ty” and adding a lengthy postscript that reads “P.S. In last week have felt a little unsure with dizzy feeling that + little appetite bothers me, though it might be an out of insulin balance”.

This letter is a surprisingly vulnerable offering from a baseball player known for his prickly attitude both on and off the field. Cobb retired from baseball with 4,189 hits, then the most of all-time, and a .366 batting average, which still stands as the highest career mark in baseball history. He was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 1936 as a member of its inaugural class. This six-page letter is written entirely in green marker on 6 x 9.5-inch stationary. This item comes with a LOA from Steve Grad of Beckett Authentication (A89965).

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