Word: cobb
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...Roger Cobb (Steve Martin) has this little problem: the spirit of a dead woman inhabits and controls the right side of his body. The semitranssexual dilemma is no miracle of genetic engineering but rather a goof-up of Oriental mysticism. Seems that Roger, a 38-year-old lawyer drifting through a mediocre career and toward a no-thrills marriage with the boss's daughter, was named executor of the estate of Edwina Cutwater (Lily Tomlin), one of the world's richest, coldest, frailest and ditsiest women. Edwina had engaged the services of a swami, sect undetermined, to transfer...
...Cobb's drive to succeed and the intense unhappiness he suffered as a result of his fits of anger, are well portrayed in Alexander's book, which offers a striking psychological portrait of the man. But instead of using this portrait as a jumping-off point for some broader observations, Alexander is content to stick to talking about baseball as a man with a Passion might--telescopically. The approach is not invalid, for Alexander offers a fair-minded and insightful biography. But this view is limiting and, ultimately, boring for the non-fanatic...
...what exploits he performed. Cobb's statistics were mind boggling enough--more than 3000 games played, 4191 hits, 2245 runs, 893 stolen bases, and an unlikely ever to be equalled lifetime batting average of .367. But, true to the cliche, the statistics don't do justice to the kind of tyrannical dominion Cobb held over the playing field. "In general," Alexander writes, "Cobb viewed the baseball field as an area of harsh, unrelenting combat where he had to meet trick with trick.'" This outlook produced an intensely competitive player, whose willingness to take the extra base with spikes flying...
Alexander is keenly aware of trying to use baseball at large, and Ty Cobb is particular, to strike some larger themes. Just in his description of Cobb's evolving domestic life--from his childhood in Georgia through his two marriages--Alexander gives some personal sense of changing American lifestyles. And he hints tantalizingly at the industrial renaissance sweeping America in his fascinating discussion of Cobb's business acumen. For example, Cobb held massive investments in Coca Cola, which led to a lifelong security most ball players of his era, even the stars, never realized...
...action outside the ballpark. He paints an engrossing picture of a game in transition from the dead-ball era of stolen bases to the Ruthian age of the homerun, but never really shows the effects this had on baseball as a business, except to detail the contract feuds between Cobb and Tiger owner Frank Navin. He portrays Cobb as an ugly racist, but doesn't ever explore what Cobb thought about the desegregation of the game after he retired. Answering these questions might have provided an interesting glimmer of insight into American pop culture during the years Cobb lived...