The Writer's Life 5/31 - Glad & Sad

Recently, Kyle Smith wrote an op-ed piece in the NY Post defending a street vendor who charged clueless tourists $30 for a hot dog, citing the responsibility of consumers in a capitalistic society to educate themselves. Although I found his argument sound, I still believe the vendor is slime. Smith's article in today's Post again goes contrary to popular opinion. He writes about a new book, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty by Charles Leerhsen, that refutes much of what is believed about the Hall of Famer. Here are excerpts, condensed, tweaked and edited by yours truly:
"The two things everyone knows about Ty Cobb are that he was a phenomenal baseball player and that he was the worst racist ever to play the game. But one of these things is mostly wrong. In Ken Burns’ Baseball, Cobb is called 'an embarrassment to the game.' Most notoriously, we all know that Cobb stabbed a black waiter in Cleveland and was a member of the Ku Klux Klan. Except none of these allegations is true... far from being the most notorious racist in baseball history, he was an early and vocal supporter of integrating the big leagues. Contrary to legend, he was not a Southern redneck but an upper-middle-class boy often derided for acting aristocratic in the locker room, where he would read literary novels and biographies of Thomas Jefferson and Napoleon. Both of his parents were genteel. His father, a state senator and 'something of a public intellectual' in Leerhsen’s words, once broke up a group of men plotting a lynching and was an outspoken advocate for the public education of black Americans. Even back in the 1920s, Cobb would befriend Negro League ballplayers such as Detroit Stars infielder Bobby Robinson, who said 'there wasn’t a hint of prejudice in Cobb’s attitude.' One of several blacks employed by Cobb, Alex Rivers, named his son after the ballplayer and said, 'I love the man.' And there was Cobb’s behavior toward a 16-year-old black team mascot, Ulysses Harrison. Ballboys were badly treated at the time, paid pennies and sometimes unceremoniously dumped on road trips if they were thought to be bringing bad luck. The Detroit News referred to Harrison as 'a pickaninny' and 'the Ethiopian.' Cobb became the youth’s 'main defender and patron' and on [segregated] sleeping trains let the kid sleep below his berth, hiding him from view with luggage so no one would detect him. He also let the kid share his room at segregated hotels. Tommy Lee Jones starred in the biopic Cobb (1994). The director, Ron Shelton, told Leerhsen, 'It’s well known that Cobb may have killed as many as three people.' Asked where he got this information, Shelton said only, 'It’s well known.' Shelton admitted to Leerhsen that he and Al Stump, ghostwriter of Cobb's autobio, simply fabricated a scene in which the elderly Cobb tries to rape a girl in Las Vegas but fails because of impotence. Cobb was preparing to sue to stop publication of the book when he died in 1961. The real Cobb, in later years, funded a hospital and started a college-education fund for kids. In response to fan mail, he’d send letters as long as five pages. Today’s Cobb-hatred comes mainly from two sources: the mistakes Charles Alexander made in his 1984 biography, and Al Stump, whose work was banned from several publications because of its inaccuracies. Leerhsen's research found that several of the blacks Cobb had allegedly harmed were actually white men."
Kudos to Leerhsen and Smith.

As I was setting up shop, an Asian family of four stopped to check out the books. I noticed that the woman, who seemed no more than 30, had picked up Close to the Edge. Her husband pointed out my picture on the back cover. To my surprise, she bought it. Her adorable elementary school age daughters were thrilled with the beautiful children's book I offered them. My thanks. After that there was a long period of idleness, finally broken by Anna-Marie, who was talking a mile a minute and continually rubbing her face. I assumed she'd taken speed. It was heroin. She claims to have fallen off the wagon after a year-and-a-half abstinence. 25, she started drug use at 18. Her father was an alcoholic, fortunately not a mean one. Her mom was a hoarder. Although not a beauty, she is attractive despite her abuse, and expresses herself well. She used to steal shampoo from drug stores and sell it to feed her habit. She says she never engaged in sex to finance it. She's currently living at home with her mom and two teenage sisters. One of the walls of her room is black, another pink, another blue and the other orange. I resisted mouthing platitudes. I really didn't know what to do other than listen, especially when her attention was drawn to Rising Star and its subtitle Sex, Drugs, Rock n Roll. I let her have it, although I later wondered if her mom would be pissed when she saw it, that is, if it ever made it home. Who knows -- she might sell it? I also gave her Eric Butterworth's Discover the Power Within You, the only self-help book I had on hand that might address her situation. I felt helpless and powerless, and I'm not optimistic about her future.

Vic's 5th Novel: http://tinyurl.com/okxkwh5Vic's 4th novel: tinyurl.com/bszwlxh

Vic's 3rd Novel: http://tinyurl.com/7e9jty3

Vic's Short Story on Kindle: http://tinyurl.com/k95k3nx
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Vic's Rom-Com Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/kny5llp

Vic's Horror Screenplay: http://tinyurl.com/cyckn3f

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