Al Stump

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Al Stump (October 20, 1916December 14, 1995), was an American author and Sports writer. Stump spent a great deal of time with Ty Cobb before Cobb's death. Stump wrote two books on Cobb and a handful of magazine articles about the time the two men spent together. The books are titled My Life in Baseball: The True Record and Cobb: A Biography.

My Life in Baseball was ghostwritten by Stump. Cobb: A Biography was a follow up piece written after Cobb died. It was a reflection by Stump on his time with Cobb.[1]

The Stump autobiography came out a few months after Cobb's death. Thirty years later, Stump revised the book and included his own experiences with Cobb.

Contents

[edit] Work with Cobb

Stump found Cobb rather difficult to work with most of the time and totally impossible when drunk.[citation needed] Despite the troubles, Stump stuck it out mostly because he feared Cobb's reaction if he tried to leave.[citation needed] From the time the two spent together we now have two books and a movie, each of which offers a slightly different point of view of Cobb's life.

During a visit to the Cobb family mausoleum in December 1960, Cobb told Stump about the murder of his father, and pointed the finger at his mother.[citation needed] Cobb had used the mausoleum as an attempt to reunite his family members in death, disinterring some of them to do so.

The Stump autobiography came out a few months after Cobb's death. Despite Cobb's unpleasantness, the book (My Life in Baseball by Ty Cobb) painted Ty in a sympathetic light. Thirty years later, however, Stump extensively revised the book (Cobb: A Biography), including his own experience with Cobb and capturing the man who was so disliked by so many of his contemporaries. In 1994 the writing of the book was used as the basis for a film starring Tommy Lee Jones as Cobb and Robert Wuhl as Stump.

[edit] Articles and books by Stump

  • Al Stump, Cobb: A Biography (Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin, 1994).

[edit] References

[edit] External links