“…the negro should be accepted wholeheartedly and not grudgingly. The negro has the right to play professional baseball and who’s to say he does not.”

If you answered, Ty Cobb, you would be correct.

Apparently, the first time Cobb was asked about race was after he retired in 1953, when a reporter for the Sporting News asked him what he thought about the integration of the Texas League.

Check out Charles Leerhsen’s new book, Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty.