Nearing the end

Ty Cobb with the Philadelphia Athletics

Ty Cobb, the legendary Detroit Tiger now playing out a final season with the 1928 Philadelphia Athletics, makes the last start of his magnificent career 96 years ago today during a 5-1 victory over the White Sox before a Thursday afternoon crowd of 8,000 at Chicago’s Comiskey Park.

The 41-year-old Cobb, playing right field for the A’s, picks up a single and double in five at-bats off the White Sox’s Tommy Thomas before leaving after ending the top of the eighth inning with a groundout.

Cobb does not record an out or an assist during his seven innings patrolling right field.

Ty Cobb in 1928, his final season

The A’s start five future Hall of Famers in that game – Cobb, pitcher Lefty Grove, catcher Mickey Cochrane, left fielder Al Simmons and Jimmie Foxx, normally Philadelphia’s first baseman who is making a rare start at third.

Cobb appears in only nine more games – all off the bench – for the A’s and goes 1-for-9 in those games before retiring after 24 seasons, finishing with a .323 batting average to mark his 23rd straight season of batting at least .316.

“I am just baseball tired and want to quit,” Cobb tells the New York Times shortly before the end of the 1928 season.

“I will be leaving baseball with a lot of regrets and still with a light heart.”

But not first without getting one final payday as Cobb joins a group of major leaguers touring Japan after the 1928 season.

Cobbs’ cut of the trip reportedly is $15,000 – the equivalent to $276,000 in 2024 dollars.

After that trip, Cobb never plays again.