According to Zillow, the house Cobb rented at 17 E. Newfield Way has a value today of $1,115,500,
Writer and historian William C. Kashatus wrote in the Main Line Times in 1998 – Determined to be the greatest ballplayer of his era, [Ty] Cobb refused to leave the sport when he was forcibly retired by the Detroit Tigers in 1926 for allegedly conspiring to fix a game earlier in his career. Lacking any hard evidence, Baseball Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis proclaimed Cobb’s innocence and allowed the 41-year-old outfielder to sign with Connie Mack’s Philadelphia A’s.
Not wanting to sell the family home in Augusta, Georgia, Cobb leased a spacious Tudor-style house at 17 E. Newfield Way, Bala Cynwyd, and relocated his wife and three of his four children there on April 2, 1927.
Even without Cobb, Mack’s 1927 A’s were an excellent team, featuring the likes of Mickey Cochrane, Jimmy Dykes, Max Bishop, Joe Boley, Sammy Hale, Al Simmons and a 19-year-old Jimmy Foxx. The same crew would win back-to-back-back American League pennants (1929-1931) and the World Series in 1929 and 1930. A 40-year-old Eddie Collins also played for the 1927 A’s.
Through no fault of Cobb’s, who played in 133 games and hit .357 (his career average was .367), the stacked 1927 A’s ended the season in second place, 19 games behind the even more stacked ’27 Yankees.
In 1928, the Athletics came in second again, but this time by only 2.5 games. And maybe if time hadn’t finally caught up with the Georgia Peach, they might have caught the powerhouse Yankees. But as Kashatus wrote – While his mind and his batting eye were as sharp as ever, his legs betrayed him. At age 43, he always seemed to be a step behind, unable to take the extra base, steal third, or catch a sinking line drive.
Cobb’s illustrious career came to an unceremonious end at Yankee Stadium on September 11, 1928, when he pinch-hit for Jimmy Dykes and was out on a pop fly to Yankee’s shortstop, Mark Koenig.
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