When he’s not giving up multiple runs in first few innings of a game like he did this weekend, Sox starting pitcher Jose Contreras, who turns 100 this year, is working on an autobiography that dozens of baseball fans are looking forward to reading.
One particularly interesting aspect of the book will be the account of his relationship with the “Georgia Peach” himself, hall of famer Ty Cobb. According to the publisher, Contreras talks at length about the time he spent rooming with Cobb on road trips during his days with the Tigers.
Surprisingly, excerpts from the book released in promotional materials suggest the two were close.
“It took a while for us to warm up to each other,” Contreras writes of Cobb who last played in 1928 and died in 1961. “It was tough to get past his constant racial slurs, and by that time, he had started to go insane. But once we started drinking and going to cockfights together, we became fast friends. Really, to know Tyrus was to love him.”
From the May 2009 issue by Brian Summerfield
