Sincerely Ty Cobb

LITERARY

Author Recounts Memories with Baseball Greats

By P.A. Geddie

Hank O’Neal has a fondness for the game of baseball — he says in his book Sincerely Ty Cobb, recently released by TCU Press, that just thinking about baseball magnifies the happy times and suppresses anything bad.

“I just remember the long sunny days when I had but one thing on my mind: to find someone, anyone, to catch the baseball I always had in my hand — someone who’d not only catch it, but who’d throw it back and let me hurl it at them again.”

A renowned photographer and author, O’Neal was born in Kilgore, Texas. His work has been displayed in New York, Canada, and France among other worldly places. Some of his favorite things to write and talk about surround his life growing up and traveling through East Texas.

His love for baseball started as a child hearing stories of his grandfather Curtis Austin (C.A.) Christian and the great baseball legend Ty Cobb. Christian and Cobb were teenagers together in Royston, Georgia, and then were semipro teammates around 1899-1900.

The O’Neal family was living in Fort Worth when young Hank got serious about playing baseball and was thrilled to learn about his grandfather’s experience. He was grateful C.A. took the time to play ball and teach him about the game.

After his family moved to New York in 1954, Hank hung around MacArthur Stadium and “pestered” players of the Syracuse Chiefs. During this time, he also began writing letters to major league players, both active and retired. Ty Cobb, who was known as the “nastiest man in baseball,” was kind and supportive with Hank and they became pen pals in 1955.

O’Neal kept 12 pages of handwritten letters from Ty Cobb along with cards and notes from other Hall of Fame players. Sincerely Ty Cobb is illustrated with the memorabilia and traces 10 years of his own life in baseball as well.

The book contains colorful snippets of his collection and memories of many players throughout its 145 pages. Baseball enthusiasts find enormous treasures. But even a novice feels the simple nostalgia that perhaps conjures their own memories of neighborhood ball games, picnics, the sound of the ball hit by a wooden bat, crowd support of an unfortunate strike out, the cheers for hitting one out of the park, and the rush of a barely safe home run.

Coincidentally, the two biggest baseball influences in Hank’s life are both buried in cemeteries called Rose Hill, although they are 790 miles apart. His grandfather C.A. Christian, is buried in Tyler, Texas, and Ty Cobb is buried where the two made their turn-of-thecentury memories in Royston, Georgia.

Find Sincerely Ty Cobb wherever good books are sold. To learn more about O’Neal, visit www.hankoneal.com.

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