[1][2] In 1960, sportswriter Al Stump is hired as the ghostwriter for an authorized autobiography of baseball player Tyrus Raymond "Ty" Cobb.

Although Cobb is seriously ill and prone to frequent physical breakdowns, including sexual impotence, he retains considerable strength and also keeps several loaded firearms within easy reach at almost all times, making the outbreak of violent confrontation a constant possibility.

A cigarette girl, Ramona, becomes interested in Stump, but when Cobb barges into the hotel room, he's in a jealous rage.

He knocks Stump out, takes Ramona to another room, where he physically abuses her, while still failing to achieve sexual arousal.

Stump comes to just in time to see Ramona storm out of Cobb's room, viciously mocking the player as "Georgia trash."

Stump soon goes from just being Cobb's ghostwriter to a general caretaker for the player, making sure Ty takes his various medications during the trip.

During the Hall of Fame dinner, A hallucinating Cobb becomes haunted by images from his violent past as he views film footage of his career.

Having mockingly called Al "Al-imony" in reference to the writer's impending divorce, Cobb helps Stump finally accept that his marriage is over.

Real-life sportswriters Allan Malamud, Doug Krikorian, and Jeff Fellenzer and boxing publicist Bill Caplan appear in the movie's opening and closing scenes at a Santa Barbara bar as Stump's friends and fellow scribes.

Tommy Lee Jones was shooting this film when he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for The Fugitive.

In addition to his partially shaved head, Jones also endured a broken ankle, suffered while practicing Cobb's distinctive slide.

The site's consensus states: "Tommy Lee Jones's searing performance helps to elevate Cobb above your typical sports biopic; he's so effective, in fact, that some may find the film unpleasant.

"[5] Peter Travers of Rolling Stone hailed it as "one of the year's best" and Charles Taylor of Salon included it on his list of the best films of the decade.

Owen Glieberman of Entertainment Weekly gave the film a "D", claiming it to be a "noisy, cantankerous buddy picture" and presented Cobb as little more than a "septuagenarian crank".

He explained: "By refusing to place before our eyes Ty Cobb's haunted ferocity as a baseball player, it succeeds in making him look even worse than he was.

"[citation needed] Roger Ebert's review of December 2, 1994 in the Chicago Sun-Times described Cobb as one of the most original biopics ever made and including "one of Tommy Lee Jones's best performances," but he notes Stump (played by Wuhl) and his lack of development in the film.

[citation needed] Previously, in 2010, an article by William R. Cobb (no relation to Ty) in the peer-reviewed The National Pastime, the official publication of the Society for American Baseball Research, had accused Al Stump of extensive forgeries of Cobb-related baseball and personal memorabilia, including personal documents and diaries.

Despite the shotgun's notoriety, official newspaper and court documents of the time clearly show Cobb's father had been killed with a pistol.