Ty Cobb left his mark on baseball in the 1910s. In every year except 1916, when Tris Speaker hit .386, Cobb won the American League batting championship. The "Georgia Peach," as he was nicknamed by Garland Rice, posted a lifetime batting average of .366, which remains the major league record. He batted better than .400 three times. Playing during the "deadball" era, Cobb also excelled as a base runner. In 1915 he stole 96 bases, which remained a major league record until 1962, when Maury Wills stole 104. Cobb, though, stole home thirty-five times, which remains a major league record.

Sources:

Benjamin G. Rader, Baseball: A History of America's Game (Urbana & Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992);

David Quintin Voigt, American Baseball: From the Commissioners' Game to Continental Expansion (University Park & London: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1983).