Cobb Diary in Halper Collection Was a Fake

Nearly ten years ago, the auction to end all auctions garnered international headlines.

The Barry Halper Collection, seen by only friends and acquaintances, was about to be sold. Thousands of unique, rare and one-of-a-kind items were offered in an auction that took place at Sotheby's in New York.

The auction was so large and so impressive it took a two volume catalog to hold it. The catalog itself became a collectors item, with the two books housed inside an outer case for storage on a shelf. Many of the items sold for big bucks.

But collectors didn't get everything.

In the fall of 1998, the Baseball Hall of Fame received what was purported to be a diary kept by Ty Cobb. Research has shown that the stories told inside were not in Cobb's hand at all.

Hall of Fame broadcaster Ernie Harwell--no slouch behind a keyboard either--shakes out the rest of the story.