KANSAS CITY—The Negro Leagues Hall Of Fame announced Monday that Ty Cobb, who led all white baseball players with 27 lynchings in 1907, would lead its inaugural class of indictees. "Even though many of the members on our committee weren't around to have their lives affected by Mr. Cobb, the mere stories of his performance on the baseball field—like when he choked the wife of a black groundskeeper during an argument at Warren Park—are enough to convince us that he deserves this recognition, and potentially an even deeper investigation into his accomplishments in this area," said Buck O'Neil, who presented Cobb's granddaughter and the Royston, GA district attorney with a plaque detailing the numerous race-motivated offenses Cobb had been accused of, from the 1909 knifing of a black night watchman to a 1919 incident in which he called a chambermaid a 'nigger' before knocking her down, kicking her in the stomach, and throwing her down the stairs of the Hotel Pontchartrain. "This is long overdue." Cobb joins Jake Powell, Cap Anson, Barry Bonds, John Rocker, and 3,185 others who will be indicted in an NLHF ceremony August 3.