Here's a famous photograph. (Yes, it's some windy baseball lore, for a day with no baseball.)
It fits so nicely with the legend of Ty Cobb, does it not? The man who would do anything, however vicious and underhanded, merely to gain the next base. He'd probably sharpened his spikes before hand.
He hadn't. Cobb didn't actually sharpen his spikes, the better to maim poor unsuspecting infielders. That was merely one of the scary stories the other players liked to tell about him, possibly to frighten the rookies, and Cobb was happy to let them think it might be true.