Ty Cobb holds court aboard 'Cooperstown Express'

On the night of June 12, 1939, a trainload of baseball legends traversed the vast virescent hills of upstate New York following a joint appearance at the newly opened National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown. "Nearly all the living Hall of Fame men were on the train—Ruth and Grover Cleveland Alexander and George Sisler," noted Francis Stann, a sportswriter with The Washington Star. "But Cobb, sitting at a table with Walter Johnson, held the center of the stage." As each man enthusiastically recalled their run-ins with "The Georgia Peach," Cobb sat back with an incredulous look on his face before chiming in.

"There are a lot of old stories," explained Cobb, "but honestly, some of those about me are exaggerated to beat the band. I hear about a time when I walked to first base, stole second while the pitcher held the ball, went to third when he threw it into center field and scored when I drop-kicked the outfielder's throw to the plate into a dugout. But doggone if I remember it."

As the chatter subsided, a reporter asked Ty if he would still play the same style of baseball under "modern" conditions. "What's the use?" Cobb groused. "What good is one run? Now there are four or five fellows in every lineup who can hit the ball over the fence and score half a dozen runs. . . . No sir! I'd just go along and take a good cut and try to knock the ball as far as I could." About this time, Walter Johnson began to laugh.

"Yes, he would—not," joked Johnson. "If he came up now, he'd play the same way. It's the only way he ever knew how to play . . . hard, rough, and better than anybody else." A huge grin enveloped Johnson's face as he collected his thoughts. "By gosh," he exclaimed, "if Cobb was a-running bases today a lot of our modern pitchers would have to learn how to hold a man on base in a hurry. He'd steal the gold out of their teeth in one trip around the circuit." — BK2 
                                                                                                                                   ◾Source: Stann, Francis. "Win, Lose or Draw." Washington Evening Star. 14 June. 1939: C1.