Cobb vs. Ruth

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Posted By: Gary B.

While I do believe that players are adapted to their eras, if you took Cobb or Ruth and put them in baseball today, I believe they would do exceedingly well after an adjustment period to all the changes in style, etc. Talent is talent. I don't however think Cobb could last in today's game with the attitude he had. The game wouldn't have it today, and he'd have to become a bit more socially acceptable or incur heavy fines, suspensions and intense public hatred (of course he had intense public hatred in his day, but it didn't stop fans from coming to see him in action).

So does anyone have any definitive information based on my original post on the veracity of this legendary story of Cobb and what he said to a reporter? I don't think verifying that he did get so many bases over a two day period proves anything, other than the story has somewhere it could fit, but it doesn't say whether or not that really happened. The Cobb site I lifted it from seemed pretty sure about it's information, but it's too bizarre and legendary a thing to just accept out of hand. What about the famous Ruth story where he pointed and then hit a home run where he pointed? Any truth behind this legend?