if we only could have known .. once in the early part of the 1900`s a young man who was born in royston georgia came to huntsville alabama to try and earn a living playing semi pro baseball .. there were so many baseball teams in existance then that the owner of the local mill village team offered the fellow a position as an unpaid player .. the young man had a glove but not any money to buy his own uniform.. the young man had asked for 65 $ a month salary also .. the team owner burst out laughing and told the young man to get a real job .. he`d never make it as a ball player .. the young man left huntsville and headed north and wound up in detroit where he ended up playing for the local team .. that team later became one of the best teams in the country and Ty Cobb ( the young man ) was a large part of the reason ... along this same line .. Ty Cobb rarely gave interviews but did on one ocassion give one to a young reporter .. the reporter noted cobbs lifetime batting average of 389 and noted that that average was accumilated againt mostly straight fast ball pitchers then asked the near 80 year old man what he thought he would average hitting against todays pitching with knuckleballs , sliders , and big breaking curves .. mr cobb thought a second and said he was pretty confident he could still hit better than 300 .. the reporter thought mr cobb was being too hard on himself ..mr cobb replied saying " well young man .. you got to remember i`m nearly 80 years old now ..