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John(z28jd) I have an article from the Boston Golbe dated Sept 11,1919 and theres a story about Babe Ruth and him breaking the single season home run mark.The interesting part was they took a picture of Buck Freeman who was a coach in the minors at the time and did a short interview with him.Unlike most retired players,he said the players were better now(1919) then they were back in his day,and the fields were bigger too.
At the time of the article,Freeman was considered the man who held the record for single season homers with 25 in 1899.I guess because Ned Williamson wasnt alive in 1899,he wasnt there to argue the fact that he hit 27 in 1884 and shouldve been the record holder till Babe passed him.Besides Williamson,over half of his teammates from that season(12 of 20) werent alive still in 1919,just 35 years later,and most of them were in their mid to early 20s in '84