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Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
Just hard to know. In every other endeavor human athletic performance is dramatically different from 100 years ago, why would baseball be different? It doesn't take anything away from the players of that era to judge them relative to their time. But people want to think you could pick up Cobb and Ruth and drop them into today's game. Why?
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I agree with Peter (for once). I've already mentioned Jim Thorpe earlier, the baseball, football and track star.
Many track and field events are primarily individual records. Tell me in what event would Thorpe have qualified to represent the USA in the Olympics in 2021.
We all love the history of baseball, but one hundred years is a long time to hold a track record. Bob Beamon's long jump at altitude in 1968 is the only one that comes close and not very close at that (only 23 years).
Perhaps Jim Thorpe wouldn't be lapped by a four minute miler, but it wouldn't be close at the finish.
George Mikan played with all those little white guys. What if Kevin Durant played in the 50s. Yikes!!!!
Otto Graham vs Tom Brady in the Super Bowl. Long odds indeed.
Many major league baseball players in the 50s were heavy drinkers and sold used cars in the off-season. Do you really think they could hit Aroldis Chapman? When was the last time a major league player even owned a used car, let alone sold one?
Or go back 150 years if you want to. Would not drones and smart bombs have made a difference in the outcome of the Civil War if only the Confederates had had them? Gettysburg could have been obliterated before lunch on the first day.
Athens was nearly wiped out in the Peloponnesian War not by the Spartans, but by an infectious disease, a mere 2 1/2 millennia ago. I believe the world record in the marathon is better now than it was during the Peloponnesian War.
Romanticize all you want about Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth, Honus Wagner et al, but I would venture to say that most Triple A batters today could do as well against Walter Johnson as they are doing now against Triple A hurlers.
I will not give any examples but politicians may be the exception.