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Dr.Koos...against his peers, in his own time. In the early 20's, correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think man had even traveled at 200mph as of yet in the fastest of planes. Today's planes take off at 200 mph, and top fuel dragsters routinely run a quarter mile going 0 to 330 mph. over a quarter mile in under 5 seconds. Could you imagine Bronco Nagurski (a GIANT in his day) trying to crash his way through lines of scrimmage riddled with 6'6" 325 pounders that squat 750lbs, bench 500+ and run 40s in under 5 seconds!!! This is the age of specialization. The first 400 pound bench press wasn't achieved until well into the 1930s and it was purely GYM feats without rules. Today, there's been almost 50 men who have benched 700+ in competition, with two men achieving 800 lbs. If you could take Kiu Tuita, at 5'10", 365 lbs. and 13% bodyfat and send him back to compete against strength athletes of the 20s, he would so not resemble any living man that anyone at that time had ever seen, that they would think a Silver-backed Gorilla escaped from the zoo and mated with a human! Even 30 years ago, for a man under 200 pounds to bench 500, was an impossible dream! Today, George "Superman" Halbert, at 193 pounds has benched 710 pounds in sanctioned competition!!! 60 home runs, no problem..how about 70..how about 80!!! (right around the corner I'll wager). And I can well imagine that Bonds would have hit 100! ..hitting against the average pitchers of the 1910's to 1930's (the Bonds of today). But see, that's the drawback, the hole card, the unseen..you CAN'T displace these athletes through time because they would become a PRODUCT OF THEIR TIME'S ATHLETICISM.
You can't watch a film of Jack Johnson, then watch a film of Tyson (in his prime), and say, "Johnson would have won, or vice versa". They DIDN't fight each other. Ruth never faced Clemens. Cobb never faced Gossage in the late 70's in late innings. Hubbel never tried to strike out Clemente, DiMaggio, Sosa, Griffey and A-rod in succession. More than likely, Jack Johnson would have folded like an accordion after receiving his first Mike Tyson uppercut, like everyone else. There was NObody back in his day that could lift 200 pounders off their feet with an uppercut like Iron-Mike..how could he have trained or prepared for that? Comparisons of ballplayers spanning decades are impossible to make with any assurity. We can compare Williams to Dimaggio, and Mantle to Mays because they were peers and played under the same time of athletic technical advancements, but to compare these four to Hugh Duffy and Pete Browning is near impossible. There just isn't enough common ground besides the stats themselves which DON'T take into consideration the changing level of play and athleticism.
09-01-2002, 05:59 PM
BaseBall Survivors
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