What if they used today's baseballs?

[asphaltman]

Modern players would collapse if they had to resort to late night saloons and two packs of cigarettes a day? I'm failing to understand the perspective of how you could even remotely say you can't compare today's athletes to yesterdays?

[PolarBear]

Originally Posted by asphaltman

Modern players would collapse if they had to resort to late night saloons and two packs of cigarettes a day? I'm failing to understand the perspective of how you could even remotely say you can't compare today's athletes to yesterdays?

I'm pretty sure all the vintage era players didn't booze it up and smoke two packs a day. Even if true, that kind of undermines your point. Imagine how much better vintage era players would be if they didn't smoke two packs a day.

As far as not being able to accurately compare modern day and vintage era athletes, I already explained it. If you don't understand, I can't help you any further.

[packs]

Originally Posted by asphaltman

Modern players would collapse if they had to resort to late night saloons and two packs of cigarettes a day? I'm failing to understand the perspective of how you could even remotely say you can't compare today's athletes to yesterdays?

Think about the relief pitcher of today. He would never have a roster spot on a team from the 30s. His career would never materialize because his services would have been considered useless.

Even the best starters in today's game would see their employment prospects drop when it was revealed they couldn't throw more than 100 pitches in a game. And how would they handle having to face a line up like the 27 Yankees for a third time in the same game?

Joe Wood probably tore his shoulder in half while he was pitching, so what did he do? He became an outfielder who hit close to 300 instead. How many pitchers today could do something like that? Or would even attempt to?

[asphaltman]

Picking the 27 Yankees as the bar to which today’s pitchers would fare is an obvious swayed argument. Of course most pitchers today would be run from the game pretty quickly. But that’s picking one of the best hitting teams of all time, at least statistically. But how would a Jacob Degrom handle them? I’d say at least better. How many pitchers did the 27 Yankees face that threw a mid 90s slider? How would the Yankees have handled a Randy Johnson in his prime?

We can pick whoever we want. A typical fifth starter today I would think could have 7 quality starts out of 10 pitching against the 1907 Boston Doves.

[packs]

I guess I don't really understand why the perception is that someone like Babe Ruth couldn't hit a 90s slider. Why not? He obviously had an insane eye for the ball to be able to hit for the power and average he did. Same for Gehrig, same for Ted Williams or Ty Cobb. Why wouldn't they be able to hit any ball anyone threw in any time period? Speed has very little to do with success at the professional level. It always helps, but it's not like there aren't a thousand guys out there throwing 98 who aren't successful major league pitchers.

[asphaltman]

Originally Posted by packs

I guess I don't really understand why the perception is that someone like Babe Ruth couldn't hit a 90s slider. Why not? He obviously had an insane eye for the ball to be able to hit for the power and average he did. Same for Gehrig, same for Ted Williams or Ty Cobb. Why wouldn't they be able to hit any ball anyone threw in any time period? Speed has very little to do with success at the professional level. It always helps, but it's not like there aren't a thousand guys out there throwing 98 who aren't successful major league pitchers.

I’m not saying Ruth wouldn’t have hit home runs today. But would he be the elite home run hitter in MLB? There’s a reason to me there were numerous players that hit over .400 prior to World War II. I think it’s partly due to the starting pitcher pitching the whole game. We know pitchers are throwing harder now then they did years ago. Just in the last 20-25 years we’ve went from a couple guys that hit 100 on the radar to every team having 2-4 guys that do it. I also wonder back in the day how often was a ball put in play by say Rogers Hornsby credited as a hit where today the same play might be an E-5?

[darwinbulldog]

I think it has more to do with the groundskeepers than the scorekeepers.