1919 Ruth vs 2021 Ohtani

[Peter_Spaeth]

Originally Posted by packs

I think baseball had it's Michael Jordans and Wayne Gretzkys far earlier in its lifespan than basketball and hockey. Nothing could convince me that Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig wouldn't have been monsters in any era. Do you think Cobb wouldn't be able to handle a guy like Aroldis Chapman? He'd have to adjust for sure but he hit 366 over three decades of changes to the game in his own time.

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 as they were and drop them into today's game. Why? Why is baseball different?