Perception of pre war baseball players vs other sports

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by steve B

In other sports, the way the game is played leads to huge changes in individual production.

Fran Tarkenton was great, but because of how the game was played then vs now means you look at his stats and in todays game they appear very average. There are guys being let go that have similar stats to his best year.
Many fans don't look at the over all game, just the raw numbers.
Would guys like Tarkenton and Staubach or the lower passing numbers but more durable/verstaile players from farther back be great today? I think so.

Tarkenton would be getting at least half a dozen roughing the passer calls in every game while throwing to receivers who aren't getting constantly bumped off the line of scrimmage, flattened by safeties as they ran across the middle, and hand-checked by cornerbacks as they ran down the sidelines.

Not a critique of the modern game, just an observation of how different things are.

I don't think there's any question QB's like Tarkenton and Staubach were great, no matter what era they were in.

It's when it comes to guys like Joe Namath, people get kind of over-heated with the over-rated talk. Not because they are comparing him to Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers...but to contemporaries like John Hadl and Daryl Lamonica who never got a sniff at the HOF, but who appear to have been objectively better at playing QB then Namath was.

[theshowandme]

Most 15-year-old fans today are not going to know Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Paul Waner, or Cap Anson. That is 15% of the 3000 hit club

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by theshowandme

Most 15-year-old fans today are not going to know Eddie Collins, Nap Lajoie, Tris Speaker, Paul Waner, or Cap Anson. That is 15% of the 3000 hit club

They are also not going to know Johnny Unitas, Gale Sayers, Frank Gifford, nor Bob Cousy, Oscar Robertson, Jerry West, and probably not even Stan Musial, Steve Carlton, and Roy Campanella. Time marches on, and our heroes march into the mist.

[steve B]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

Tarkenton would be getting at least half a dozen roughing the passer calls in every game while throwing to receivers who aren't getting constantly bumped off the line of scrimmage, flattened by safeties as they ran across the middle, and hand-checked by cornerbacks as they ran down the sidelines.

Not a critique of the modern game, just an observation of how different things are.

I don't think there's any question QB's like Tarkenton and Staubach were great, no matter what era they were in.

It's when it comes to guys like Joe Namath, people get kind of over-heated with the over-rated talk. Not because they are comparing him to Tom Brady, Drew Brees and Aaron Rodgers...but to contemporaries like John Hadl and Daryl Lamonica who never got a sniff at the HOF, but who appear to have been objectively better at playing QB then Namath was.

That's exactly it. I sometimes wonder what those guys could do if they were playing in todays game. I'd would figure they'd but right up with the best of the modern guys.

On the other hand, John Hannah who looked huge in his time was only 6-2 265. Today he'd be a small quick lineman.