Albert Pujols: As a Cards' fan I'm biased, but...

[oykib]

Originally Posted by kcchief19

That said, there are plenty of other obstacles Ruth and Gehrig faced that today's players don't. They played in inferior conditions with poor fields. Travel conditions were a nightmare compared to today's chartered first class jets. There were no conditioning or training programs for anybody. In the end, I think it was largley a wash.

But I think the most relevant comparison of statistics is to compare players to their peers, not to other generations. That's why Ruth will always be the greatest player of all time. He hit more home runs in a season than entire teams in the league.

You have to compare both to the peers and across generations to determine who the best is. If you don't, then all the best players in history were white guys born in the nineteenth century.

That last Ruth statistic sounds nice, but doesn't mean much. He was lucky to have been born when he was. But that has nothing to do with his greatness. He wouldn't be hitting 250 homers a year if he were playing today. You put Travis Hafner back in ruth's time and he'd outhomer whole teams too.

[Fonzie]

Originally Posted by Warhammer

Is that the Star Wars Death Star or the Return of the Jedi Death Star?

The original Death Star. The RoJ Death Star had no mobility, which would be crucial when taking on a squad of Ditkas.

Also, are the Ditkas post-heart attack or pre-heart attack Ditkas?

Doesn't matter. Cardiac arrests mean nothing to Ditka.

[Warhammer]

Originally Posted by Fonzie

The original Death Star. The RoJ Death Star had no mobility, which would be crucial when taking on a squad of Ditkas.



Doesn't matter. Cardiac arrests mean nothing to Ditka.

OK, easy Post-heart attack Ditka

[Huckleberry]

Originally Posted by oykib

You put Travis Hafner back in ruth's time and he'd outhomer whole teams too.

Doubtful.

Unless you mean put him in a time machine with his current equipment. Because if he had grown up with 1920s training "regimens" and using 1920s bat technology there's no way what you say is true.

Anyway,



edit to add - And the other guy forgot perhaps the most important thing. While Ruth didn't play against blacks or foreigners, he also only played against 7 other teams in his league. He faced Walter Johnson, for example, 7 or 8 times a season. Nobody these days faces a single dominant starter that many times in a season. And back in the 1920s they certainly never got to face the 100th best starting pitcher around. There are about 150 starting pitchers playing now. At least 50 of them suck.

[oykib]

Originally Posted by Huckleberry

Doubtful.

Unless you mean put him in a time machine with his current equipment. Because if he had grown up with 1920s training "regimens" and using 1920s bat technology there's no way what you say is true.

Anyway,



edit to add - And the other guy forgot perhaps the most important thing. While Ruth didn't play against blacks or foreigners, he also only played against 7 other teams in his league. He faced Walter Johnson, for example, 7 or 8 times a season. Nobody these days faces a single dominant starter that many times in a season. And back in the 1920s they certainly never got to face the 100th best starting pitcher around. There are about 150 starting pitchers playing now. At least 50 of them suck.

There are many more good pitchers today than in the past. Ruth didn't just not face the best black and Latin ballplayers. He also didn't play against half the best white ballplayers. Scouting was a haphazard endeavor in those days. If you were a good white ballplayer west of the Mississippi, you weren't very likely to make it to the majors. That's not even mentioning the fact that many good ballplayers were making good money in the minors, which were nothing like the minors of today, and may not have even wanted to come to the majors.

Also, you seem to be in the misguided group that thinks pitchers aren't as good today as they were in the past. Pitchers used to pitch bunches of complete games in the past because there weren't many powerful hitters and there was no specialization. So, pitchers just coasted for most of the game and saved the juice for big situations. Now #8 hitters'll take you downtown if you try shit like that.

And the Hafner reference was to the fact that if we tranported him back in time, he'd have outhomered the league. But if we brought Ruth forward, he wouldn't be able to do the same.

[MizzouRah]

Pujols, 3-3 so far today HR (19) and 3 RBI (47)