Quote:
Originally Posted by spit ball
No doubt? You know this how?
I think there is no doubt today's players are much better athletes and they're in much better shape. But in the past, virtually all the baseball players in a decade were about the same physically. It was no easier for them to rise above the crowd than it is now. So your argument really doesn't hold up.
I think it's fair to say that, based on the WAR chart, the better players of the past were better than the better players of the present. And there were more of them. Beyond that, your statement above might be correct. Or it might not.
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I disagree with Questdog on this as well.
I've been saying this for awhile now, but when MOST of your players (in majors and minors) are from two islands in the Carribean, something is VERY wrong with your sport.
Americans have very little athletic ability nowadays (2/3rds obesity) and the few athletes we have, go into basketball, football and extreme type sports. Baseball is "the offseason" hobby for these guys in HS and college.
But why are we talking about ATHLETES? As John Kruk stated, "I am no athlete, I am a baseball player!" And that is true...you don't have to be an athlete to be a baseball player and even then they fail Jim Thorpe, Pinch runner Herb Washington, a slew of players that never made the majors.
The way baseball is setup allows a huge hispanic population because the wages in the minors for undrafted players is a huge strain on Americans, but for Dominicans, it's a better wage than they could get staying home.
Take that into context of 1955 when segregation was gone, baseball was the #1 game in town and you had Jackie Robinson, whose 4th best sport was baseball, and everyone in the western hemisphere wanted to play baseball. That was competition and showed the cream rises to the top.
Like I stated, the best player in the game today, Mike Trout can only worry about 1/3rd of the strikezone, because pitchers and umpires are shaky using the top half of the strikezone, wherein Stan Musial had to make sure he could hit a high fatsball, a low curve, an outside changeup and hit the deck on a brushback pitch.
Baseball players better than 1910-1980's? No...not in my mind
Better athletes? Sure, sure...fragile ones. But give me a stout Nellie Foxx over athletic Matt Kemp anyday