Quote:
Originally Posted by Brad K
Now we have objective measurements, pitch velocity, spin rate, exit speed, exit angle, etc. How does moving an old time star 60 or 70 years into the future improve any of that? It doesn't.
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I dunno. Time machines don't exist so arguments like this always come across to me as just a rationalization for recency bias.
Athletic performance should
always be measured in the context of its era. Cross-era comparisons are ultimately meaningless.
I mean, if we somehow did have a time machine and brought a 20-year-old Bob Feller to the present, then yes he would not do as well for the reasons you mentioned. But if we instead brought a 7-year-old Bob Feller to the present and gave him access to all of the modern training techniques then would he become great? It's hard to know because it's pure speculation, but instinct leans towards "probably".
And if that happened, then suddenly all of the talk about the superiority of modern athletes would clearly just be about training regimens, not the athletes themselves, and it would be even more obvious why cross-era comparisons have no meaning.