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Originally Posted by Peter_Spaeth
The US population is significantly higher than it was back then, so the overall pool of potential athletes is also significantly higher. I think that combined with the influx of foreign players likely offsets any dilution from more kids focusing on football and basketball in their formative years. I don't see any dilution in the talent level, leaving our nostalgia out of the equation.
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I think you are ignoring that MLB has expanded to account for this. You had 400 or 500 roster spots to fill in the 50s and 60s. When you add the 30 MLB teams, 30 NBA teams and 32 NFL teams you have almost 2900 players in those leagues. There is no way that increase in US population and foreign players cover that increase.
You have a lot of players who would have played baseball that are not even considering it now. Instead they choose to concentrate on another sport and play it all year round. In the past they would have played baseball in the spring/summer and be open to it as a career. Just look at how few blacks there are in MLB. Only about 8%. I don't see how you can say there isn't less talent. HOF voters certainly agree that there is a lot less talent at pitcher.