Quote:
Originally Posted by Jobu
This isn't how things work, but it is interesting to look at Ted's career #s if you fill in his war years with the averages of the full seasons just before and after each. He missed full seasons in 1943-44-45 for WWII and almost full seasons in 1952-53 for Korea, so I did the same exercise to fill in all five years.
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If you add these totals to his career line it makes a huge difference:
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While it is impossible to say he wouldn't have gotten injured, it is also possible that he would have outperformed the averages, especially in his prime during the WWII years, so there is both downside and upside.
If he actually had finished with these career numbers, I think people would look at him dramatically differently.
And a 1939 photo of Ted by Arthur Griffith.
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Thanks for filling in those gaps Bryan. Definitely interesting food for thought. I'll add, Ted hit 29 HR's in his last year, 1960. He would have been 23 behind Ruth. I wonder if he would have hung on 1, maybe 2, more years to break Ruth's record. How would he be viewed if that had been the case? And Aaron would have been chasing Ted's HR record instead if Ruth. Again, fun to speculate.