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Posted By: steve

Jay - Very good points that you brought up. All those points are well known to longtime baseball fans such as myself. Obviously you are a longtime fan also. Debating players and statistics from different eras of course is always conjecture but good fun nevertheless. That being said I will never change my mind that Ruth is the greatest baseball player of all time with Cobb being second. The debate is for third best throwing a blanket over about 15 players with Bonds being in there.

I started watching baseball games in the early 60s through the present. I have watched many thousands of games on TV. Been to many hundreds of games. Baseball players definitely have not gotten better. I have spoken to dozens of baseball fans who watched games in the thirties and forties and they firmly agree with that. Baseball players have gotten stronger and faster but baseball is a game of finesse as well as athleticism - you know that. The pitchers back then were better pitchers, not just throwers as many are today. Pitching is not only just about speed - you know that. Football and basketball players have gotten much better and most players from the pre-WW2 era and into the fifties would obviously have no chance competing in today's game. But a baseball All Star team from back then would consistently crush any All Star team of today in a seven game series.