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Posted By: jay behrens

True, the 19c game was very different, but from 1900 on, it's essentially the same. The same tools are needed to be successfull. Pitchers are less likely to be successful today becuase the pitching style has radically changed from 1900 to date. Hitting hasn't changed too much. What made a great hitter back then makes a great hitter today. Although I think a lot of top hitters today might not fare so well in the older game becuase swinging for the fences doesn't transelt well to the deadball era. My orignal post was strictly about the talent of player, nothing else.

Your population numbers are also misleading. Even though there was smaller pool to draw from, there were no other sports drawing top athletes away from baseball, only the stigma that many in society placed on being a ball player and the low pay. Today, you have basketball, football, hockey and the X sports drawing many top althletes away from baseball. So saying there is a pool of even 500 million available to draw from, doesn't mean much since many of those athletes are going to sports other than baseball. So even with a 10 fold increase in the pool of athletes, the number of available options for athletes has increased much more than that. With the popularity of baseball waining among athletes, the pool is propably even smaller, but the athletes that are getting there are much better trained.

Jay

I love pinatas. You get to beat the crap of something and get rewarded with candy.