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Posted By: Rhys

People forget that Ruth was built like a house when he first came up. He got fat late in his career, but if Prince Fielder is an athlete, Ruth is too. Hey, if you can be fat and still have girls want you while you get paid, what did Ruth really have to work out for? As for Cobb, people said Ichiro was too small and could not make it in todays American game as a place hitter similar to Cobb, how has he done with that style?

Another thing to remember is that strength training can only do so much for a pitchers fastball. If a guy like Billy Wagner at 5'7" can throw 100 mph today, it is nothing short of arrogance to think that guys could not throw that fast 100 years ago simply because they did not know as much about science and diet. The game has become better and more streamlined in general, but we are not even in an era where baseball gets the best athletes anymore (like Jay said).

No doubt Ruth and Cobb could play today. I doubt that Ruth would hit as many Home Runs because of specialized pitching, but they would both be successful major leaguers with numbers similar to Ichiro and guy like Pujols.

Rhys