Posted By:
Greg EcklundWhile I agree that players such as Cobb and Ruth not facing the great black players of the day holds some water, I think many people have taken it overboard.
One thing that must be taken into account is where the greatest athletes of the day go to play - back in Ruth and Cobb's day if you were going to play a sport professionally, baseball was the really one of the only ways to go. In those days it was likely one of the only games kids followed, and the only game they really dreamed of playing professionally. As a result of this, Ruth and Cobb faced the absolute cream of the crop, at least with regards to white athletes.
Today, an athlete has a great amount of choices if they want to play pro sports - there are the four majors as well as many other sports where one can make a nice living. Because of this, how many potentially great baseball players are playing wide receiver in the NFL or point guard in the NBA instead of baseball? In other words, our sports are now diverse, but the athletes are given many more options with regard to the sport they want to play. It's difficult to measure the impact of this on baseball, but I would argue that it has nearly the impact on the quality of today's game as not allowing black players did on the quality of the game before the 1950's.