Perception of pre war baseball players vs other sports

[Peter_Spaeth]

We've touched a little on this in part, but to put it more directly.

In baseball, any list of all time greats by any serious fan is going to be dominated by pre-war players: Ruth, Cobb, Gehrig, Wagner, Johnson, Young, Mathewson, and so on and so on.

Football? Not one would make the list for the vast majority of fans, maybe Nagurski in a footnote.

Basketball? Nobody pre-Bill Russell (1956 debut), maybe Mikan in a footnote but not a serious one. And the advent of Black players doesn't explain it, baseball too was lily white until 1947.

Hockey? Maybe a couple of players like Morenz, but the lists are dominated by players starting in the late 40s (M Richard, Howe).

Soccer, has anyone even heard of a pre-war player?

Tennis? Maybe Bill Tilden in a footnote, but otherwise all modern.

I could probably go on.

You could quibble a bit with the above, but it's hard to deny there is a HUGE disparity between baseball and all other sports in terms of the status and stature of pre war players.

Why?