Trout v. Legendary cards

[Exhibitman]

Seems to me that the advantages run both ways, hitters and pitchers, and have more to do with things done to the game itself than with the athletes.

You cannot assume that a person born in 1920 would come out the same if he was born in 1990. That applies to hitters and pitchers. In other words, Ted Williams today isn't the same physical specimen as Ted Williams in 1939 because of a lifetime of proper training, medical and nutrition. I mean, the voodoo medical and training of the prewar era was laughable. Players were told not to work with weights because it would make them "musclebound". Players were denied water during spring training because of an erroneous belief that drinking water caused cramps.

The conditions of play were vastly different as well. Stadiums were constructed with poor sight lines for batters. Fields were tailored for the home team. For example, by the late 1960s pitchers' mounds were so tailored to a Koufax or Gibson that hitters barely hit. The rules were changed to limit the customization of mounds and the game rebalanced. New balls were not substituted as often. Players routinely played double-headers. Travel was horrible. Today players go from car to plane to bus to first-class hotel, all with appropriate heating and AC. Prewar players had to ride trains with no HVAC to hotels in sweatboxes like St. Louis in August with no AC. I took a no-AC train in Europe when I did my student trip. It was miserable. You don't sleep all night because it is so hot and stuffy, and the sweat just pours off you.

The team composition goes both ways. Sure, black players were excluded, reducing the pool of possible players by about 20%, but there were also 50% fewer MLB slots for the whites who were allowed to play. Unless you believe that a higher % of black players would have made the majors than was the norm with white players, you cannot argue that losing 20% of the pool overrides having 50% fewer slots for the applicants. That just doesn't make mathematical sense.

I kind of like the WAR concept because it negates much of these effects. WAR over 100:

1. Babe Ruth+ (22) 182.5 L
2. Walter Johnson+ (21) 164.5 R
3. Cy Young+ (22) 163.8 R
4. Barry Bonds (22) 162.8 L
5. Willie Mays+ (22) 156.2 R
6. Ty Cobb+ (24) 151.0 L
7. Hank Aaron+ (23) 143.1 R
8. Roger Clemens (24) 139.2 R
9. Tris Speaker+ (22) 134.2 L
10. Honus Wagner+ (21) 130.8 R
11. Stan Musial+ (22) 128.3 L
12. Rogers Hornsby+ (23) 127.1 R
13. Eddie Collins+ (25) 123.9 L
14. Ted Williams+ (19) 121.9 L
15. Pete Alexander+ (20) 119.0 R
16. Alex Rodriguez (22) 117.5 R
17. Kid Nichols+ (15) 116.3 B
18. Lou Gehrig+ (17) 114.1 L
19. Rickey Henderson+ (25) 111.2 R
20. Mel Ott+ (22) 110.7 L
21. Mickey Mantle+ (18) 110.2 B
22. Tom Seaver+ (20) 109.9 R
23. Nap Lajoie+ (21) 107.3 R
24. Frank Robinson+ (21) 107.2 R
25. Mike Schmidt+ (18) 106.9 R
26. Lefty Grove+ (17) 106.7 L
27. Greg Maddux+ (23) 106.6 R
28. Christy Mathewson+ (17) 106.0 R
29. Randy Johnson+ (22) 101.1 R
30. Albert Pujols (20, 40) 100.6 R
31. Joe Morgan+ (22) 100.5 L
32. Warren Spahn+ (21) 100.1 L