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Sure, athletes today are bigger, stronger, faster, etc on average. But that does not mean that there weren't great players who wouldn't be great today. Would they match their incredible stats? No. There's no way Cobb is going to hit .420. But Cobb was a tremendous athlete and might have been the greatest competitor ever...as crazy as he was. He'd probably be among the league leaders in a number of categories...something like Suzuki. Ruth would not average .340, but he might hit more homeruns. He had a fantastic swing and incredible power. As documented by Bill Jenkinson in his book "The Year Ruth Hit 104 Homeruns", nobody has yet hit baseballs as far as Ruth hit them. Even the steroid freaks didn't hit them as far.

Another note. When Rogers Hornsby (thought by some to be the greatest right-handed hitter of all time) was in his middle to late fifties, he was hired as a hitting coach for several different teams in the 1950s. He looked like your fat grandpa as he gave hitting instruction to certain players. Several times the players, after being unable to do what Hornsby instructed them do, handed him the bat to see if he could do what he was telling them to do. Hornsby angrily took the bat out of their hands and commenced to hit balls off the outfield wall or into the stands. The younger by about thirty years players watched with their mouths open not believing what they were seeing.

Ah-Ha!!

Jimmy the Greek 1988: “The black is a better athlete to begin with because he’s been bred to be that way....’’

Former Olympian Michael Johnson 2012: ‘’The Descendants Of Slaves Have Athletically Superior Genes’’

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2167996/Why-progeny-slaves-strike-gold-Olympics.html#ixzz1zY3mPwbe

I remember back in the 50s or maybe early 60s I was watching “You Bet Your Life” with Groucho Marx. I am not certain but I think he had Casey Stengel on the show.

They talked baseball for a few minutes and Groucho clearly knew his baseball. He asked Casey who was the greatest ever. Stengel replied “Ty Cobb, no one else was even close”. Groucho agreed with him and then asked how he thought Cobb would do against modern pitching.

Casey said he would hit around 270. Groucho said “well that doesn’t sound that good to me”. Stengel replied “well you have to consider Cobb is in his 70s now.

I thought it was funny, of course they probably had it rehearsed.