[Al Simmons]

Not so fast, Kimo Sabe. Yes, Ruth played in a segregated era, but an era when ALL THE BEST athletes played baseball. Even though baseball is long since integrated, you can validly make the argument that, with the prevalence of football and basketball, the best black athletes - and white athletes - are no longer playing baseball.

Secondly, the only valid comparison is the comparison of a player against his League competition, during his time. Crunch the numbers, and you'll find that there isn't even a close second. Ruth revolutionized the game by out-homering entire teams during much of his career. Oh, and he could pitch a little bit, too...

[munchtipq]

Absolutely. This was really my point, that there were so many differences between then and now as to make statistical comparisons of individual players isn't worth anything. I could have used the example about other professional sports becoming more popular just as easily as the example I used for the same purpose.

So there is little validity to the argument that steroids are bad because they make such comparisons less valid, because such comparisons are invalid anyways.