Posted on 08/22/2006 5:09:48 PM PDT by Pharmboy
How does El Hombre match up against the Sultan of Swat? This spring, Washington University scientists, at the request of GQ magazine, put Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols through a series of tests similar to those given to Babe Ruth 85 years ago — tests ranging from finger tapping to visual responses to bat speed.
The results? Both men aced the tests, and their results were strikingly similar.
In 1921, psychologists at Columbia University put Ruth through scientific tests to try to determine what made him great. He had faster than average reflexes, steady nerves, and superior sight and hearing.
The same holds true for Pujols. At Washington University, clinical neuropsychologist Desiree White and cognitive psychologist Richard Abrams and their colleagues gave Pujols tests resembling the ones Ruth took. Both men were 26 and top hitters when they were tested.
GQ features some of the results of the Pujols tests in its September issue.
For one test, White put a piece of paper in front of Pujols. Capital letters were strewn about the page. White told Pujols to locate and cross out all of the As.
White realized she'd never seen anyone scan the page the way Pujols did. Most people scan a page left to right, the way they do when they read. Pujols visually divided the page into sectors and searched each one briefly for the letters before moving on to the next sector. When he'd searched all sectors, he returned to the first and started over. It took him four rounds and a minute to complete the task.
"I've never seen anyone scan that way, but it would be important on the baseball field," White said, noting the skill would allow Pujols to scan the field and know where everyone is without missing any action.
In another test, Pujols replicated 133 symbols in a minute — a testament to Pujols' hand-eye coordination. The test makers don't even list a score that high.
In a test of finger-tapping speed, Pujols tapped at 2.4 standard deviations faster than average — placing him in the 99th percentile.
"It just doesn't get any better than that," White said.
In fact, Pujols popped the screw right out of the finger tapper. He was contrite, even fixed the machine, tightening the screw with a fingernail.
White said Pujols' performance on any one test doesn't explain his abilities; it's the whole package that probably counts.
"My hypothesis would be that there's something special about how he puts it all together" on the field, she said.
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Information from: St. Louis Post-Dispatch, http://www.stltoday.com.
Unfortunately Clemente died...
Too bad too. He would have made a serious run at 4000 hits I think....
Wow, interesting trivia....
Talk about a name from the past.
Bobby from Houston
Did they give him a HGH test while they were at it?
I would have guessed Mays. And I can't argue about Williams.
Me neither. I'm a Ty Cobb kind of guy myself.
I'm not thrilled with the way award winners are chosen in baseball anyway.
I was watching a Tiger game on ESPN a few weeks back and the guys in the booth were talking about potential MVPs. They were saying that Tiger 3rd baseman Brandon Inge should have gotten an MVP award but won't because the Tigers didn't get national coverage for the first half of the season.
Basically they said Inge would be an MVP lock IF he played for the Yankees or the Red Sox.
Cobb played in the dead-ball era when home runs were rare. Even Ruth had few HRs before 1920 when the live-ball era began, but both hit with power and had high averages.
Ty Cobb was the better player. Look at how many recrods Cobb set versus how many Ruth set. It's not even close. Noboby played the overall game better.
Agree, but add Honus Wagner for the same reason.
Cobb didn't like homer runs because he felt they were boring. He prefered to get on base then steal bases.
Only so he could spike the shortstop.
Cobb's lifetime average of .366 remains a record.
No way.
Ruth would have been a Hall of Fame pitcher had he not been such a great hitter.
Cobb couldn't pitch. Ruth was better.
There's not a chance in Hades that a 3rd baseman who is hitting .244 is going to reel in a MVP award.
Is he underrated? Without a doubt - that isn't debatable in the least. But MVP? Not quite.
Cobb could put the ball anywhere on the field he wanted. He finally quite because he started hiting under .300. How good would Ruth have been without that 211 foot fence at Yankee Stadium. Given the rest of the Babe's appetites, how long would he have remained a pitcher, a position that requires a bit more fitness than batting.
Cobb was clearly the better overall player.
Agreed. Also, there is the story about Cobb (I do not know if it's true) that when asked about his lack of home runs, he told the reporter to watch him that game--he went out and hit two. Just to show that he could do it...
If nothing else Inge deserves a golden glove but won't get it for the reasons I stated.
I just think that awards should be taken out of the hands of sports writers and be given based on a specific sets of standards.
"You can have your Cobbs, your Lajoies, your Chases, your Bakers, but I'll take Wagner as my pick of the greatest. He is not only a marvelous mechanical player, but he has the quickest baseball brain I have ever observed." - John McGraw
And that was pretty much the concensus opinion back when the 1st Hall of Fame class was inducted.
"One of Five Immortals elected to Cooperstown in the inaugural-year balloting, Wagner had his lack of flair and extravagant anecdotes to blame for later-day wonder that some early-century spectactors regarded him as superior to Ty Cobb." - Authors Donald Dewey & Nichols Acocella in The Biographical History of Baseball (1995)
The stats tell it all. No one ever lead the major is more categories, for a game, season, or career than Ty Cobb.
Granted, he was perhaps the meanest SOB ever to play, but he backed it up on the field.
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