>>>How much of an impact would black pitchers have had back in Ruth's day when they've never constituted much more than 1% of the pitchers in big-league baseball even after the color barrier was broken?
Would dark skinned Latin Americans like Pedro Martinez or Jose Contraras been able to play back in the segregated days? Just asking, I don't know. But an inclusion of dark skinned Latins might bring those numbers up.
This is absolutely true, which to me shows just how futile the whole comparison between different eras can be.
On a related note, I read an article a couple of years ago about the growing number of Latin American ballplayers, and was astonished to see how few black Americans actually play in the major leagues these days. Barry Bonds is apparently part of a diminishing racial cohort in this regard, as even some players who I had assumed were "regular" (for want of a better description) black Americans are actually of Latin American descent (NY Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams, for example).