Steroids or no, the average contemporary athelete could run circles around players of decades ago. Methinks old-timers are jealous. Plus, they forget about all the booze and whores Mickey and Babe consumed.
Talent and skill are other matters altogether. I won’t take anything away from DiMaggio, Rose, or Williams when their records are eclipsed. But just look at the footage. There are guys in the league with wrists bigger than Jim Rice’s legs. Okay, that’s an exaggeration, but you get the point.
I was listening to an ESPN affiliate in L.A. and they mentioned that Derek Jeter may’ be the only one who doesn’t take drugs but who knows.
Then someone in Seattle chimed in: Ichiro Suzuki who should be the first man to hit 200 plus in 9 seasons. Now that’s God-given talent.
Players of today are just fitness junkies and exercise demons with skills. IMO. You want power. Look at Enos Slaughter. Ted Williams and Ty Cobb would be great in whatever era of baseball they played. Christy Matheson and Warren Spawn would still win 20 games now, 100 or 50 years ago. Bullet Bob Feller was throwing 100 mph or greater 60 years ago. As for size and power, Josh Gibson could compete any time, any place.As for Hank Aaron, no steroids, corked bats or other crap needed. And with today’s surgery technique’s, Mantle’s knee’s don’t linger forever. And Joltin Joe’s ankle is AOK.
And don’t get me started on Jim Brown, Deacon Jones, Sammy Baugh, Gale Sayers, or Ernie Nevers or even Jim Thorpe. Tell me an athlete today that is better than Thorpe. I don’t see one.
Better diet,exercise and medicine do not make a better ballplayer.
Athletes are bigger and stronger today, no doubt. But there are other things to consider. In baseball anyway, the ball IS livelier, so it will travel farther. back in the day, most pitchers threw a fastball and a curve and some perhaps a change. And they had to make do with that. Today their are many more pitches to throw (slider, slurve, sinker, knuckle curve,etc.) and it has become a science as much as it is a feat of coordination and strength. Perhaps these new pitches are simply an evolution brought about by necessity when the ball became so much more lively.If athletes are better today it is as much due to advanced training techniques as anything else. hell, I recall watching baseball on TV in the 1950's and seeing the players smoking in the dugout.
Jim Rice was a very powerful man back in his day. He comes across as smug and superior though.