Chamberlain and Russell

[wbrpanther]

But why was there more guys last yr with 40+ homers than in 1960 ?

2 to 3 times more players maybe? With smaller stadiums.

 

[Fsgolfdr]

You mean as opposed to 1960 when many black players still couldn't play in the majors because of racism?

Baseball today gets players from the Dominican, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, all of the Caribbean Some of the best players from places like Japan and South Korea come here to play. And of course there are approximately 85% more Americans today than there were in 1960, and most of them have the chance to play baseball as kids if they so choose. That most certainly was NOT the case in 1960.

In short, the pool of players that MLB draws from today is easily twice as big as it was back in 1960. Easily.

The pool might be bigger , but there’s teams like the Pirates , Tigers , Orioles, Marlins that have very few quality ball players . The players of today make so many fundamental errors it’s hard to believe some of them made it to the majors .

If you don’t think that guys like Mantle , Mays and Arron wouldn’t destroy the home run records if they played today your kidding yourself . The ball is juiced , the bats are better , the ball parks are smaller and it’s just pure physics the faster that ball is thrown the further it flies . I’m thinking there’s no universe where Alonso would out homer those fellas !

 

[Joe the Panther Fan]

The pool might be bigger , but there’s teams like the Pirates , Tigers , Orioles, Marlins that have very few quality ball players . The players of today make so many fundamental errors it’s hard to believe some of them made it to the majors .

It's as if you don't remember that there were crappy teams back in the day, just like there are crappy teams today.

In 1960 the Cubs started five guys who hit .251 or lower, and another who hit .255. And only two of those guys hit more than 9 home runs. They gave 76 innings to a guy who had a 5.63 era, 50 innings to a guy with a 6.44, and 55 innings to a guy with 7.16. And they weren't the worst team in the league. The Phillies had five starters who hit .242 or under and their home run leader hit 17 of them.

There are always bad teams. Bad teams always have players who aren't very good on them. The fact that you can pick out some teams today that have very few quality ball players on them isn't extraordinary, it's the norm.