Charles Krauthammer demonstrates good moral reasoning in a smack down piece on Barry Bonds.
Equal access to technological improvements are one thing (like switching from the old dead ball to the new baseball in 1920). Getting better eye sight through an operation available to everyone (like lasik) is even okay. But turning your arms into tree trunks using illegal substances is cheating.
I would like to see baseball records segmented by historical period. Joe Jackson and Honus Wagner set records back in the dead ball days that were eclipsed once the new ball was introduced. Ruth and Aaron's achievements were done in the golden era without the use of steroids. Bonds and McGwire's records should be in the steroids era.
It seems to me that the pitching would be WAY better now than it was back in those "eras." Isn't that a huge factor to be added to the equation?
Could those older guys even hit off of today's pitchers?
Posted by: | June 04, 2006 at 02:18
Some of the old pitchers were pretty remarkable, though.
Christy Mathewson invented pitches others had never seen before.
Walter Big Train Johnson threw so hard that even Ty Cobb found him unhittable -- at least when Johnson threw his fast ball early in the count.
That said, your point is well taken. Today's batters do face some hard throwing pitchers -- and the notion of intentionally having 5 or 6 pitchers in one game was unthinkable in earlier eras of the game. Johnson used to throw complete games -- no middle relief, no late middle relief, no closers. Same pitcher the whole game.
I still like the idea of segmenting baseball records by era. Am I wrong? Let me hear a good argument.
Posted by: Mr. Dawntreader | June 04, 2006 at 15:13
Check out the height of the pitcher's mound ... when it was raised and why. Some pretty interesting stuff there.
Also, think about the number of teams in baseball back in the days ... you always faced somebody of high caliber, not some guy starting with a 8.58 ERA.
My grandfather, who passed away at age 90 grew up in Philly across from old Shibe Park, continually lamented the state of pitching in the 80's and early 90's.
Good discussions, Joel and Mr. D, feel free to swing by for a beer by the firepit and some b-ball chats whenever you get into the Triad of NC!
Later.
Posted by: BWB | June 05, 2006 at 21:21
I would like to see baseball records segmented by historical period.
The problem with this is, how do you determine when one historical period ends and another begins? The edges are bound to be blurred. For example, you can't fairly say that Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier ended the era of segregation in baseball; it wasn't until minority players became common that this era ended -- but when was that?
Also, does an expansion qualify as an event that separates eras, or not?
Better to list the records as they are, and let the fans do the debating about their relative merits.
Now if it's proven beyond reasonable doubt that Bonds did cheat (and I believe he did), then such records should indeed be disallowed or at least asterisked.
It gets fuzzier with McGwire, because while he did use performance-enhancing substances, and while most of us believe this constitutes "cheating," there was no rule against it at the time he did it.
Posted by: tgirsch | June 08, 2006 at 12:38