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Path: utzoo!linus!decvax!dartvax!gersh
From: gersh@dartvax.UUCP (Jeff Gershengorn)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Cobb's records
Message-ID: <3174@dartvax.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 29-May-85 03:01:52 EDT
Article-I.D.: dartvax.3174
Posted: Wed May 29 03:01:52 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 31-May-85 01:50:05 EDT
References: <2046@cornell.UUCP>
Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
Lines: 44

> I can't think of a polite way to phrase this, so here goes...
> 
> Cobb's records are worthless.  He never had to face the Bob Gibsons,
> J.R. Richards, Dwight Goodens, Dennis Boyds etc. etc. of his day.
> 
> Walter Johnson's records are worthless.  He never had to pitch to
> Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Campanella...
> 
> The game is fundamentally different now that the best available players
> are on the field, whether they are of English or African ancestry, or
> whether they were born in the US, Venezuela, or Japan.
> 
> Baseball history has its prehistory with Jackie Robinson.  As late as
> 1957 (I was looking over my baseball card collection the other night...)
> about half the teams had NO Afro-americans.  This included well-known
> racist teams like St. Louis Cardinals and Washington Senators.  So the
> real modern era begins about 1964, with the passage of the Civil Rights
> Act and the acceptance of the marginal Afro-american ballplayer (not just
> the Frank Robinsons and Henry Aarons).
> 
> David Rossiter / CS Dep't / Cornell University / Ithaca / NY / 14850 / USA
> {uw-beaver,ihnp4,decvax,vax135}!cornell!rossiter (UUCP)
> rossiter@Cornell.ARPA (ARPAnet) ; rossiter@CRNLCS (BITNET)

 
worthless, huh?   to say that their records are worthless is pretty extreme.
i'll agree that it might be a bit useless to compare, for example, cobb and
rose because of the reasons you suggested, but to say that their records
are worthless isn't the way to go about it. in 20 years baseball might
have twice as many superstars as it does now, and the records that stand now
are probably not going to seem worthless. it's important to put things into 
perspective, but worthless is an ill choice of words.
 
flame me, i go home on sunday.
 
-- 
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  "Eternal nothingness is okay if you're dressed for it."
                                                   -Woody Allen

Jeff Gershengorn '88        ihnp4!dartvax!gersh
Hinman Box 1772     Dartmouth College       Hanover, New Hampshire 03755
Real World:   5 Fairway Drive    San Rafael, CA 94901
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