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From: pete@umcp-cs.UUCP (Pete Cottrell)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Cobb's records
Message-ID: <6158@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 30-May-85 01:50:36 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.6158
Posted: Thu May 30 01:50:36 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 31-May-85 05:38:32 EDT
References: <2046@cornell.UUCP>
Reply-To: pete@maryland.UUCP (Pete Cottrell)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 38

>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.
>

Do you mean THE Dennis Boyd, possessing a lifetime 16-21 record and
a 3.93 ERA? I can see Ty shaking now...

>Walter Johnson's records are worthless.  He never had to pitch to
>Mays, Aaron, Clemente, Campanella...
>

...or to Ruth, Gehrig, Cobb, Sisler...

>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.
>

or whether the talent is diluted with 26 teams instead of 16, or with
fielders wearing baskets on their hands for gloves...

You said it yourself: the game is fundamentally different, and I think the
best you might expect from most people is that they consider ALL the
differences when comparing records or careers. But to say that the old
records are worthless suggests a lack of due consideration or a 
tongue-in-cheek submittal to get things stirred up (either of which is ok,
I guess, since we are all here to talk ball and hopefully learn something).
So I, for what it is worth, cannot agree with your black/white interpretation
of a very gray area.

Boy, talk about your can of worms... ;-)
-- 
Call-Me:   Pete Cottrell, Univ. of Md. Comp. Sci. Dept.
UUCP:	   {seismo,allegra,brl-bmd}!umcp-cs!pete
CSNet:	   pete@umcp-cs
ARPA:	   pete@maryland