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From: david@fisher.UUCP (David Rubin)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Cobb's records
Message-ID: <649@fisher.UUCP>
Date: Mon, 3-Jun-85 09:01:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: fisher.649
Posted: Mon Jun  3 09:01:51 1985
Date-Received: Tue, 4-Jun-85 06:14:26 EDT
References: <2046@cornell.UUCP> <6158@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Organization: Princeton University Department of Statistics
Lines: 18

> or whether the talent is diluted with 26 teams instead of 16, 

The greatest myth perpetuated by the old-timers!  Those 16 teams were
lily-white.  Since there no more white players today in the majors
then there were pre-Robinson (then: 16*25=400; now, at most: 
.6*26*25=390) and since baseball is a much more attractive profession 
in real financial terms then it was in Cobb's day, we can conclude
that there is NO evidence that talent has been diluted.  Indeed, there
is reason to believe that talent is more concentrated then it was then.

Please don't throw back any red herrings about the decline of the
lower minors; fact is, most of the top performers entering the game
today play in college, from whence they can often go straight into AAA.

These are the good old days.

					David Rubin
			{allegra|astrovax|princeton}!fisher!david