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From: pete@umcp-cs.UUCP (Pete Cottrell)
Newsgroups: net.sport.baseball
Subject: Re: Cobb's records
Message-ID: <6330@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 6-Jun-85 02:56:19 EDT
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.6330
Posted: Thu Jun  6 02:56:19 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 9-Jun-85 23:49:37 EDT
References: <2046@cornell.UUCP> <6158@umcp-cs.UUCP> <649@fisher.UUCP>
Reply-To: pete@maryland.UUCP (Pete Cottrell)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 32

>> 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.
>

What you say is basically true, and supports statements made by the 
original author (the one who thought Cobb's and Johnson's records
were meaningless). Today, playing ball is a way to get rich, whereas
in the old days, players would quit baseball because they couldn't afford
to not have a conventional job. Thus, good players stay in the game. Many
people think today's athletes are simply superior because they are bigger,
stronger and have access to better and more specialized training. Diluted
is probably the wrong word, in retrospect; but what has happened, and
was intended in the first message, is that there have been several 
expansions in recent times that have concentrated copious amounts of
under-skilled ballplayers in one park for many years in a row, and
many teams and players have feasted on them. I know that Baltimore
was something like 23-0 against KC before the Royals finally won one.
This fact may not be anything in itself, but it is reasonable to
think that it might be one of many considerations it when discussing 
the current validity of old-time records.
-- 
Call-Me:   Pete Cottrell, Univ. of Md. Comp. Sci. Dept.
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