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Any current players that might play their way into the discussion?
It's really hard because of PEDs. Nothing is real anymore. That's not to say that all players use them, but it's just so hard to figure who does and who doesn't.
Take a guy like Big Papi. He CLEARLY uses. Look at his and Manny's numbers before they got to Boston. Same with A-Fraud. And although he's never been directly implicated, I have my doubts about Pujols.
Occasionally you get these physical freaks of nature come along like Josh Hamilton, but their bodies break down, and their numbers follow.
Bryce Harper is Mantle-like physically, but I really wonder about his psychological makeup.
But even if you ignore PEDs, there's no one out there who's a Ruth or Jordan or Gretzky, IMO. I don't even know that there's anyone with the potential to be called the all-time greatest player at his position.
We just had one of those retire, in Mariano Rivera, but that's only a specialist position. He wasn't the greatest Pitcher of all time, but definitely the greatest reliever.
In other sports, LeBron is interesting, but I don't think he'll surpass Jordan. To me, Jordan is like no one else in any sport. His incredible physical skills were matched, maybe even exceed, by his mental toughness and competitiveness. I think he was probably the greatest athlete of all time, overall.
Looking in on this thread again I have no idea where it has gone, but I'm not arguing the physics of Ruth's sweet, so very sweet, beer and hotdogs immortal swing.
Argued with a friend. "Everyone took performance enhancing drugs". Absolutely, they were called vitamins, up until 1980, maybe 1990, they'd have punched you in the face if you suggested sticking yourself with people parts. I'm certainly not saying Rick or Lit shot themselves up with people parts, but if they did they'll be sorry because it shrivels your testicles. If you have really big balls though you might want smaller testicles, it's not for me to say how you make your balls smaller in this country, that's up to the Tea Party to work on, though they pretend they make them bigger but really don't. If you have really huge balls you may want balls reduction surgery, or you can coat them in brass and argue with everyone like I do.
Argued with a friend. "Everyone took performance enhancing drugs". Absolutely, they were called vitamins, up until 1980, maybe 1990, they'd have punched you in the face if you suggested sticking yourself with people parts. I'm certainly not saying Rick or Lit shot themselves up with people parts, but if they did they'll be sorry because it shrivels your testicles. If you have really big balls though you might want smaller testicles, it's not for me to say how you make your balls smaller in this country, that's up to the Tea Party to work on, though they pretend they make them bigger but really don't. If you have really huge balls you may want balls reduction surgery, or you can coat them in brass and argue with everyone like I do.
It's 7:51am.... I'm drunk, about to go to bed... And I still do't know what the fk just happened in this post.
I can tell you EXACTLY why that was. And it has nothing to do with race, equipment, pitching or playing conditions. It's simple physics.
No player ever had a swing like Ruth's until he did. It's a line in Field of Dreams that Ruth copied Shoeless Joe Jackson's swing. That's subject to dispute, but even if it did, Ruth perfected it and was stronger, quicker through the strike zone and had better eyes than Jackson.
Ever see films of Ty Cobb? He held the bat with his hands six inches apart! Players before Ruth were hackers. Choppers. The had short, controlled swings.
Ruth's power came from staying back on the ball, transferring his weight and rotating his hips with perfect timing, and generating ridiculous bat speed thanks to powerful, fast hands that swung through the zone into a huge full cut. The key to Ruth's power was centrifugal force, power and talent.
He literally revolutionized the game. Changed it forever, from a "Get'em on, get 'em over, get 'em in" game to one in which the Home Run is king.
He is, to put it in hockey terms, Bernie Geoffrion (inventor of the snapshot), combined with Howe and Gretzky.
Sure would love to see modern like footage of Babe Ruth instead of the hyper sppeeded up video of him. I guess i'll settle for John Goodman's rendition haha.
Interesting. After he rode out the wave of scandal I was curious to see if the site had legs.
I remember that one fateful day when Coach took me aside. I knew what was coming. "You don't have to tell me," I said. "I'm off the team, aren't I?" "Well," said Coach, "you never were really ON the team. You made that uniform you're wearing out of rags and towels, and your helmet is a toy space helmet. You show up at practice and then either steal the ball and make us chase you to get it back, or you try to tackle people at inappropriate times."
It was all true what he was saying. And yet, I thought something is brewing inside the head of this Coach.
He sees something in me, some kind of raw talent that he can mold. But that's when I felt the handcuffs go on.
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