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| No | 31% | 33 votes | Total: 107 votes | |
| Yes | 69% | 74 votes |
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Add to FavoritesCould the baseball teams of today beat the teams of yesteryear? I have to answer with an astounding NO! Now, let me explain why.
The teams of yesteryear new "how" to score runs. They did not rely on home runs and power. If they happened to hit a home run, great. And if they didn't hit a home run they new how to move the runners around to score.
Look at big hitters this year like Ryan Howard, he is a huge disappointment this year. He has struck 64 times in 162 at-bats. That is almost half of his at-bats. So if he is not hitting a home run he is going to strikeout because he is swinging for the fences.
Back in the early 1900's up into the 1970's, guys weren't swinging for the fences. They were swinging for contact. Once they got on base, they used every bit of skill and knowledge they had to cross the plate. When was the last time you saw a suicide squeeze, or a bunt-and-run. These plays fizzled out in the 80's. Sure, you might see one from time to time but teams used to count on these plays to score runs.
Fifty years ago, those guys knew how to scrap out a game and fight for a win. Not to mention the work ethic they had. Some guys in the early 1900's had almost 50 complete games not appearances, not to mention almost 500 innings. These guys today are too fragile and/or lazy to get to that level. Now as soon as the hit 100 pitches the bullpen is getting loose.
I can understand the pitchers, because if you pay a guy millions to throw the ball you don't want him hurt. But the hitters have no excuse. These hitters today, if they are down 2 in the 9th with no one on they still go for a homer even though it won't get them anywhere. Just one run closer then the next guy comes up looking for homer and strikes out. I see it every day in every close game. Since the steroid era is over it is like everybody forgot how to play baseball.
The only teams that play "real" baseball anymore is the Pirates and the Devil Rays. Aside from them, no one knows how to scrap out runs and get wins. So I definitely think that in a game between yesteryear all stars and stars of today, the yesteryear's would definitely win hands down.
The bottom line is, there are no pitchers ever going to see forty wins or fifty or more complete games. There are no hitters that are going to play every inning of every game, because they think they need their rest. And you will never ever see a single baseball player going to his other job when the season is over. The players these days are lazy and there is no other way to explain it.
Learn more about this author, Jeffrey Sammerson.
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Yes
The conversation that compares teams now to teams then no matter the sport is one that is endlessly fascinating and baseball is one of the easiest sports to compare because it, more than almost any other sport, is filled with statistics and numbers while having less interaction of strategy. But there are three reasons that the team of today is overall better than the teams of yesterday. Money, sports medicine and pool of players to pick from. None of these are particularly fair, but they exist and to have any discussion comparing the teams we have to acknowledge them.
Money is the most frustrating of the three because many of us wish that money were a smaller part of the sports we love, but the truth is that it has a major effect on the quality of players. In the early years of baseball playing the game meant living on less money than many other people, as well as long bus rides and not seeing your families. There were always men willing to play, but now a young man who wishes to go into baseball as a career, who is truly good, can justify spending hundreds of hours training in a way they couldn't have before.
The second major advantage that modern teams have is one we all appreciate. Sports medicine has allowed players to continue long after they would have retired in the previous generation of baseball players. Pitchers are most effected by this but all players are able to stay in the game longer and experience count in this game. Even those who remained in the game a generation ago often did so at a diminished capacity. Who knows what some of the great pitchers of old could have done if they hadn't been in constant pain while pitching.
The final of my three points is the one that is most important though. Baseball teams today gather the best player from all over the world bringing them to America, while even after the integration of baseball the choices for the teams were much smaller. No one would have thought to bring in a Japanese player fifty years ago. This does not make any one player better than the best players of that time, and I have little doubt that the superstars then would be superstars now, but with ten times as many people to choose from there should be ten times as many great players.
It is impossible to know of course how big of an effect things like love of the game, and teamwork played into the success of these teams and just as now the sum of the parts often became bigger than the individual parts but on a general scale simply looking at the types of teams that exist it seems unlikely that the teams of yesteryear could truly stand up against those who play now.
Learn more about this author, Elton Gahr.
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