[eDebate] A Seasonal Debate

[Terrance Shuman]

De-cloaking again, briefly...

At 04:01 PM 7/30/2003 -0700, Duane Hyland wrote:

>The real question is, what would Babe Ruth do against a Randy Johnson 
>fastball?

With all due respect, that's just nonsense.  In his entire career to date, 
Barry Bonds has faced Randy Johnson only 78 times in more than 8600 
at-bats.  Surely you aren't suggesting that a typical major league pitcher 
nowadays throws like Randy Johnson.  As for Babe's era, they had a pretty 
good pitcher named Johnson, too (he joined Ruth in the first-ever 
Hall-of-Fame class).  You'll have a hard time proving that Randy throws 
harder than Walter did...

And what about that Barry/Randy matchup?  In his 78 at-bats against Randy, 
Bonds has only two homers, but his other hitting numbers are consistent 
with his career stats:  .278 BA, .409 OBP, .528 SLP.   Bill James puts it 
this way:  In any offensive event, the hitter is the dominant element, the 
pitcher the recessive element.  No pitcher, for instance, gives up home 
runs as often as Barry Bonds hits home runs...

>the speed and variety of pitches is a lot faster than back then

That just isn't so.  There were plenty of hard-throwers back in Ruth's era, 
and doctoring the baseball was a MUCH bigger part of the game back then as 
well.  Heck, for most of the Babe's career *spitballs* were legal.  Plus, 
you ignore the fact that the leagues are MUCH bigger now, meaning that more 
mediocre pitchers have relatively lengthy major league careers (can you say 
Jeff Suppan?).  Those same experts you cite will be the first to tell you 
that the talent pool is more diluted at the major league level now than it 
was in Ruth's era.

>The game is a lot faster than the game Ruth played.

Faster HOW?  We've already dealt with the hard-throwers issue.  Unless you 
mean something else, this "faster game" stuff is nonsense.

>Besides, I favor Roberto Clemente for all time great...but that's me.

I understand.  I'm sentimental too (Al Kaline is my favorite right-fielder 
of all time, and I've never lived anywhere near Detroit).  That's part of 
the joy of the game, eh?

Solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and...well, not so tall as I used to be,

Terrance Shuman
Bishop LeBlond Memorial High School
St. Joseph, Missouri