Sport stars from the past

That guy is an idiot. Walter Johnson is regarded as one of the, if not the hardest throwers in baseball history. Ruth is the greatest hitter in history, and would be successful in any era.

 

That's just it. Sports moves on a curve as athletes get bigger, faster (and in the case of baseball pitchers, radar guns get altered by teams and broadcasters. I swear every pitcher in both leagues has gained 5 mph on the ball since 2004) and stronger. So you have to assume that, say George Mikan, who was the biggest player in the sport at 6-11, would today be the biggest player in the sport at about 7-6, with muscles. Jack Nicklaus drove the ball 280 with a persimmon head driver at age 22. At age 22 today, he'd have a metal driver and the souped ball of today, and so on.

 

So true. But Spnited, he'd have a helluva lot of 50-point games playing against the bums that are on the court today.

 

Considering global scouting and the exponentially larger talent pool, I'd say very few former stars would be stars of the same magnitude today. The competition they faced was considerably weaker.

 

compared to the 6'8" bums that were trying to guard him.

 

There are no current NBA centers who are anywhere near as good defensively as Bill Russell (even at 6-9) or Nate Thurmond, who was 6-11, 240 and played Wilt very tough.

Wilt would chew Dwight Howard up and spit him out.

 

Those are the exceptions, but just pure size and athleticism the players he would be playing against now are better. I have no doubt that he would still dominate but Drips comment about bums is ridiculous

 

Agreed, JC. But Wilt also was a lot quicker than people realize.

 

A few point here.
1, You really need to stop trolling me.
2, I may be wrong but judging from your actions here and the silly comments you make, I don't think you're old enough to have seen Wilt play. I saw him play and I'm talking about in person, not on TV, or in old video clips.
3, I have the right to voice my opinion about talent. You can disagree and that's fine but why must you try to start an argument? WTF is that about JC? You have a knack for doing that on almost every post you make. Give it a break.

 

If Mikan had been born in 1988 instead of 1924, he would have had weight training, strength/speed training, etc etc, and he would be Kevin Love.

If Mikan the player from 1950 was dropped into today's NBA, no, he couldn't play. Almost nobody could.

Kevin McHale's game was also very similar to what I've seen and read of Mikan.

In all sports, the stars would still be able to play (although not necessarily dominate). It's the replacement-level players who would be sent back to the sandlots. Scrub infielders/outfielders of the 1950s wouldn't make Class AA today. Bench guys from the 1950s NBA would be playing at the YMCA today.

 

I've had modern baseball players tell me that Ted Williams wouldn't make it in today's game with his swing.

For all the Walter Johnson love here, the guy threw practically underhand. I can't imagine that would work today.

I think an interesting analogy is to look at individual sports.

In the 1936 Summer Olympics, the winner of the 1500 meter freestyle swim won the event in 19:13.7.

In the 2008 Summer Olympics, the winner clocked the distance at 14:40.84.

In the 1936 Summer Olympics, the winner of the 200 meter breaststroke covered the distance in 2:41.5.

In the 2008 Olympics, the winning time was 2:07.64.

 

Easily. So would Joe Louis. And Frazier.