The Slider, And Baseball's False Sense of Timlessness?

I really like Chris Rock; I heard him the other day saying that Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth should have an asterisk next to their records because they did not play with blacks. This, combined with Bonds' chase got me thinking: doesn't this kind of assume the level of competition would have otherwise been similar? Isn't that false in and of itself, with or without steroids?



The game is not the same; humans are not the same physically or mentally.



But let's stick with on the field...



The slider: has revolutionized the game and impacted it in so many ways that it is impossible to compare pre-slider baseball with post slider baseball.



While slider-like pitches were being used since baseball began, we can agree that it didn't become a major part of the game (used by most pitchers) until well after WW II.



The slider has meant more injuries, more strike outs, and more homers (hanging sliders). If one pitch has so many variables, can we really compare Ruth/Bonds in any meaningful way?The Slider, And Baseball's False Sense of Timlessness?
If you really want to compare era's, you can't look at pitches that were thrown, but rather how one player compared to his peers in one era -vs- another.



In 1927 when Babe Ruth hit 60 HR's Lou Gehrig was 2nd with 47 then everyone else had less than 20. He actually had more HR's than any other TEAM in the AL (Only 3 in MLB had more).



Cobb, wasn't quite as dominant -vs- his peers, he was a great hitter though.



In Comparison -

Bonds hit 73 HR's in 2001. EVERY other team had at least 120. 4 players had over 50 HR's.



Now, all that being said, Bonds (whether he cheated or not) is probably the best hitter of all time, however, no player dominated an era even close to the way Babe Ruth did. And had Ruth played in the "post slider" era, I'm sure he would still have dominated (remember, the spitball was widely used in Ruth's era). Ruth had the ability (like todays hitters) to adjust to pitchers and he would even "trick" them into throwing the same pitch 2x, he'd swing wildly and miss at a pitch on purpose, daring the pitcher to throw it again when he'd be waiting to crush it.The Slider, And Baseball's False Sense of Timlessness?
I think the key to analyzing any statistics is to compare them to the norm of the era in which they were achieved. GPC has done that with his answer. The important thing to remember is that any sport will evolve. Basketball certainly is a different game then it was in the 60s, and even a more different game then it was early on. I had a grandfather who played high school basketball during World War I ( he graduated in 1918) who was 5'6" tall - and he played center. In those days, anyone much taller then that was considered too clumsy to play. Football, too has changed - it used to be built around running the football, with maybe 10-15 passes thrown by each team in a game. Now, 40 passing attempts is fairly common. Baseball also has gone through some times when pitching dominated, most notably in the dead ball era (pre 1920) and again in the 1960s, when batting averages and ERAs dropped to near record lows. To accurately put these things in place, recognition must be given to the norm of the time more then just the Numbers.The Slider, And Baseball's False Sense of Timlessness?
Impossible to compare pre-slider baseball with post slider baseball? Of course not, but I see where you're coming from. However, this is a phenomenon that touches on all sport. Take basketball, for example. Players had the ability to dunk, but it didn't really become a staple of the game until the late 60s, when Dr. J hit the hardcourt. It's most definitely changed the face of the game, it's definitely meant more injuries, different defensive strategies, more excitement, more points in the paint, more emphasis on tall shot blockers, etc.



But baseball's one-on-one matchup is the key here. It's not really even about the pitch but more the relationship between the batter and the pitcher. Every at-bat is like a chess game. Guessing which pitch will be thrown and the location, and using split-second reflexes to time your swing accordingly. If you want to make a case for the re-birth of the slider, what about the lost art of the knuckleball? Players back in the early years would have anticipating knucklers and curves galore, maybe even a few eephus lobs, whereas power pitching seems to be the name of the game nowadays.



I guess that's the beauty of the game. Baseball isn't played the same way as it used to be, but that really doesn't matter. It's an evolving sport that remains absolutely timeless.