Azubuike24;1661622 wrote:Bonds and A-Rod put up numbers that are almost unmatched. It said at the very beginning, forget the "roid era" and trying to compare players from era to era. Top 5 players...ever. I'd say both Bonds and A-Rod, especially Bonds, are right there.

Heck, A-Rod is where he is and was basically there by age 34. 611 HR's by age 34! Insane.

Ironman92;1661616 wrote:...but I'm really only good at ranking NFL referees.

Ironman92;1661629 wrote:Bonds with several more MVP and a greater OPS+....7 or 8 HR in one postseason

like_that;1661611 wrote:I was wondering how he was MVP only 1 time, but apparently during that time you were ineligible for MVP if you already won in a previous season.

/

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Heretic;1661511 wrote:As far as all time top 5, I don't know. Have to think on it.

As for the point, I'd hope he included hispanics in the "didn't play against black players" part, as they have a more prevalent piece of MLB now than blacks. But the point is that Ruth played in a segregated league where he wasn't necessarily going against the best possible competition. The best of one race, sure, but not the best overall.

Personally, I find it near-impossible to compare athletes of that far back to today's for a ton of reasons, that being one of them, to go with things like today's superior training and how the amount of pay athletes get now is far more of an inducement for people to want to make it big (as compared to back then, when the pay wasn't great and athletics were really nothing more than mild entertainment).