By Michael Mills
August 10, 2008

George Herman Ruth, Jr. hit 714 home runs, had a career batting average of .342, and knocked in 2,217 runs. This baseball Hall of Famer was called “the Sultan of Swat” and “The Bambino”. However, most of us knew him simply as Babe Ruth. Ruth dominated the game of baseball in the early 1900’s and is recognized as one of the greatest to ever play the game. You’ll get no argument from me on his place in history or the way he dominated during his prime. My argument is with the way sports has evolved overall and would Ruth and other great athletes in other sports of the past be as successful if they’d began their career in the 21st century?

In my opinion, there are a lot of factors that must be taken into account, but overall I’d say most would not have enjoyed the same dominance if they played now. Of course there are sports that are more skill based that make the “evolutionary jump” (difference in performance level in athletes from the past) not as big a deal. Golf, for example, wouldn’t be nearly as difficult for past greats to compete in as, say football. This is because the physicality in a sport increases as does the evolutionary jump. It would be extremely difficult or impossible for Hall of Famer linebacker Jack Lambert to accomplish the same things now in football that he did in his prime in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Lambert was listed as playing at a generous 6’4 and 220 lbs during his career in the NFL. In comparison, athletes at the same position are now bigger, stronger, and faster. The skill set isn’t what I question with most of these athletes, but could they make the physical adjustment to perform at an elite level. Sorry Jack, but I think that the pile would have already began to disburse before you got there.

So why is this evolutionary jump so big and what is happening in sports to cause this boost in performance? There are a number of things to point out from sport to sport, but basically I believe it all comes down to the ever increasing knowledge and various advancements/discoveries of society as a whole. Due to these technical/physical advancements, mankind is able to run faster, learn quicker, jump higher, heal better, live longer, and do a number of things that we could not do in the 1960’s because that “knowledge” wasn’t available. So if these “advancements” could be utilized by yesterday’s superstars wouldn’t they then be just as successful now? In cases like Jim Brown, Wilt Chamberlain, and Muhammad Ali…YES! Adversely, in situations like Calvin Murphy, Fran Trenton, and even the great Babe Ruth…..NO! Sports have changed dramatically and there’s no credible way to compare talent from different eras. The overall talent throughout all the professional sports leagues now is far better physically and arguably more skillful than say 20 years ago. As a result, the further back in the past you go the bigger the gap in performance.

Wilt Chamberlain was an athlete that was ahead of his time and averaged over 50 points and 25 rebounds a game in the 1961-62 NBA season. If he had played in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s and had to match up nightly with centers like David Robinson, Hakeem Olajwon, Shaquille O’Neal, Patrick Ewing, and so on would he still have those same numbers? In Mike Mills’ opinion…absolutely not! I do think he’d still be a superstar but not with those type of stats. One stat that Wilt probably would have been able to surpass is that 10,000 women slept with claim. However, now he’d be required to submit names and their contact information.