[Mick]

According to an earlier post in this thread, in the 1970s and early 1980s ALLCAPS was a linebacker for Stanford and then on pro and semi-pro teams.
  Since then, the field has retained the same dimensions. But OLmen now average almost 300 lbs; TEs (a linebacker responsibility) are taller and heavier than 1981 NBA All-Star Adrian Dantley; 1981 NFL All-Star RB Tony Dorsett was three inches shorter and 15 pounds lighter than current "shrimp" Christian McCaffrey; Joe Montana was two inches shorter, and 35 pound lighter, than Andrew Luck.
  Eras matter because player size and speed, and thus strategy, evolve.
  How would Ruth & Gehrig have fared vs. a diet of Koufax and Randy Johnson? George Mikan vs. Dikembe Mutombo? Red Grange vs. Lawrence Taylor?
  Actual experience -- which I lack -- should never be ignored. Nor, I submit, lionized. 

Mikan would have been destroyed by most of today's big men.  He was the first really gifted tall basketball player, playing at 6'10" and he was reasonably coordinated, but it was a different game back then.

Red Grange was 5'11" and 175 pounds, but with training, weightlifting and nutrition may have been McCaffrey's size.  He was a McCaffrey type of player.  He won the Illinois state 100 yard dash in 10.4 seconds not at all fast by today's standards.  Taylor would have had a field day with him.  Bronko Nagurski, on the other hand, was 6'2" 230 pounds back then.  Today, he might have been a 260 pound fullback.

Grange and Mikan played at the relative outset of their professional sports.  Ruth and Gehrig started playing almost 100 years after the rules had been laid out.  Ruth started in 1914, and he was a powerfully built six footer.  Negro leagues player Buck O'Neil once said that only Josh Gibson and Babe Ruth could make a particular sound when they hit a baseball.  Ruth swung a 48 ounce bat, most players today are in the 33 to 36 ounce range.  Ted Williams used 35 oz., Stan Musial used 34.5 oz., Willie Mays used a 35 oz. bat before the all star break and 34 ounces thereafter.

Ruth was once given a battery of 20 athletic tests.  Most men scored a perfect score on two of them.  Ruth had a perfect score on 16 of them. 

Circumstances are different.  When Ruth played, there were 16 pro teams and 110 million people in the USA.  Today, there are twice as many teams and three times as many people.  Ruth never faced African-American pitchers, but of the 449 pitchers on last year's rosters, just 14 were African American. 

I believe that with a 35 ounce bat, proper training and nutrition, Ruth would come closer to his original level of success than would Grange or Mikan. 

[Mick]

According to an earlier post in this thread, in the 1970s and early 1980s ALLCAPS was a linebacker for Stanford and then on pro and semi-pro teams.
  Since then, the field has retained the same dimensions. But OLmen now average almost 300 lbs; TEs (a linebacker responsibility) are taller and heavier than 1981 NBA All-Star Adrian Dantley; 1981 NFL All-Star RB Tony Dorsett was three inches shorter and 15 pounds lighter than current "shrimp" Christian McCaffrey; Joe Montana was two inches shorter, and 35 pound lighter, than Andrew Luck.
  Eras matter because player size and speed, and thus strategy, evolve.
  How would Ruth & Gehrig have fared vs. a diet of Koufax and Randy Johnson? George Mikan vs. Dikembe Mutombo? Red Grange vs. Lawrence Taylor?
  Actual experience -- which I lack -- should never be ignored. Nor, I submit, lionized. 

Mikan would have been destroyed by most of today's big men.  He was the first really gifted tall basketball player, playing at 6'10" and he was reasonably coordinated, but it was a different game back then.

Red Grange was 5'11" and 175 pounds, but with training, weightlifting and nutrition may have been McCaffrey's size.  He was a McCaffrey type of player.  He won the Illinois state 100 yard dash in 10.4 seconds not at all fast by today's standards.  Taylor would have had a field day with him.  Bronko Nagurski, on the other hand, was 6'2" 230 pounds back then.  Today, he might have been a 260 pound fullback.

Grange and Mikan played at the relative outset of their professional sports.  Ruth and Gehrig started playing almost 100 years after the rules had been laid out.  Ruth started in 1914, and he was a powerfully built six footer.  Negro leagues player Buck O'Neil once said that only Josh Gibson and Babe Ruth could make a particular sound when they hit a baseball.  Ruth swung a 48 ounce bat, most players today are in the 33 to 36 ounce range.  Ted Williams used 35 oz., Stan Musial used 34.5 oz., Willie Mays used a 35 oz. bat before the all star break and 34 ounces thereafter.

Ruth was once given a battery of 20 athletic tests.  Most men scored a perfect score on two of them.  Ruth had a perfect score on 16 of them. 

Circumstances are different.  When Ruth played, there were 16 pro teams and 110 million people in the USA.  Today, there are twice as many teams and three times as many people.  Ruth never faced African-American pitchers, but of the 449 pitchers on last year's rosters, just 14 were African American. 

I believe that with a 35 ounce bat, proper training and nutrition, Ruth would come closer to his original level of success than would Grange or Mikan.