The Good Old Days

By David Marasco

Every once in a while somebody suggests that all the records prior to Jackie Robinson get a Maris-type asterisk next to them, after all, these feats were accomplished under much different circumstances than today. They were set before the color barrier was lifted. While this argument carries some merit, it seems unfair to denigrate the Ruths and Mathewsons for events that were beyond their control. But the playing field was very different. Let's look at one of the more exciting events in recent baseball history, the homerun chase of 1998.

Here's a list of all the players who finished 1998 with 35 or more home runs:
Mark McGwire 70
Sammy Sosa 66
Ken Griffey Jr 56
Greg Vaughn 50
Albert Belle 49
Vinny Castilla 46
Jose Canseco 46
Manny Ramirez 45
Juan Gonzalez 45
Andres Galarraga44
Rafael Palmeiro 43
Alex Rodriguez 42
Mo Vaughn 40
Moises Alou 38
Jeromy Burnitz 38
Carlos Delgado 38
V. Guerrero 38
Barry Bonds 37
N. Garciaparra 35
Shawn Green 35

Now let's imagine that we are playing in the 1930's. Take all of the African-Americans and segregate them to the Negro Leagues. Take all the Caribbean-born players and shuttle them off to the leagues in Latin America. Historically you would probably see some mixing between the Negro Leagues and the Caribbean players, and perhaps you might see some light-skinned Caribbean players in the majors. But just going by the book the home run hitters would be divided like this:

Major League Baseball
Mark McGwire 70
Jeromy Burnitz 38
N. Garciaparra 35
Shawn Green 35

Caribbean Leagues
Sammy Sosa 66
Vinny Castilla 46
Jose Canseco 46
Manny Ramirez 45
Juan Gonzalez 45
Andres Galarraga44
Rafael Palmeiro 43
Carlos Delgado 38
V. Guerrero 38

Negro Leagues
Ken Griffey Jr 56
Greg Vaughn 50
Albert Belle 49
Alex Rodriguez 42
Mo Vaughn 40
Moises Alou 38
Barry Bonds 37

In the majors it would be a dull time, McGwire would crush all of the competition, out hitting his nearest competitors by a factor of nearly two- to-one. Meanwhile, in the Caribbean Leagues Sammy would walk away with the title but quite a battle would be held for second place. In the Negro Leagues a good race would be run, but Junior would take the crown in the end.

One key thing to notice is the huge lead that McGwire has over his competition. Think of some of the seasons Ruth had where he towered over the rest of the league. Would he have looked as impressive if he had to face the talent pool that McGwire has to face today? Perhaps he would, perhaps not, but this is an important consideration to make when somebody trots out the "they don't make them like they did in the old days" argument.

This is a simple sorting exercise, it doesn't take into account variables such as the fact that Sosa wouldn't have to face Maddux and that Pedro Martinez would not see Major League hitters. To make things even more realistic, only the Major League totals would be reported. The Negro Leagues would have stats for maybe half of their games, and their league season would be a bit shorter. On the other hand, many newspapers would toss in home runs that the players hit against "all levels of competition," swelling their numbers with dingers hit against barn-storming foes. The Caribbean homeruns would simply disappear with the sands of time, nobody writing them down.

Now if you do believe that an asterisk should be placed alongside the records of the old-timers, an important question needs to be asked. When exactly do you make the cut-off? For the first decade of integration it was a token affair. Major League teams didn't take the older Negro League players, and also revised their "Gentleman's Agreement" to two African-Americans per team. Even then, that's ignoring the Latin influence. Scouting and development in that region didn't really hit stride until the 1960's. Suppose the current crop of players from Asia opens the floodgates and a large number of Asians start showing up on the Major League leader boards, do we stick an asterisk next to today's records? Hard questions. In the end perhaps we should just be happy that McGwire, Sosa and Junior are all in the same division, not three different leagues.