Congrats to Jim Thome for 600 the right way!

[Teal]

I give all the credit in the world to Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, but Thome had to deal with a lot of things Aaron didn't:

Pitchers on steroids
Specialist relievers
Deep farm system with more overall talent to pull from
Video research & Scouting advances.
Managers having every stat at their fingertips

There are pluses and minuses for each era, I'd say they all cancel out (except maybe steroid use)

There's prob more I can think of

Haha...this is hilarious. How about racism and death threats? Yeah, Thome had to deal with SOOOOO much more than Aaron. Laughable.

Apples and Oranges.

[XXXIV]

Aaron

That man has to be the most under recognized athlete in sports history.

ABSOLUTELY. Just look at his numbers other than HRs and you will be stunned. His RBI numbers are sick.

Yes!

Here is a GREAT place to start. Number ONE all time among right handers with 3,771 hits.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/leade ... reer.shtml

Spent most of his career in Milwaukee. Imagine posting those 755 HRs and those 3771 hits in NY.

[pk500]

I know this is bizarre, but you know what I loved the most about Hammerin' Hank Aaron? Dude never wore batting gloves.

Just his hands and a piece of wood. I love the simplicity, the elegance.

Plus it's pretty incredible that a man just 6 feet, 180 pounds hit 755 taters.

[XXXIV]

I know this is bizarre, but you know what I loved the most about Hammerin' Hank Aaron? Dude never wore batting gloves.

Just his hands and a piece of wood. I love the simplicity, the elegance.

Not at all. He was all man man. I was seven years old going on eight very soon but watching him hit #715 on our brand new color console tv was something special.

[FatPitcher]

A tighter strike zone (left/right) has probably contributed to more HR hit, and the enforcement of the high strike probably hasn't had much of an effect.

Also, a bigger emphasis by GMs on sabermetrics has made HRs - and thus, players who can hit them - more important, and things like bunting, stealing, and hitting singles less important. That means that a) power hitters are more likely to make it to the majors and b) players will be more likely to try to become power hitters, because that's where the money/roster spots are. In the 1960s, Mark Reynolds would never have made the bigs hitting .200 and striking out more than once every 3 at bats. In the 2010s, he's an everyday player.

[Lancer]

If Aaron played in NY instead of MIL, maybe he would get the publicity like Mays/Mantle got.

Another player from that era that was probably clean was Mark Grace. I think he brags that smoking and drinking were his roids.

[Brando70]

Another player from that era that was probably clean was Mark Grace. I think he brags that smoking and drinking were his roids.

He also once said he wouldn't take steroids because he didn't want to risk being able to get it up.

[JRod]

It's impossible to compare eras. Too many factors for one side to win an argument. I think talent, training, depth of quality players etc. make the eras have their own advantages and disadvantages. But it's not like Mickey Mantle wouldn't be a good baseball player in this era. And it wouldn't make Derek Jeter any less of short stop in the 1940s.

Which is why the steroids issue hurts every player in this era even Thome. No one really knows. It's sad that even if he is clean, it will always be with a cloud over all these players. Bonds, Sosa, Big Mac may have the hurt baseball but they destroyed the reputation of the guys that were clean.