I dont think either 1 of you guys opinions are wrong. Its fine that you think what 1 guy did was more impressive then another even if the records say otherwise. Because I feel the same way about alot things like when it comes to sports records and history. I just dont like how you attacked the guy for doing the samething your doing while acting like what your doing isnt the same.

1.) When Maris broke the Babe’s single season record for HR’s in 1961, it was an expansion year. The AL had just expanded from 8 teams to 10, and so the pitching quality had just been diluted. In the 1990′s, when McGwire broke Maris’s record, even with all his steroids, it was again an expansion year and pitching quality was again newly diluted. If statistics are to be re-measured, that has to be taken into account, too.

2.) Among the many reasons the “Golden Era” is called that, was because HOF-caliber players and many near-HOF-caliber players spent all of their prime years with just one team. Mantle, Williams, Kaline, Killebrew, Mays, Snider, Aaron, Musial and Mathews to name a few position players; Ford, Spahn, Koufax, Roberts, Marichal, and Gibson to name a few pitchers. Players were loyal to their team, fans were loyal to their players and teams. And no one had to agonize over which hat to wear in the HOF. Free agency was an undiscovered horror — someone mention the flex-capacitor?

Also, even if he did, so what? Why should the owners get to keep more money they obviously don’t deserve (since the players won the strike, that suggests that what they were paying them wasn’t in accordance to what the owners actually valued them at) especially since the owners had spent the 10 years before the 1994 strike engaging in brazen, illegal, and absolutely unvarnished collusion like the absolute dirtballs they have shown themselves to be time and time again. “But, but, but, Cal Ripken was making millions of dollars, how on earth could he possibly have deserved more from owners making 10′s or 100′s of millions of dollars and engaging in illegal activities to keep him and others for getting a fairer share of the profits!!!!!”

I won’t argue your perspective because there is logic and reason there but I take the opposite approach. A player I’ve seen play is more important merely because I saw them play. Anybody can look good in a highlight real. Stats can be parsed to spin them any way you want to support ones point of view. Also, it’s extremely difficult to compare players from different eras. I never saw Gehrig play but I did see Mattingly and I appreciate his accomplishments more. I’ve no doubt concerning Gehrig’s greatness nor am I saying that Mattingly was a better 1B or Yankee in any way. But, for having watched the length and breadth of Mattingly’s career, his successes and failures, I’ve a better appreciation for Mattingly.

If you want to truly understand the greatness of a player you need to have seen him over time with the good and the bad. When you have nothing but historical data and or the narrative of others then it’s impossible to truly say who has “it”. And, just for the record; you ca’t go wrong with Thome. I wish the Yankees had signed him rather tham Giambi.

Though a “soft” record, Maddux essentially went over 700 games without missing a start. Was hit feat more impressive than Ripken’s?

“Who’s a pirate’s favorite ballplayer?” “Hank ARR-on!”

Or was it the stadium in Milwaukee that was the problem?

Well-done.

The real feat is not being inured – the consecutive games is a testament to a front office refusing to sit you when you are hurting the team.