We all know athletes across pretty much every sport are better than in decades past. Babe Ruth was fat. Jesse Owen’s records are routinely broken by U.S. college athletes, never mind Olympians. Glenn Hall probably wouldn’t be a starter on an AHL team today.
Training is much better. Equipment is much better. Coaching is much better. And since the financial rewards for top athletes are so much higher today, there’s incentives right from early childhood to find and exploit every avenue of improvement.
But it’s safe to assume that if those tools and incentives were in place for Ruth, Owens, and Hall, they would have used them. They could only excel in the contexts of their times, and they did excel.
If training and equipment continue to improve, we might see someone beat Ovechkin’s record in another 30 years. And future fans might look back on the hockey of 2005-25 and scoff at how inept Ovechkin’s opposition was (the goalie was beat by an undeflected shot from above the circle LOL!!!). But that won’t diminish Ovechkin’s accomplishment.
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Originally Posted by fotze
If this day gets you riled up, you obviously aren't numb to the disappointment yet to be a real fan.
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