[jtur88]

However, since more than 80% of all players spent part or all of their career in the post-Ruth HR era, the numbers wouldn't really change that much. About 13,000 players played after 1930 (when a dozen hit 30 or more), and the percentiles among those would only move by a few points.

And, John F, even if chicks dug something else besides the long ball, players would have found pharmaceuticals that would enhance that particular performance. Nearly all sports are now power-sports, which are largely physique-driven, so it became easy for a single application of body-building could worm its way through all sports. If would be such an interesting game if baseball rules could have made the game lean in another direction than homeruns. (All that would havee been needed would be to have declared a ball over the fence to be a ground-rule double, so it wouldn't matter it it rolled to the wall or went over.)

GS's original point remains valid, however, in that if instead of HR, it has been based on hits, or doubles, or HBP or GIDP, the turnover has yielded a very high number of players dominated by a very small number of people who genuinely distinguished themselves in the game with longevity of career, with a very steep curve at the end of the chart.