50 bonus points for the first correct answer.

Besides being in the baseball HOF,what strange similarity is shared by Babe Ruth,Henry Aaron and Willie Mays?

In response to mrmojo1120's comment:

All ended their career in same city they started but with a different team. Can add Dwight Gooden to the list as well.

In response to mrmojo1120's comment:

At least 3 hr's in a single WS game

They all liked to eat fried chicken , and lots of it!!!

But, these guys did it AFTER the game, not during the game.

They are all black?

Babe Ruth couldnt have been black.  the racism in this country didnt allow minority ballplayers in the MLB during his time.  that's why the Babe's numbers are a sham.....

In response to slasher9's comment:

?

The logic escapes me ....

Do you mean Sadaharu Oh's 868 HRs are the legitimate all time figure?

   or ...

   The Negro Leagues marvelous players were discounted ...

    or the Hammerin' Hank, probably my 2nd most favorite player, was somehow not legit, either ...

        

the numbers are tainted because players of that segregated era were not facing the best of the best (each other).  or the best of the least or the mediocre that was better than whatever 2nd, 3rd, 4th caucasian starter that was run out to the bump.  not to mention hitting in the 7,8,9 inning against a guy who's thrown 216 pitches and his arm is jelly (separate issue).

i think it's completely logical to say numbers were inflated because an entire race (or two or three) of peoples were not allowed to participate. 

take all non-white pitchers off whatever current team you want and replace them with white only.  you will have to bring up guys from minors that would never have sniffed the bigs. 

replace all non-white fielders with white only.  see above.

In response to slasher9's comment:

The rules and standards, the conditioning, the way the game was played, even the "proper" way it was played have all changed.  Before RUth, largely, the HR was not a sought after commodity.  It was much more rare, just because the game wasn't played with it's eye on the HR as an important part of the game.  Now, we hardly know a team that doesn't covet real HR power. 

The fact that pitchers did throw late into games and the use of relievers was rare, too, in the early years, doesn't make the hitting a scam.  It is just the way they played the game, shlasher.  Now we specialize to the ppoint we have only five starters and seven relievers, even a "lefty" specialist.

My dad, who watched the game from 1919 on, told me that if the great hitters of those early days had to face fresh arms from the bull pen, their numbers would have been quite different.

Now, when you add the race factor, one can only guesshow different things would have been back then.  They would SURELY be different.  But that doesn't mean, again, that Ruth's nuimbers were a sham. 

As a matter of fact, if you count the current impact black African-American  players have on the game right now, it is minimal.  Does that change the impact they made in the past?  Not at all.

 

Oh, if you think I'm making a racist statement, please confer with the fact that only 7-8% of major leaguers are African-American.  The impact has fallen so far as to it being a FOCUS of importance among former players and they are trying to re-energize attention on the game in the community.

 

 

no, i do not think you are making a racist statement at all.  it is a good debate.

but in the first half of the last century baseball was king.  end all be all.  that has changed in the last 50 years with the rise in popularity (and pay scale) for basketball and football. 

The african-american players of the Negro Leagues era would have had a pronounced impact on the quality of play in MLB....

not to mention the rise in dominance of the Latino player over the past 40 years.

George Herman was an amazing player.  i personally dont think he would be considered the GOAT if he played his "prime" years >1970. 

maybe "sham" was too strong of a word on my part as he simply played the game as the owners/rules allowed.  but in my heart his numbers are at least "tainted".

THe most amazing thing to me is ...he did what he did woth THAT body ....''   pencil thin legs supportinga falling barn of a torso...

In response to SpacemanEephus' comment:

Be careful my friend.  Carl Crawford might call you out for being a racist.  LOL   ;)