Challenging nostalgia and performance metrics in baseball
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In this manuscript, we show that the great baseball players that started their career before 1950 are over represented among rankings of baseball's all time greatest players. The year 1950 coincides with the decennial US Census that is closest to when Major League Baseball (MLB) was integrated in 1947. We also show that performance metrics used to compare players have substantial era biases that favor players that started their career before 1950. In showing that the these baseball players are over represented, no individual statistics or era adjusted metrics are used. Instead, we provide substantial evidence that the composition of the eras themselves are drastically different. In particular, there were significantly fewer eligible MLB players available at and before 1950. As a consequence, we argue that popular opinion, performance metrics, and expert opinion over includes players that started their career before 1950 in their rankings of baseball's all time greatest players.
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