Babe Ruth would be nothing more than a mediocre baseball player if he were toiling in the major leagues today.
The reason?He'd be too fat.
This is the opinion of Frederick C. Hagerman, a professor and chairman of the department of zoological and biomedical sciences at Ohio University in Athens, Ohio.
Hagerman is an exercise physiologist who has worked extensively with major-league players, particularly the Cincinnati Reds, since 1981. He completed a study of all-star major-leaguers and discovered their average percentage of body fat is 10.3.
The average male adult in North America carries 16 percent body fat. Ruth may have had a little more than 16 percent during his playing days.
"We would like to see everyone under 12 percent," Hagerman said, "and the average major-leaguer is under that.
"They have to be if they want to succeed in today's game. Over the past few years, the game has changed drastically. It's explosive now. It's mostly speed and power now, and a lot of it is on artificial turf.
"It is highly doubtful that Babe Ruth, with that round frame of his, could be very successful in contemporary baseball."
Indeed, the game has changed. Players are leaner and stronger than ever, resulting in an unprecedented level of speed and power.
"It's definitely noticeable," said Fred Claire, general manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers. "You look around at every team and they've all got players of that kind."
The statistics also bear it out.
Before 1987, only six players had hit 30 home runs and stolen 30 bases in the same season. For 34 years, from 1922 until 1956, a guy named Ken Williams of the old St. Louis Browns was the sole member of the distinguished 30-30 club. Willie Mays joined him.
In the past two years, however, five players have accomplished the feat - the Oakland Athletics' Jose Canseco, the Cleveland Indians' Joe Carter, the Reds' Eric Davis and the Mets' Howard Johnson and Darryl Strawberry.
This season, three players - Johnson, the Kansas City Royals' Bo Jackson and the Philadelphia Phillies' Von Hayes - are on pace to reach the 30-30 plateau.
And most baseball insiders believe that injuries prevented what otherwise would have been 30-30 seasons for the Mets' Kevin McReynolds, the Reds' Kal Daniels, the Boston Red Sox' Ellis Burks and the Pittsburgh Pirates' Andy Van Slyke.
"The players are benefiting from progress," said prominent agent Craig Fenech. "You'll see more and more 30-30 guys as time goes on - and the reasons are clear:
"Players are given better diets nowadays, and they have better training methods.
"Five years ago, it was absolutely taboo for players to be lifting weights at any time. Now, they not only lift weights in the off-season, but they also lift during the season.
"And all sorts of innovative equipment has been introduced to them. It has improved their strength and their foot speed at the same time."
Stolen bases are up a fraction in the American League this season while they've stayed about the same in the National League.
"Some people say that's because catchers don't throw as well as they used to," Fenech said, "but the intelligent baseball fan will realize that's baloney.
"Arm speed stays the same. If a guy has a poor arm, that's it. He can't do much to improve it. But foot speed can improve with proper nutrition and exercise, and that's what's happened in baseball over the past few years."
Mickey Mantle, during his glory years, never came close to the 30-30 club. The best he did was in 1959, when he hit 30 homers and stole 21 bases.
"The philosophy has changed," Carter said. "Back then, people thought weights would hamper you. Now, if you don't use them, people look at you like you're a weirdo."
So the question looms - have steroids had anything to do with the increased speed/power performances in baseball during the past few seasons?
Hagerman has not found any such evidence in his studies and, unlike in football and track, there has not been any widespread suspicion of steriod use in baseball.