More Bonds

[RedBean]

[ QUOTE ]
Clemente batted .345 in the season he turned 35 (August). He then followed this with .352, .341, and .312 in his final season at age 38. Two of his three career .400+ OBP seasons came during this time, and he slugged .556 in 1970, nearly a career high.

Banks power numbers suffered a bit, but the man still managed to bang out successive seasons of 23, 32, and 23 HR, driving in 106 runs at age 38.

Please breakdown for us how these are such substantial declines. These guys didn't go poof and disappear, champ.

[/ QUOTE ]

I can't for the life of me figure out why you are citing batting average and RBI's to counter the assertion I made that these two gentlemen suffered a decline in home run production between 1968 and 1969.

Let's take a peek at the numbers that would actually address this:

Banks
1968: 1 HR every 17.3 AB
*lowers mound 5 inches*
1969: 1 HR every 24.5 AB

Not sure where you come from, but that would seem to support my assertion that Bank's HR production declined from 1968 to 1969, despite the lowering of the mound.

On to Roberto:

Clemente 2 years prior to mound lowering:
1 HR every 23.5 AB

Clemente 2 years after the mound lowering:
1 HR every 27.5 AB

When analyzing this metric, when the bottom number is bigger than the top number....that's a decline.