One of the best, and sometimes exhausting, parts of sports discourse is trying to pinpoint athletes in a historical perspective.
It's so engaging because no matter how much logic or context you pour into that style of conversation, it's impossible to get a resolution.
LeBron James is never going to enter a playoff series against Michael Jordan, and Oleksandr Usyk won't get to square off with Muhammad Ali—but the hypotheticals are engrossing and captivate your imagination.
With how rapidly modern sports have evolved, it's easy to suggest athletes from the early 20th century are "plumbers" and couldn't survive in today's generation.
One MVP-level arm doesn't quite buy that dismissive notion.
While appearing on the "Foul Territory" podcast, Detroit Tigers ace Tarik Skubal talked about how he envisions a theoretical showdown against Babe Ruth would play out.
"The game's greats would always adjust to the era of baseball we're in now," Skubal said. "I don't think Babe Ruth would be able to swing a 50-inch bat off of me in an at-bat—I just don't think it'd work. Once he gets up to date with modern baseball, I think he'd be a game's great and it'd be a fun at-bat."
You can't hit 714 home runs by accident. If it were a sign of the times, more people from that era would have produced similar gaudy power numbers, but they didn't.
If the Babe had serviceable conditioning and access to modern technology, there's no doubt he would rake.
The current crop of superstars struggles with Skubal's filthy arsenal, but with some time, Ruth could at least put forth a competitive effort.