Players of other generations that were never healthy?

[Vincent]

We have guys like Griffey, Prior, Wood, Harden, and Sheets who have such amaing potential, but can not stay healthy to save their lives, and we will probably always wonder what could have been. I mean 4 of the 5 guys I listed have gotten hurt in the past week.

My questions is who are some guys that were like this in the 80's, 60's, etc.?

I can't think of any

[twentywontowin]

Originally Posted by Vincent

We have guys like Griffey, Prior, Wood, Harden, and Sheets who have such amaing potential, but can not stay healthy to save their lives, and we will probably always wonder what could have been. I mean 4 of the 5 guys I listed have gotten hurt in the past week.

My questions is who are some guys that were like this in the 80's, 60's, etc.?

I can't think of any

I can't either, but you know what I find amusing? There is so much concern about keeping the pitch counts low and not going deep into games with starting pitching, when there were guys like Bob Gibson who would go out there, throw 15 complete games per year, and never be hurt, all while throwing the nastiest stuff you'd ever see.

Look at Roger Clemens stats for 1987. He threw 18 complete games. You're never going to see that again with the way the bullpen has worked its way into the game. These guys are capable of doing it still as well, but there is no opportunity to, and they STILL end up getting hurt.

Then you have Mark Prior, when any time he has any little ache or pain, he's on the 15-day DL. How about you pull up your skirt, take some Ibuprofen, and be a man? Same thing for Kerry Wood. Fix your awful mechanics and maybe you won't blow out every one of your joints.

That, and wear flip-flops in the hot tub next time.

[D Day]

I think the problem is the player grooming. 50 years ago kids with lots of talent in middle school or high school werent treated as stars. Kids with any promise these days are treated as if they are stars already and dont go through the nicks and cuts of past generations. 50 years ago people like Prior and Wood may have never made it to the majors in the first place with serious previous injury because of the fact that they wouldnt have been handled with white gloves from an early age.

I just think that with todays big money sports, the amazing talents that are injury susceptable are often saved just so that someone can harvest that talent. Even if it is only for a few years, it can be more than enough to make sure someone and most of their family never has to work again.

Lets face it, most of the population these days are pussies compared to people 50 or more years ago. Old people are pretty tough mother fuckers.

[Vincent]

Yea that's true. Teams have scouts and stuff in the Dominican and Venezuela and etc. scouting real young kids too.

[jstchilln120]

Wasn't DiMaggio oft injured? What about Lenny Dykstra? Eric Davis?

I agree about the bullpens and the "pitch counts". Players today are just soft. I mean how often do we see players pull a hamstring just running down to 1B?

[Vincent]

http://www.baseball-reference.com/d/dimagjo01.shtml

I'm not sure if they played 162 games back then, but aside from the last 3 seasons, he seemed relatively healthy. And I am making the assumption that 1943-1945 was a result of WW2

Dykstra is a good one, so is Davis. Forgot about them.

[jstchilln120]

Well IIRC it's the number of seasons he played as opposed to games missed. Didn't he have like a career ending knee problem near the end of his career?