Blair Kiel posted:In my opinion, a huge measure of greatness is how one compares to their peers from the same era----Ruth and Gretsky literally obliterated records and surpassed them by 30, 40 or 50%. Only Hutson would be in that same discussion, although upon reflection, some of Rodgers #'s are pretty damn impressive, especially his TD/Int ratio. I still would chose Hutson.
Good point.
I used to like looking at stats for a given year, such as a year Ruth led in HR's. I would take the difference between #1 (his total) and the #2 guy and then subtract that difference from #2 and see how far down the list you have to go until that difference is again reached.
Often, with Ruth, it was never reached. If you subtracted the difference from the #2 guy, you would be in negative numbers. So he just obliterated yearly stats.
Rodman did it with rebounds sometimes. I'll bet Hutson did it with receptions. Gretzky with scoring. Chamberlain with scoring.