"I shall show that general improvement in hitting has not only kept pace with betterment in other aspects of play, but that baseball has constantly fiddled with its rules to assure that major factors remain in balance." p88
I feel this sentiment is contrary to Gould's statement on page 78: "Where else can you find a system that has operated with unchanged rules for a century (thus permitting meaningful comparison throughout)…" I am too lazy to look up the standard deviation of batting average or the difference between the top 5 and bottom 5 batting averages in the league. I wonder if there was a change at all or if the trends Gould noticed continued. Now we have a pitch tracker that tightens the strike zone across the league, steroids that plagued the 90s and 2000s, ball parks with limited space in foul territory, essentially creating a ballpark favoring the hitter. How does can Gould decide what constitutes a minimal difference in rules? just because the mean batting average didn't change.
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