How was the Time Machine calculation devised?
“First, I started with a file of the complete lifetime data for every player. I just extracted the information on the player I was interested in, and then I calculated the average for each year for each league. I added up the averages of each player, omitted the pitchers, and then came up with an average figure. Then I took the player in question and figured out how he related to the league average for the years he played. When I moved him to a different era, I maintained that relationship. For example, if he was 10% above the league average in 1920 — say the average was .290 and he hit .320 –then, if I moved him to 1963 and the league average was .240, his average would be 10% higher, which would be .264. It’s really just as simple as that. The other thing I did was to take into account the number of games scheduled. For instance, when Babe Ruth played, they had 154 games. Now they have 162. So that gives Babe Ruth about a 5% edge in games played if you moved him forward in time. No
