re: May be a stupid question, but how are old pitching stats so incredible?

This is true. I played in instructional league with the Oakland A's in 1983. If I wasn't pitching that day I had the job of videotaping the pitchers in the game. I sat next to the guy who had the speed gun. Out of all the top prospects that played in the Arizona league, only a handful of them threw 90+. Nowadays everybody and their mother throws 90. We used the ray gun with the A's which clocked time at the plate, jugs clocked time out of the hand.