Cool record or who cares?

[DrungoHazewood]

23 minutes ago, Frobby said:

They used to refer to the period beginning in 1901 as the “modern era” of baseball, because that’s when the American Leegue claimed major league status.  I tend to think of that when I think of baseball records.   But I love it when @DrungoHazewoodreminds us of the colorful period before that.  

I know there's a certain simplicity and clarity to that, I understand why people like that cutoff. But I think it's a little lazy to say 1903 is modern while 1897 is some weird, black-and-white past where nothing really counts.

There are legitimate (but mostly, in my opinion unpersuasive) arguments for setting the back-end of real or modern baseball to 1871, 1876, 1893, 1900, 1901, 1920, 1948 and probably several others. I'm comfortable with no set date, and the acknowledgment that the game has significantly evolved with little relief throughout the past 150+ years.