They were still home runs as decided by the rules of the game at the time.
I know there were some barnstorming games played off season by clubs against black teams with some notable losses by the pros...
That doesn’t diminish those players accomplishments. Even with the inclusion of black players in MLB, it still took decades to break Ruth’s record.
You’re exactly right, my point is to not debate who is the better player, it’s that the rules of baseball have changed some over the years, it still does not diminish how great these players were, which if why I stay away from who is the better player, just enjoy their great talent and don’t get caught up on who is better.
Things like ground rule doubles, going from 154 to 162 games per season, integration of black and Hispanic Players into the game, specialization of pitching, analytics, etc., have all changed the game.
Hank Aaron’s RBI record is a bigger deal to me than the HR records he has, the name of the game is producing runs and he produced them better than anyone.
Some records are likely to never be broken, I don’t think anyone will win more games than Cy Young, I don’t know if anyone will ever hit .400 again, etc.