all players took greenies in those days it ain't the same as hgh and other steroids the cream the clear on and on look how bonds jumped he went from a great ballplayer to a superhuman at an advanced baseball age. mays got worse as he aged.
I can't stand when people talk about the older players as if it was more pure - those guys were looking for an edge all the same, they just found it through different mediums.
I'm not disparaging their greatness, either. It's just that they played ball at a different time. When Mays played, a pitcher without good stuff on that day still pitched well into the game. Mays didn't have to hit against relief specialists, all throwing 95 with different stuff, using steroids, etc.
Comparing actual numbers between the eras is an exercise in futility - there's too many variables. Look at a player's totals in terms of deviation from the league mean - both Mays and Arod were/are tremendous ballplayers.