As the new Season is creeping up on us, I was reflecting about a little about the changes in the game since I started watching.
When I started watching baseball (some 30 or so years ago), there were 26 teams…now there are 30.
Gone are the days of:
Memorial Stadium in Baltimore,Tiger Stadium in Detroit, Shea Stadium (what a dump) and Old/Refurbished Yankee Stadium in New York, Arlington Stadium in Texas, Municipal Stadium in Cleveland, Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego, “The Vet” in Philly, Three Rivers Stadium in Pittsburgh, and many more.
Gone are 2 leagues of 2 divisions where the division winner takes all and there was just the Playoffs and the World Series (back then, nobody heard of the term League Championship Series).
Gone are the 4 man rotations…..do you realize with 4 starters and 26 teams, there were 104 regular starting pitchers….now with a 5 man rotation and 30 teams….150 regular starters. Pitching is watered down 50%.
Gone are the scheduled doubleheaders and day-time playoff games…..places where kids could really get hooked on the game.
Gone are the big, balloon-type chest protectors from the AL umpires….it gave a bigger strike zone (you know…the one in the books….letters to knees). It’s one of the bigger reasons that games are much slower now…back then, if the pitch was close, you swung. More balls in play. Fewer pitches. Faster games.
Gone are the days when you rooted for player on your team rather than the laundry. You knew who played every position for every team that came into your stadium…they rarely changed from year to year.
Gone are the days of Charlie Hustle, who ran to first base on a walk, not walked to first base on a home run (or a routine ground out, for that matter).
Gone are the days when a save meant something….when Goose Gossage would come into a game in the 7th or 8th and get the crucual batters out…and then finish the game.
Gone are the days when pitch counts were a ridiculous concept. Managers took guys out based on how they were pitching (not only success, but whether they were laboring). Nowadays, a guy who’s breezing along gets yanked because he hits an arbitrary number of pitches. Because of this….
Gone are the days of a 9 or 10 man pitching staff. You used to have 6 guys on your bench for situation use (bunting, pinch hitting, defense). Now you’re lucky if you have 4 that are all healthy.
Gone (mostly) are the days when the players were regular people. They used to love to sign autographs and chat with the fans. Now many are just too busy or think of themselves as celebrities and don’t have time for the little people.
Gone are the days when nobody knew what players’ salaries were. Nobody talked about it. Especially the players. This caused the explosion of salaries and the explosion of ticket prices. Yeah, the players were tied into their teams and the owners made a killing, but from a fan perspective, the players played hard and the cost of going to the game was overly reasonable.
Gone are the days when you only saw the other league in the World Series. You were lucky to see the stars in the other league on the Saturday NBC Game of the week (oh…the days of Vin Scully and Joe Garagiola).
Gone are the days when stadiums were named based on their locations, not based on some Corporation’s name that might not be around while the team still plays there (Hello, Enron Field).
It’s a much different era now. While I miss those days, there are a lot of good things about the game today.
I love that some teams refurbish and keep their classic Stadiums (Fenway, Wrigley, Dodger Stadium) and that some new ones are trying to incorporate the look and feel of the old ones (the New Yankee Stadium…can’t wait to see it).
I love that satellite TV lets you see any game you want and see all of the stars of the game.
I love that recently, teams are giving the kids a chance rather than recycling the aging superstars who don’t perform “like they used to.”
I love that baseball is slowly marketing their stars. In the past, you never saw the players outside of the game, unless it was in a Lite Beer Commercial.
I like the Wild Card playoff system. I never liked that you could have the 2nd best record in baseball and sit home because the best record was in your division.
But most of all….I love that Opening Day is a few days away. Nothing like the smell of the grass in the spring knowing that baseball is here.
Random people, phrases, things that remind me of baseball when I was a kid.
Earl Weaver…we’re gonna win with Pitching, Defense, and 3 run homers.
Billy Ball
Disco Demolition Night
The black shorts worn by the White Sox
The Neon Orange Astros uni’s and the Puke Yellow/Brown Padres ones
Reg-gie! Reg-gie! (and the Reggie bar…mmmm).
Pudge (the real Pudge, not this knockoff Rodriguez)
Could Rickey Henderson run like nobody else?
Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker…best DP combo I ever saw
Don Baylor…he always could take one for the team
Dave Kingman……Kong could hit em out….if he could hit em at all….he spurred Rob Deer…who spurred…yes, Mark McGwire (who does not belong in the HOF based on his play, regardless of whether he used roids or not)
The Pine Tar Incident
Bucky F’in Dent
Louis Tiant hawking Fenway Franks
I could go on….
