Quote:
Originally Posted by jingram058
I stand with Leon on this. I know things change; I'm not totally senile. Yet. But the idiotic changes to baseball are totally STUPID to me. That and the idiotic amount of money involved in the business of baseball today. I believe the only way you would enjoy baseball today is if you had never seen the game the way it was presented BEFORE the colossal, incomprehensible amount of money made the changes of recent necessary. But hey, that's just the way I see it. Your opinion may differ.
EDIT - My vintage cards and memorabilia are a connection to my youth, and to a time when there were no constantly jabbering broadcasters on TV, and the commercials, if there were any, were simple, beer or something like that, and they were done from the press box by the broadcaster himself. There wasn't 5 minutes between each half inning, with the 3rd out, the hitting team immediately took the field. There were no designated hitters; the pitcher hit, which meant the manager had to manage. There were no 4 finger intentional walks. There were no ghost runners; no man on 2nd to start extra innings. The umpire had the last word, right or wrong. It was part of the game. No robot umpires. None of the stadiums had to be financed out of taxation. None of the stadiums had to have a corporate name. None of that stuff had to be, because no one made a trillion dollars. And if the owner did, so what? If he put the money back into the team and made the team a perennial winner, and your owner didn't, all you could do was cry.
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This is the same stuff people were complaining about in 1930. Money has ruined the game. The home run has ruined the game. If you collect old baseball stuff, I assume you have some knowledge of the history of baseball. Yet you choose to ignore it.
Baseball has evolved. It's a really old sport. The rules of baseball in 1887 were as different from the 1960 version you seem to long for as today's game is. Do you want to go back to when Germany Schaefer could steal first base? Do you want to go back to a time when the stupid Yankees just bought the pennant every year? I read a book by Mickey Lolich who was scouted by the Yankees who just assumed, because of how much more money they were offering, that he would sign with them.
I don't know who outside of New York could have possibly been a baseball fan of any AL team in the 1950's. It was over by Memorial Day most years. You want to go back to that? You want the A's to be the Yankees farm team like it was in the 50's? You want the St. Louis Browns back who drew 500 fans a game? Sounds like baseball nirvana to me - not!
Baseball is basically the same game it's always been. Pitch the ball; hit the ball; score the most runs and win the game. To whine about designated hitters and taxes is nothing but the ramblings of an old man - sorry. The 1919 White Sox threw the damn World Series because of money!!! That alone makes yesterday's game a joke compared to today's.
Your complaints are similar to people who say the music of the 80's, or whatever decade you turned 18 in, was better than anything today. One of the consequences of old age is the refusal to accept change - that the old days were the best. They weren't!