I Wish

[Touch'EmAll]

I wish the Angels, my home team growing up, would have never traded Nolan Ryan.

[Eric72]

I wish:

• Mickey Mantle played on two good legs for an entire career
• Major League Baseball had integrated long before 1947
• Addie Joss, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, and many others had not died so young
• Harry Frazee had never sold Babe Ruth
• Baseball had never gone on strike in 1994
• The writers or Veteran's/Era/Whatchamacallit Committee voted in Bonds and Clemens
• The card companies never started cutting up vintage jerseys
• A .300 hitter with 40 stolen bases was considered at least as valuable as a .220 hitter with 40 homers
• Modern fans realized that wins mattered as a pitching stat back when hurlers didn't bail after XX pitches
• Modern fans realized pitchers matter
  
  I could go on and on and on; however, decided to stop after the first ten things crossed my mind. It's time to go look through one of my binder sets.

[Gorditadogg]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I wish:

• Mickey Mantle played on two good legs for an entire career
• Major League Baseball had integrated long before 1947
• Addie Joss, Lou Gehrig, Roberto Clemente, and many others had not died so young
• Harry Frazee had never sold Babe Ruth
• Baseball had never gone on strike in 1994
• The writers or Veteran's/Era/Whatchamacallit Committee voted in Bonds and Clemens
• The card companies never started cutting up vintage jerseys
• A .300 hitter with 40 stolen bases was considered at least as valuable as a .220 hitter with 40 homers
• Modern fans realized that wins mattered as a pitching stat back when hurlers didn't bail after XX pitches
• Modern fans realized pitchers matter
  
  I could go on and on and on; however, decided to stop after the first ten things crossed my mind. It's time to go look through one of my binder sets.

I wish baseball never outlawed PEDs, so guys like Trout and Judge could be hitting 100 home runs a year, and Kershaw and Verlander could keep pitching until they are 60.

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[Hankphenom]

I wish my 1960 Senators team, which was clearly improving at a rapid pace, could have held on just two more years in D.C. because then they never would have left. The town would have gone nuts over their 2nd place finish in the now 10-team American League in 1962 (as the Twins), and the brand-new D.C. Stadium would have been packed for every game. The idea of moving would have seemed ludicrous. Instead, I got an expansion team in 1961 that finished dead last for another three years of my youth to go with the cellar dwellers of my formative fan years of 1957-59 and soured me on the game for a long time. 34 years without a big league team in the Nation's Capital--what a disgrace! It still hurts to think about it.

[Bigdaddy]

I wish:

• Doc Gooden could have laid off the white powder,
• Josh Hamilton could outrun his deamons,
• Bowie Kuhn wouldn't have voided Vida Blue going to the Reds,
• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,
• That we could have skipped the era of the astroturf, all purpose stadiums,
• Steve Dalkowski and Smokey Joe Wood hadn't hurt their arms,
• The Reds win a post-season series before I pass,
• Hitters could swallow their pride and learn to hit against the shift.

[egri]

I wish Howie Fox had called the police, instead of trying to evict the drunks on his own, and the statheads running the game now would quit trying to make it as much fun as an IRS audit.

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I wish:

• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,

The kicker is in between the wars, he had the chance to resign his commission and separate from the Reserves entirely; instead he re-upped, which left him open to being recalled for Korea.

[todeen]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

[*]The Reds win a post-season series before I pass

Amen.

I wish Billings, MT had renovated the old wooden stadium, Cobb Field, and helped maintain its glory and splendor, the creaking floors, the thunderous roar beneath the grandstand while buying snacks, and preserved the imagination of kids running wild and a booster club drunk and riotous by the 6th inning. Instead they built Dehler park, which reminds me of the Little League WS stadium.

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[RCMcKenzie]

Originally Posted by todeen

Amen.

You guys must be younger than me. You had the Big Red Machine, the current Houston Astros of the 1970's.

Also, isn't Baltimore 30 miles from DC? Go to the Orioles games.

I wish the Adams family would let the McNair family use the name, "Oilers".

[rjackson44]

I could find a complete darby chocolate box oh well

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

Also, isn't Baltimore 30 miles from DC? Go to the Orioles games.

We did, but only because they had those great teams and players before the franchise fell apart in the mid-80s. I went to many "O's" (as they started calling them to market to Washingtonians) games, and enjoyed them, but it never came close to being my team because it wasn't my town. And it's always a good hour or so between Balmor and D.C. no matter how you cut it, not bad but not a hop, skip, and jump either.

[Tabe]

Originally Posted by RCMcKenzie

You guys must be younger than me. You had the Big Red Machine, the current Houston Astros of the 1970's.

And a title in 1990, too.

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by Bigdaddy

I wish:

• Doc Gooden could have laid off the white powder,
• Josh Hamilton could outrun his deamons,
• Bowie Kuhn wouldn't have voided Vida Blue going to the Reds,
• Teddy Ballgame could somehow make up those lost seasons,
• That we could have skipped the era of the astroturf, all purpose stadiums,
• Steve Dalkowski and Smokey Joe Wood hadn't hurt their arms,
• The Reds win a post-season series before I pass,
• Hitters could swallow their pride and learn to hit against the shift.

I strongly echo the sentiment in bold, though it seems like a mere pipe-dream at this point (and I'm not getting any younger).

To add a couple of my own...

* I wish the Reds never traded Tony Perez, as they probably had a 3rd consecutive championship in them.
* I wish Cincinnati was a big market city.

[55koufax]

If you are old like me, you had your moment in the sun.....and then some.

The Big Red Machine was such a dominant force in the '70s it was scary. My tremendous Dodger teams of the '70s were always in their shadow. I recall so many great Dodger-Red games from that period, it is scary. Forget the SF-LA thing, LA-CINN in the 70s was beyond compare IMO..

[perezfan]

Originally Posted by 55koufax

If you are old like me, you had your moment in the sun.....and then some.

The Big Red Machine was such a dominant force in the '70s it was scary. My tremendous Dodger teams of the '70s were always in their shadow. I recall so many great Dodger-Red games from that period, it is scary. Forget the SF-LA thing, LA-CINN in the 70s was beyond compare IMO..

Completely agree.... the most underrated rivalry in baseball, IMHO. We were Reds fans living in Orange County throughout the 1970s. We listened to the great Vin Scully every day on radio, and rooted for the Dodgers to lose every game.

But the Dodgers were always very good. When they won the division in 1974, we thought the Reds time had come and gone (with no world championship to show for it). They came very close in '70, '72 and '73, but took a big step back in '74.

Then the Reds finally figured things out, and were as dominant in '75-76 as any team in baseball history. It was such a shame when the league restructured and forever ended the rivalry by putting the teams in different divisions. Perhaps they saw the writing on the wall for small market teams, as it couldn't even be a rivalry today.

[perezfan]

.

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by perezfan

I strongly echo the sentiment in bold, though it seems like a mere pipe-dream at this point (and I'm not getting any younger).

To add a couple of my own...

* I wish the Reds never traded Tony Perez, as they probably had a 3rd consecutive championship in them.
* I wish Cincinnati was a big market city.

My mom was from Akron (grand dad worked for Firestone). She liked the Indians in the AL and despised the Yankees, that is, except Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio separately who she adored. She liked the Reds and Brooklyn Dodgers (despised the LA version because she lived and worked in Brooklyn for a while and went to Ebbets). Because of mom, I love the Reds, too. One of my most treasured memories is going with my sister, who at the time lived within walking distance, to Wrigley Field to a game in 1973 between the Reds and the Cubs. I saw Johnny Bench, Pete Rose and all the others in the flesh. I saw Joe Morgan hit a line drive home run. When I was a kid, my dad had a radio that picked up WLW 700 am out of Cincinnati at night in Memphis crystal clear. Listened to many Reds games. I vaguely remember Waite Hoyt, Joe Nuxhall, Marty Brennaman, and I'm pretty sure Pee Wee Reese did Reds games, too. Among my most treasured baseball cards are 9 team-issued 1938-39 Reds cards. I would love to go to Great American, which they say shares some similarities with Crosley Field, and I would LOVE it if the Reds got real good again. Frankly, I think it would be good for baseball.

[jimmer77]

I wish Pete Rose never bet on baseball...he could have been such a great ambassador to the game.

I feel he has suffered long enough and should be welcome back, especially since all sports have embraced gambling and the money it brings.

We will never see a player that played as hard as Rose or gave so much effort on the field to win.

[Kzoo]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I wish:

• Baseball had never gone on strike in 1994.

The Expos could have been WS champs. That team was stacked......And Tony Gwynn might have hit .400?

[Yoda]

Had he pitched for the Yankees instead of the Browns, I would wager that Ned Garver would be in the Hall.

[55koufax]

Let us close our eyes
Outside their lives go on much faster
Oh, we won't give in
We'll keep living in the past
Oh, we won't give in
Let's go living in the past
Oh no, no we won't give in
Let's go living in the past

the close of Jethro Tull's great song....

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by Eric72

I wish:

• A .300 hitter with 40 stolen bases was considered at least as valuable as a .220 hitter with 40 homers
  [
  s.

how many doubles homer and steals for the .300 hitter and better yet slugging and how many times did the .220 hitter strikeout? Context!..

[Leon]

I wish there wouldn't have been a MLB strike in 1994 which ended the season, around 50 games shy.
.

[SyrNy1960]

I wish Barry Bonds didn’t break the All-Time HR Record!

[jingram058]

Originally Posted by Leon

I wish there wouldn't have been a MLB strike in 1994 which ended the season, around 50 games shy.
.

And that's my dividing line with baseball. I basically like everything before then. I could even stomach the AL DH and what I thought was over-expansion. Everything since has been a spiral down to the smoking dog pile it is now.

[1952boyntoncollector]

Originally Posted by jingram058

And that's my dividing line with baseball. I basically like everything before then. I could even stomach the AL DH and what I thought was over-expansion. Everything since has been a spiral down to the smoking dog pile it is now.

Whats funny is people of a certain age thinking, sports leagues and corporations that cater to younger people really care about what you think....they are doing what they think is good business towards the customers they feel will help the most....

[Hankphenom]

Originally Posted by 1952boyntoncollector

Whats funny is people of a certain age thinking, sports leagues and corporations that cater to younger people really care about what you think....they are doing what they think is good business towards the customers they feel will help the most....

And their decisions have proven to be more successful than they ever had any reason to anticipate! The Nationals franchise, with a depleted minor league system and devoid of high draft picks, is on the market for $4 BILLION 15 years after the Lerners paid MLB a TENTH of that. The AVERAGE ML salary is now $4.2 MILLION, what a franchise might have sold for at some point in my lifetime. Where's all that cash coming from? Look in the mirror, my friends!

[Bobbycee]

Originally Posted by Touch'EmAll

I wish the Angels, my home team growing up, would have never traded Nolan Ryan.

Ha!!! Imagine being a Mets fan. They would have won another World Series at least if Nolan wasn't dealt for a washed up 3B.

[Orioles1954]

I wish baseball had a salary cap and floor. I wish Peter Angelos sold my beloved Orioles.