Excellent article, probably the best that I've read on this topic.
Let's have fun back in baseball and let us imagine what could be. Burn the "unwritten" rules book. I want to see the stellar bat flips, the stare downs without a threat of 100mph fastball to the head, give me base runners stealing everything including the kitchen sink, let me believe again that my small market team can win it all with a cast of misfits that won't be poached next year by the Yankees. Let's see the pitcher last 7+ innings and pitch 2 days later for another 7 innings. Let the players be unique and celebrate them for it.
Agree on everything, but especially the unwritten rules comment. Whenever I see something about a violation of an unwritten rule I just want to roll my eyes a 180 degrees into my head.
There's a particular manager who also ascribes to "the way the game should be played" and gets so many accolades about it that it boggles my mind. If the game needs to be played a particular way that isn't written down, let the game evolve and be happy or everyone would be back wearing old times clothes using a tiny stick to hit the ball.
Not that the more “modern” Chief Wahoo is any great shakes either but goddamn the older version is breathtaking to behold. It’s like the mascot is from a Bugs Bunny cartoon that doesn’t get aired anymore.
Riding on the coattails of your point we can also take a look at the minor league pay scale. Most players are making less than minimum wage while living in apartment with four or five of their teammates. And baseball is somehow legally allowed to do this because of some court case that took place before baseball was even integrated.
Dead solid perfect, sir. Baseball is a good metaphor for the country in the sense that while it has never fully lived up to its promise, it does seem to keep bending toward a "more perfect union." The new generation of stars is diverse and fun, and MLB finally seems to realize that we need personalities to drive interest in a six-month season beyond the hardcore fans. Now, my kingdom for the next Moneyball approach to winning a division with contact hitters. In the words of the great American philosopher, Crash Davis, "Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls; it's more democratic."
This is probably a function of the age at which I became a big baseball fan, but I loved the relative balance of pitching, power hitting, situational hitting, running, and defense that was characteristic of most of the good teams in the 1970s. Any rule changes that would restore some of that balance are okay with me.
I really got into baseball for the first time in the mid-80s, so the 1985 Cardinals team is etched in my memory of how baseball "ought" to be. Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, John Tudor, Joaquin Andujar, etc...
I'm not much of a baseball guy, although it was the first American sport that my family took to when we moved to southern California because it's really easy to understand. I remember how pissed some people were about Fernando Valenzuela not being especially fluent in English - not much changes about (some) Americans' ambivalence, to be delicate, about immigrants.
Scott, if this were a column that ran in the Washington Post or the NYT, it would be on your Pulitzer nomination. It’s that good. 🙌👏
Thank you!
Excellent article, probably the best that I've read on this topic.
Let's have fun back in baseball and let us imagine what could be. Burn the "unwritten" rules book. I want to see the stellar bat flips, the stare downs without a threat of 100mph fastball to the head, give me base runners stealing everything including the kitchen sink, let me believe again that my small market team can win it all with a cast of misfits that won't be poached next year by the Yankees. Let's see the pitcher last 7+ innings and pitch 2 days later for another 7 innings. Let the players be unique and celebrate them for it.
Agree on everything, but especially the unwritten rules comment. Whenever I see something about a violation of an unwritten rule I just want to roll my eyes a 180 degrees into my head.
There's a particular manager who also ascribes to "the way the game should be played" and gets so many accolades about it that it boggles my mind. If the game needs to be played a particular way that isn't written down, let the game evolve and be happy or everyone would be back wearing old times clothes using a tiny stick to hit the ball.
Not that the more “modern” Chief Wahoo is any great shakes either but goddamn the older version is breathtaking to behold. It’s like the mascot is from a Bugs Bunny cartoon that doesn’t get aired anymore.
Riding on the coattails of your point we can also take a look at the minor league pay scale. Most players are making less than minimum wage while living in apartment with four or five of their teammates. And baseball is somehow legally allowed to do this because of some court case that took place before baseball was even integrated.
Yeah, the most recent version is very, very bad and then you see the original and it's somehow worse?
It definitely draws heavily from the cartoon style of the era, but uhhhh yeah there were a lot of bad cartoons in that era.
Anyways I'm very much looking forward to the new era of the Cleveland [TBD]s so I can actually buy my kids (and myself) some team gear.
Boy howdy, that picture says SO much. In the words of John Mellencamp, ain't that America, something to see.
Dead solid perfect, sir. Baseball is a good metaphor for the country in the sense that while it has never fully lived up to its promise, it does seem to keep bending toward a "more perfect union." The new generation of stars is diverse and fun, and MLB finally seems to realize that we need personalities to drive interest in a six-month season beyond the hardcore fans. Now, my kingdom for the next Moneyball approach to winning a division with contact hitters. In the words of the great American philosopher, Crash Davis, "Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they're fascist. Throw some ground balls; it's more democratic."
God, yes. I never thought I'd want to see less swinging for the fences, but give me a slap-hit and stolen-base powerhouse.
This is probably a function of the age at which I became a big baseball fan, but I loved the relative balance of pitching, power hitting, situational hitting, running, and defense that was characteristic of most of the good teams in the 1970s. Any rule changes that would restore some of that balance are okay with me.
I really got into baseball for the first time in the mid-80s, so the 1985 Cardinals team is etched in my memory of how baseball "ought" to be. Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, John Tudor, Joaquin Andujar, etc...
I'm not much of a baseball guy, although it was the first American sport that my family took to when we moved to southern California because it's really easy to understand. I remember how pissed some people were about Fernando Valenzuela not being especially fluent in English - not much changes about (some) Americans' ambivalence, to be delicate, about immigrants.
I made a fun lil thread of some of Ohtani's HRs this year and how absurd they are here: https://twitter.com/stannahmontana1/status/1413495259405819914?s=20
I love that description of Ohtani's swing. Just so much violence.