Posted on 03/08/2012 7:35:27 PM PST by TBP
Major League Baseball has expanded its pool of postseason teams to 10 -- up from four just 19 years ago -- and next year will re-align into 15-team leagues that make for at least one interleague series all season long. But the biggest change of all may be around the next corner: the end of baseball as it was originally designed.
"I would be shocked if 10 years from now there's not a DH in both leagues," said one influential baseball source.
(Excerpt) Read more at sportsillustrated.cnn.com ...
The designated hitter is an abomination and should be removed from baseball.
I’m fine with expansion to 32 teams as long as one of them is a NL team in San Antonio (largest city without MLB or even AAA baseball) so I can see the Braves once a year. ;)
Seriously, now that Houston is moving to the AL (groan), there will be no NL team in Texas.
Unfortunately, since we can barely draw 5K a night to see the AA Missions in decrepit Wolff Stadium, MLB in SA is a pipe dream.
Ping
And a GOOD HITTING pitcher can be worth his weight in gold.
I couldn't care less about the argument that the DH keeps older, slower pitchers playing longer. It sucks and it takes a lot of the strategy of the grand old game away from the managers.
I will be PISSED if the NL ever adopts the DH, or if the league ever changes the rule on them.
I think the selling point of this deal is so many hitters in their early 30’s with knee problems or just poor defensive skills. So they can market the guys and carry them on the payrolls for another five years.
Walter Johnson, of the Babe's Hall of Fame class wasn't too bad of a hitter either. His lifetime batting average was .235 and he was occasionally used as a pinch hitter.
Players were expected to be multidimensional in those days. You look at the equipment they used, especially the gloves, and it was remarkable they were even able to do what they did.
When I hear these blowhard announcers bleat about how much better the players are today, I feel like puking.
Even Hank Aaron, as great as he was, wouldn't have come close to breaking Ruth's home run record if he had spent the first 30% of his career as a pitcher in the deadball era. As for jackasses like Barry Bonds who followed Aaron, they aren't fit to shine Hammerin' Hank's shoes.
Look up the word Cheater in the Websters dictionary and it should have a picture of Barry Bonds.
Likewise Mark McGuire
I’m not sure if it is true, but they say the DH rule was especially created for Tony Oliva. He was actually a very good defensive outfielder before his knees went.
My DBacks have the best hitting pitching staff in baseball. Opposing teams can’t count on an easy out when the Pitcher walks into the batters box.
If you’d had the DH rule around during the Micky Mantle era....he might have lasted two more years. Hank Aaron or Willie Mays....same thing.
Pedro Martinez
2004 BOS (AL) Hit Batsmen: 16
2005 NYM (NL) Hit Batsmen: 4
Gee, I wonder why such a discrepancy ?
I wish I could remember the guy’s name but he said right after Ruth went to the Yankees: “Too bad he didn’t keep pitching, he might have become famous!”
NY Yankee teammate: "Bam, what was that pitch that you hit?" Babe: "I don't know, it just looked good so I socked it!"
Athletic conditioning has definitely improved over the decades. If you look at a tape of an old basketball game, you would really want to throw up - nowhere near the skill level and coordination on display back then as is standard now. Nowadays the players are too big for the court. And football? Just the size of the linemen tells the tale, and the fact that they are so much faster than in the past.I don’t believe that you can compare baseball players from different eras, either - IMHO the strike zone is much smaller than in the past, so it takes much better control and stuff to be a mediocre pitcher than in the past. And the batters are facing different pitching - and especially are not facing tired starting pitchers in the late innings unless the guy is pitching a shutout. So batters have to solve more different pitchers in a given game.
I hope that soon the calling of balls and strikes will be mechanized, so that a strike will be a strike and a ball will be a ball. As it is, each umpire has his own strike zone - at best. At worst, he is unable to be consistent. And at some level inconsistency is inevitable when the judgement is made by a person. Remember that the pitcher’s objective is not to groove a pitch but to make every pitch a difficult call for the batter, and thus for the umpire.
NO!
At that point they might as well drop the league label and call them conferences. When the rules are different “leagues” makes sense, when they’re the same it’s a league with conferences.
There was another one named Drysdale. That was back before I gave up MLB because of Curt Flood.
Kinda like interleague play ...bleccccch
wow - you insightful post has made me mend my ways, and now I will no longer pay attention to anything you deem unimportant. It WAS useful for you to post on a thread you care nothing about - thank you for saving me!!
No argument from me there.
But the point is that professional sports are a full time job now. With rare exceptions, the guys aren't human, they are machines. Even one of my all-time favorites, Sammy Sosa, was transformed from a super nice kid to a steriod shooting schlub in a few short years.
A couple years ago, I went to a program put on by the 1960 World Champion Pittsburgh Pirates. Vernon Law was the featured speaker that particular day. It was a real eye-opener.
Law's residence was a walk-up apartment close enough so he could walk to the ballpark or take the team bus to the airport or railroad station for the away games. ElRoy Face, the great relief pitcher on that team, was a union carpenter in the off-season. Everyone had an off-season job. The fans loved the players because they could identify with them.
We asked Vern what the Pirates paid him to show up for this particular promotion. He replied "airline tickets for my wife and I, a week's lodging and meals in a nice downtown Pittsburgh motel, a couple hundred dollars in spending money and taxi vouchers and, most of all, the chance to meet the fans, former neighbors and friends in a city I grew to love and where my kids got their start." Can you imagine any of today's stars doing the same?
Interesting that you should mention basketball. IMHO, it is the only sport which loses more appeal as the level of competition goes up. 5'8" kids making three pointers in a high school game is very exciting. 15' guys dunking baskets in the NBA is ho-hum.
Put today's modern players in the conditions of a generation ago and see if they would be even able to put up with it mentally. Put the great players of a generation or two ago in the conditions of today and I have no doubt that they would rise to and exceed the abilities of modern players.
Yeah, physical conditioning is a big part of the game, but so is mental toughness and attitude. Babe Ruth wasn't loved just because he was a great player, but also because he had a great attitude toward the game and especially toward kids off the field.
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