Baseball- are you as big of a fan as you once were?

I’m in the grumpy old man club, too. I was always a bit fan of the running game, and wish at least a couple teams would push their fences back and embrace that aspect.

I’m still of the belief that pitching and defense win games, but I see the Yankees eschewing defense for yet another HR bat in the line up (Yes, Gary, Luke, Gleyber. I’m talking about you).

I will certainly choose a day out in the mountains with Ruthie any time over a base ball game. A big part of that is having a different wife than I used to. 😎

But, no. I don’t have the zeal I used to have for baseball. It’s been years since I played a Strat-O-Matic game (30 years)? I never developed a taste for the game as a video game. I think I mourned the ending of the 2020 for a couple hours. I took a phone call that I might have ignored in the past that came in while the Yanks were batting in the top of the ninth.

The sport is still one of the two best ever invented (golf). Both are suffering from technology improvements that have turned most of their players into sluggers...

Inger... I spent a weekend in WY and MT recently... would love to be out there more often.
In regard to the HR bat... sadly that is how the game has "evolved" and unless they move fences back there is no going back.
Baseball used to be the thinking man's game... now with calculations and automation (of sort) it has really become robotic.

CHI... baseball has missed the boat for a few decades in regard to marketing players. Mike Trout is mostly unknown outside of actual baseball fans which is a really sad statement considering he might end up being one of the 10 best ever to play the game. Other sports market their stars FAR better.

Regarding Tatis... while I am of the belief you act like you been there before, there is nothing wrong with showing emotion as long as you are not taunting the opponent (unless you are righting a wrong from earlier).

Hitters like Rob Deer or Pete Incaviglia would be “normal” today...Batting averages are starting to look silly...

Baseball was made to be a fun but difficult game. Many of the original ball parks were built to odd configurations so they could fit in heretofore vacant areas. Some lacked fences in some of all outfields before the true professional leagues were established.

It was never meant to be played on fake grass, or under a dome. There was pitcher. He was supposed to pitch the whole game. Sometimes every game. There was a wooden bat and a poorly constructed ball. No gloves until later. Baggy un-numbered uniforms made it difficult to tell one player from another and the bat and ball combination seldom reached near to the fences unless the ball was rolling.

None of us saw that game. By the time the oldest of us saw a baseball game the game had been modified so many ways that the original games was barely recognizable. If six year olds could foresee the future we would have realized that by the time we had watched for twenty or so years there would be more modifications to come.

I believe the changes up to about the year 1980 were mostly for the better. Since then, there have been a lot of odd occurrences and modifications in the name of making the game more popular. Some have worked, some have not. It seems the mistakes on that level are increasing exponentially.

I think the game would be improved with the return of the difficulty of hitting a home run, which would then return the value of making contact. Contact creates action on the playing field. Homer is devalue basic skill acts within the game and speed. Do we need to modify the ball? Move fences back? It would be a better and less boring game. The home rim is momentary excitement, and it’s fun. Too much of a good thing however, leaves you with nothing else...

Which simply serves to make me trust polls even less that I did...

My appreciation for the game has not waned over the years, in large part because I glean more from the intricacies of baseball than I did as a young boy or a young man. In short, there is more to see now, though I believe the 1970s was a better brand of baseball than what is on the field today. It is said you cannot step into the same river twice, and as we age our eyes take a different focus at 50 than at 15 or 25. For many of us, baseball has served as a marker of sorts during our lives, replete with friends and loved ones and family no longer with us. On good days, watching a Yankee game brings them back to me just for a moment. Some fans are baseball fans first and Yankee fans second, others the reverse. As a Yankee fan, there were individual players who welded those Pinstripes to my being: Thurman Munson, Donny Mattingly, and Derek Jeter were the cohesive forces for me. I thought Aaron Judge might be a potential fourth, but alas he is too often not on the field. Nevertheless, on any day when the Yankees win, most all seems right with the world and from somewhere a navy blue light pushes any darkness away collected during the day. And, I always smile unconsciously when someone posts how many days before pitchers and catchers report. I doubt that will ever leave me, as it recaptures so much and so many, then and now, without separation.