Jimbo21
07-12-2001, 11:20 PM
We all can see the destructive things going on in Major League Baseball right now. Chaos and greed are running away with the National Pastime. Is this the end of baseball?
Many have lamented the changes in today’s game, the bandboxes they call ballparks, the dilution of talent in the pitching today, Astroturf, the juiced ball, and the impact that free agency has had. Let’s talk about each one for a little bit.
Imagine, if you will, the kinds of numbers that Mays, McCovey, Stargell, Schmidt, and countless others might have put up in today’s stadiums. In the true day of the power hitter, when these guys played, nobody hit homeruns off the end of the bat with one hand. In full sized ballparks, without the tighter wound ball, these monsters still put up unbelievable numbers. When healthy, Mark McGwire belongs with these guys and others of this era. Can you see a homerun chase with the strongmen of the 60’s and 70’s going after the record in today’s parks? These men would’ve hit closer to 85-90 hitting against the lousy pitching of today.
Today’s pitching isn’t just watered down, it is drowning. The strike zone has changed to the point that nearly every strike is in a hitters wheelhouse. They lowered the mound & expanded the leagues to the point that, guys that wouldn’t have ever gotten out of AAA (or maybe AA) are now filling the #3-5 slots on most rosters. You call this progress? Imagine Musial or Williams hitting .400 every year. With today’s pitchers it would no longer be a novelty. Astroturf alone would add about 50 points to the average of these guys. And the money that owners would throw at them as free agents… hold on to your hat!
Baseball has been hit hard by free agency. It has run amuck with our game because there have been no guidelines established. I am not against free agency; in fact I have always favored it. You and I are real free agents, more so than these players are. If we want to take a better paying job, by and large, we give a few weeks notice, tie up loose ends and move on. These guys are bound by contract. But when the free agency period begins for today’s players, there are no boundaries, they sit back and wait for the highest bidder. In the real world of business this happens to a point, but when a few businesses make it impossible to compete, the laws of the land (guidelines) step in and break up what we came to know as monopolies. The wealthy men of the 1800’s would be the Steinbrenner’s of today and they would buy what they wanted, regardless the effect on the game. You see, it isn’t free agency that is killing the game, it is the lack of guidelines and standards.
Unless things change very soon, the mighty exempt clause that keeps Congress out of our game will be revoked, and then the business of baseball will become like the other major sports. Sometimes I pray for Congress to step in, to fix the game’s economic differences. I would rather see baseball rise above the problems, see itself as a whole that is greater than any or all of it’s parts, and establish the guidelines and standards needed to re-establish a competitive game.
Many have lamented the changes in today’s game, the bandboxes they call ballparks, the dilution of talent in the pitching today, Astroturf, the juiced ball, and the impact that free agency has had. Let’s talk about each one for a little bit.
Imagine, if you will, the kinds of numbers that Mays, McCovey, Stargell, Schmidt, and countless others might have put up in today’s stadiums. In the true day of the power hitter, when these guys played, nobody hit homeruns off the end of the bat with one hand. In full sized ballparks, without the tighter wound ball, these monsters still put up unbelievable numbers. When healthy, Mark McGwire belongs with these guys and others of this era. Can you see a homerun chase with the strongmen of the 60’s and 70’s going after the record in today’s parks? These men would’ve hit closer to 85-90 hitting against the lousy pitching of today.
Today’s pitching isn’t just watered down, it is drowning. The strike zone has changed to the point that nearly every strike is in a hitters wheelhouse. They lowered the mound & expanded the leagues to the point that, guys that wouldn’t have ever gotten out of AAA (or maybe AA) are now filling the #3-5 slots on most rosters. You call this progress? Imagine Musial or Williams hitting .400 every year. With today’s pitchers it would no longer be a novelty. Astroturf alone would add about 50 points to the average of these guys. And the money that owners would throw at them as free agents… hold on to your hat!
Baseball has been hit hard by free agency. It has run amuck with our game because there have been no guidelines established. I am not against free agency; in fact I have always favored it. You and I are real free agents, more so than these players are. If we want to take a better paying job, by and large, we give a few weeks notice, tie up loose ends and move on. These guys are bound by contract. But when the free agency period begins for today’s players, there are no boundaries, they sit back and wait for the highest bidder. In the real world of business this happens to a point, but when a few businesses make it impossible to compete, the laws of the land (guidelines) step in and break up what we came to know as monopolies. The wealthy men of the 1800’s would be the Steinbrenner’s of today and they would buy what they wanted, regardless the effect on the game. You see, it isn’t free agency that is killing the game, it is the lack of guidelines and standards.
Unless things change very soon, the mighty exempt clause that keeps Congress out of our game will be revoked, and then the business of baseball will become like the other major sports. Sometimes I pray for Congress to step in, to fix the game’s economic differences. I would rather see baseball rise above the problems, see itself as a whole that is greater than any or all of it’s parts, and establish the guidelines and standards needed to re-establish a competitive game.