Date living in less infamy but still pretty sucky

[eburg5000]

I wonder where baseball is heading in the future. With the huge salaries, rule changes, and replay. I rarely watch a game from 1st pitch to last pitch anymore.

 

[Hit-n-Run]

I think some of the way we comparatively view today's game to decades past is generational. When we were kids we walked six miles in the snow uphill both ways to school. Today kids have it made.

That's how every generation views the evolution of change. The older generation views change as a softening of the next generation. The next generation views the older generation as antiquated.

I'm not sure whether there's less hustle in today's game or there's less aggressive play.

The knee-jerk reaction to a few isolated high profile base running plays has lead to base running rule changes that have penalized aggressive play. Economics have always played a role in the way game is played.

Another factor that is both monetary and safety oriented in concussion awareness. It has increased across the entire sporting landscape and not just at the professional level. Aggressive contact play is being frowned on in nearly all sports. Some of it for the right reasons, and some for the economic penalties associated with allowing it to continue

 

[JohnU]

Gotta say, that hearing on Dec. 1 that the team you follow that finished last 2 years in a row is still short of money and will go gleaning the waiver wire for a pitcher ... it kind of takes all the fun out of spring training.

 

[JohnU]

 

[JohnU]

Another factor that is both monetary and safety oriented in concussion awareness. It has increased across the entire sporting landscape and not just at the professional level. Aggressive contact play is being frowned on in nearly all sports. Some of it for the right reasons, and some for the economic penalties associated with allowing it to continue

I think this is spot-on in a lot of areas but there are those who insist we are "wussifying" our kids. I guess some of them would rather the concussions start in the 2nd grade and continue on through retirement. I guess we could take that topic in several directions. I would just be happy to drive by a ball diamond these days and see kids actually using it without an electronic scoreboard, 2 umpires and 6 coaches.

Then again, I haven't seen a kid with a snow shovel on my block this winter. Back when I was a kid, people my age (70) were getting their sidewalks shoveled. Now I have to do it myself and give the kid fucking money so he can go with his Pop Warner team to Orlando for a "tournament."

 

[eburg5000]

getting old is a bitch.

When I was a kid in the summer we were either swimming or playing baseball , We had leagues but we also played a lot of sandlot (pickup games).. Most of the time we had enough players but if we didn't we played straight base, and right field was an out' I never see kids playing sandlot any more

 

[JohnU]

This has nothing to do with anything but it's fun.
The guys who hit a HR on their first at-bat. Some of them did it on the first pitch. And some of them, that was as good as it got.

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