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Rock Strongo
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solid but very long read:
'I Find It Very Difficult' to Watch: Why MLB Greats Think Baseball's in Trouble
"We could sit here and talk all day about the way the game has been changed, and not in a good way," Hall of Fame reliever Goose Gossage says. "I try to watch a baseball game, and I find it very difficult to be able to watch today.
"It just breaks my heart to see the changes that have been made. Huge changes."
Says Hall of Famer Don Sutton, now an analyst for Atlanta Braves television broadcasts: "As soon as somebody decides it's not a good idea, then people will draft differently. They'll train differently. But right now it's about the home run and the strikeout and give me five good innings [from a starting pitcher]. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton are not loving this. Neither is [Sandy] Koufax or [Don] Drysdale."
Hall of Famers are not the only ones voicing their displeasure with an all-or-nothing game in which:
• The ball is not put in play in roughly a third of all plate appearances, 31.6 percent of which end in a strikeout, walk or hit batter.
• The .248 MLB batting average is the lowest since 1972, the season before the American League instituted the designated hitter, when it was .244.
• There were more strikeouts than hits in a month for the first time in MLB history in April and, through early August, MLB had accumulated more strikeouts than hits overall. The race is on for whether it will happen in a full season for the first time.
• Through Saturday, the combined rate of strikeouts, walks and home runs across the game was 33.6 percent. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since strikeouts were first recorded in both leagues in 1913, there have been only six seasons in which strikeouts, walks and home runs have accounted for at least 30 percent of all plate appearances, and all of them have occurred since 2012.
'I Find It Very Difficult' to Watch: Why MLB Greats Think Baseball's in Trouble
"We could sit here and talk all day about the way the game has been changed, and not in a good way," Hall of Fame reliever Goose Gossage says. "I try to watch a baseball game, and I find it very difficult to be able to watch today.
"It just breaks my heart to see the changes that have been made. Huge changes."
Says Hall of Famer Don Sutton, now an analyst for Atlanta Braves television broadcasts: "As soon as somebody decides it's not a good idea, then people will draft differently. They'll train differently. But right now it's about the home run and the strikeout and give me five good innings [from a starting pitcher]. Tom Seaver and Steve Carlton are not loving this. Neither is [Sandy] Koufax or [Don] Drysdale."
Hall of Famers are not the only ones voicing their displeasure with an all-or-nothing game in which:
• The ball is not put in play in roughly a third of all plate appearances, 31.6 percent of which end in a strikeout, walk or hit batter.
• The .248 MLB batting average is the lowest since 1972, the season before the American League instituted the designated hitter, when it was .244.
• There were more strikeouts than hits in a month for the first time in MLB history in April and, through early August, MLB had accumulated more strikeouts than hits overall. The race is on for whether it will happen in a full season for the first time.
• Through Saturday, the combined rate of strikeouts, walks and home runs across the game was 33.6 percent. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, since strikeouts were first recorded in both leagues in 1913, there have been only six seasons in which strikeouts, walks and home runs have accounted for at least 30 percent of all plate appearances, and all of them have occurred since 2012.
