Votto....

[redsfan03]

If you asked a million kids in McDonald's today who the best player in baseball is, they'd probably say Lebron James, Kobe Bryant, Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady, or Peyton Manning. The sad truth is that baseball does not cater to the short attention spans of young people. I'd argue that fan interest in baseball coming from that specific demographic is at an all-time low and dropping.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I like Chico's comparison of Votto to Musial. It may be as accurate as anyone in MLB today. The Reds are a tee-totaling kind of team though, made for a milk commercial. It doesnt always work. I remember Steve Garvey's clean Marine image didn't sit well with the Smith, Lopes, Cey, and Yeager Dodgers .Musial might not have meshed with Gibson, Carlton & Co. A genuine nice guy would have been eaten alive in the Billy Martin A's and Yankee teams.

 

[JohnU]

Part of baseball now comes from the way kids are brought up. Baseball isn't played much in the rough part of town these days. The kids are educated, taught to be nice to each other and expected to hone their craft at baseball, not fighting. Then they go to college.

The "old time" guys who we think were so tough were uneducated kids who played baseball because everyone played baseball. It's a sport now that isn't unlike golf -- if you can't afford to play, you do basketball.

If you don't do basketball hard, you play golf.

 

[Redsfan1507]

I guess I was one of those kids-played 500 un-supervised pick up baseball games a summer, where arguments were settled as often by knuckles as knuckleballs, later played 100 " organized" games a year with only slightly better manners. I never considered family income a factor in either, but wasn't as distracted with potential pastime / occupations like drug dealing and gang banging either. By and after high school, they weren't interested in anything except how far I could hit, how fast I could throw, and what size uniform I wore. College was only moderately interested in GPA and ACT... more concerned about HT, WT, BA, HR and time from home to 2b...didn't care much about color, language or social skills... and the higher the level, the less concerned they were. Maybe it's changed.

 

[JohnU]

It has changed for the kids who end up at the highest level of pro ball. The ones who DO get to that level have way more organized coaching than we ever dreamed up 40 years ago -- or even 20 years ago. I think the organized coaching clinic concept has tamed the players now, since they are more concerned about technique than they are determination. Most of them already have scholarships. Making the majors is so damned unrealistic. Now, I think they figure that getting hurt means keeping them not only off base, but off the Fortune 500 list.

I do want to add that it's not all bad. I'd rather see talent on the field than on the DL.

 

[Redsfan1507]

Ditto that. I've seen personally that there have to be literally thousands of kids with MLB tools that get hurt and just can't cut it anymore. You hear all the time about TJ and great medical advances saving MLB careers, but they only save a small percentage of the total. Maybe has more to do with the medical skill level ( and ability to pay for) for care MLB name guys get vs. what Mom's Insurance, Podunk High School, Abysmal State U, or even the Blue Wahoos receive.